Marriage Ceremonies: An Exploratory Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

In an investigation of marriage ceremonies, a random sample of 50 cultures was drawn from a defined universe of representative, well-described cultures. Ceremonies were found to be present in 86% of the 44 cultures that could be evaluated. Considerations of the value of commitment in protecting stakes where marriages have substantial wealth and alliance implications led to the predictions that ceremonies and elaboration of ceremonies would be associated with magnitude of wealth transferred as a concomitant of marriage and with importance of inheritable wealth. The data support these predictions. However, there are many other factors that may covary with ceremonies, value of wealth transferred, and importance of inheritable wealth. These covarying factors include size of local community and a surplus producing economy. Although a deviant case analysis provides some bolstering for the original hypothesis, whether the confounded factors are systemically inseparable from the variables being correlated or provide plausible alternative interpretations of the observed correlations is impossible to say at this time.