Endogamy (redirected from endogamous)

endogamy (ĕndŏg`əmē): see marriage.

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endogamy [en′däg·ə·mē]

(biology)

Sexual reproduction between organisms which are closely related.

(botany)

Pollination of a flower by another flower of the same plant.

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Endogamy 

a custom prescribing marriage within a certain social group, such as a tribe, caste, or clan.

In primitive society the tribe was endogamous, and the clan was exogamous (seeEXOGAMY). During the period of the decay of primitive communal relations, the clan or, more frequently, intraclan groups (patronymic groups) among the Malagasy, part of the Bantu, the Arabs, the Uzbeks, the Tuareg, and other peoples became endogamous in an attempt to keep property among close relatives. Ortho-cousin marriages between the children of, for example, cousins and second cousins were arranged in the father’s line and, less frequently, in the mother’s line. Caste endogamy characterizes the castes of India.

REFERENCES

Engels, F. Proiskhozhdenie sem’i, chastnoi sobstvennosti i qosudarstva. In K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 21.
Shternberg, L. Ia. Sem’ia i rod u narodov Severo-Vostochnoi Azii. Leningrad, 1933.