Changing family structure in a modernizing society: a study of marriage patterns in a single Muslim village in Israel.

Abstract

Among 1,875 couples from one Muslim village, 374 (20%) marriages were between first cousins. Among women born after 1920, the highest rates of first-cousin marriages were observed among those born between 1940-1959 (26%) and this pattern declined in the last two decades. The majority of first-cousin marriages were between offspring of brothers. Analyzed by 20-year periods, the pattern of first-cousin marriages changed as the proportion of marriages between brothers' children decreased from 75% to 44%. Over the study period, more than 70% of marriages were between individuals born in the village and related to some degree. Examination of the marriages in which both spouses were born in the village demonstrated a preference to marry within the extended family; 68% of the women married a man with the same family name. Since the creation of the Israeli State, there have been significant changes among Israeli-Arab citizens. However, these data demonstrate that the tradition of marrying a relative remains central, although some changes in marriage preference have occurred.