Social status homogamy in a religiously diverse society. Modernization, religious diversity, and status homogamy in Hungary between 1870–1950

Abstract

This study investigates the historical patterns and determinants of marrying someone from the same social status background in Hungary from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. We focus on the classic question of how modernization influences homogamy, but we also address a problem studied less frequently: How does religious diversity in society relate to status homogamy? Utilizing data from a large sample of church marriage registers for present-day Hungary, we find a steady decline in the association between a bridegroom’s parental social status and his bride’s social background, and an initial increase and subsequent decline in the association between a bridegroom’s own status and a bride’s status of origin. More industrial social contexts are characterized by less parental status homogamy; however, greater educational opportunity is associated with more homogamy by bridegroom’s own status. We find a decline in same-status preferences over time and in more industrialized contexts in early modernizing Hungary, but also a short period of increasing meritocracy in marriage partner selection, which is likely to have been related to educational expansion. We find, too, lower social status homogamy in smaller religious groups, suggesting the importance of locally and historically variable opportunity structures in marital choices.