Understanding Marriage System among Sakacheps of the Saitsama Village

Abstract

Marriage is universal in all human societies. However, the universality of marriage does not mean that marriage system is same in all societies; much variation has been found across the cultures depending on belief system of any particular society. Marriage system symbolizes the basic social values, norms and world view of the whole community, because of which, the study on marriage has occupied the centre stage of anthropological research for a long time. It has provided not only the major field of enquiry, but also the central concept to generations of anthropologist for writing and analyzing the behavioural and organizational dimensions of human society. The present study has been an another attempt to understand the human society through the marriage system of the Sakachep of Saitsama village in Meghalaya. The whole study revolves around the marriage system of the “Sakacheps”, trying to understand their traditional marriage pattern as well as the changes. It has been observed that changes are mostly occurring due to Christianity and matrilineal “Pnars”, who are living amongst patrilineal “Sakacheps” in Saitama village.