Local Homogamy in Finland

Abstract

Historical background Residential propinquity is an important factor in mate selection even in the modern industrial society.1) In the old Finnish agrarian society the mate was almost invariably chosen from the near neighborhood — from the same village or rural commune. proportion of local marriages of all marriages shows a rather uniform pattern, though the dates and the areas studied are quite different from each other, and the number of cases in some of the studies is sma11.2) A little less than half of the marriages are inside the same village and about four fifths inside the same rural commune. There might have been some endogamous tendencies in favour of local marriages in the agrarian society. For example, village fights were often caused by the intrusion of boys from another village or rural commune to propose to the girls of the home community.3) Old proverbs, too, indicate the favourable attitude towards local endogamy. The good are married to the neighborhood, the bad must go far away. Endogamy may have increased group solidarity in village society, because out-marriage means either losing one's group-member to another group or incorporation into one's group of persons who have not been throughly socialized in the values, sentiments and practises of the in-group.4) There were, however, no severe sanctions against out-group marriages; on the contrary, it was often pointed out that too close marriage-relationships in the community may cause mental or physical abnormalities.5) But it was easier to suggest out-group marriage than to accomplish it because of the limited possibilities to get in contact with people from other localities. This was partly due to the -poor transportation facilities but also to some characteristics of the social system which made the rural commune and the village suitable units for in-group marriage. rural commune and the parish were almost always identical. weekly gathering to the church offered an opportunity for boys and girls to get acquainted. No similar social events united different communes. village was a social unit, too; there was plenty of economic cooperation among villagers so that young people had many opportunities to meet each other even during the daily routine. Selection of mate inside the same area seems to be a characteristic of an old-