646 



NATURE 



[January 13, 192 1 



The Origin of Hypergamy. 



AT a meftin}< of the Royal Anthropological Insti- 

 tute held on November 9, Mr. S. H. Kay, vice- 

 president, in the chair, Dr. VV. H. R. Rivers read a 

 paper on "The Origin of Hypergamy." 



Dr. Rivers said that the term "' hypergamy " had 

 been used loosely by both Sir Herbert Risley and Dr. 

 W. Crooke to denote marriage between groups which 

 differ in rank, but for the sake of clearness the term 

 should be confined to those instances in which there 

 was a characteristic difference between the marriage 

 rules for the two sexes. Hypergamy thus understood 

 was that form of marriage in which men mate with 

 women of lower rank than their own, but do not give 

 their women in return, the union of these being con- 

 fined to men of their own or higher grades. Owing 

 to the fact that women of the highest group can only 

 marry men of their own rank, women of high rank 

 either remain unmarried or the inequality is redressed 

 by the practice of polygyny or by female infanticide. 

 On the other hand, since men of the lowest grade 

 may only marry women of their own rank, while 

 such women are taken bv men of a higher group, 

 there is a shortage of women of the lowest grade, and 

 the men must remain unmarried or have recourse to 

 polyandry, or they may seek their wives elsewhere. 

 If the neighbouring communities are hypergamous or 

 endogamous, the only unions open to them will be 

 with any aboriginal women who may live in the neigh- 

 bourhood. The practice of hypergamy is not only 

 peculiar to India, but is there almost entirely con- 

 fined to the Rajputs, or castes, such as the Kulin 

 Brahmans, which have come under Rajput influence. 

 Where the custom occurs among the castes of 

 Bengal, it would seem to have been derived 

 from the Kulins. It appears probable that the Kulin 

 custom can .be traced to Rajput influence, as the 

 Kulins are derived from Brahmans who about 

 A.D. 700 came to Bengal from Kanauj, at one time 

 the centre of Rajput rule. Hypergamy also occurs 

 among the Navars of Malabar, but in this case its 

 relation to the practice in other parts of India is not 

 so clear. One form arises out of their relation with 

 the Nambutiri Brahmans, among whom the rule is 

 that only the eldest son may marry ; the other sons 

 contract unions with Navar women. .A Nambutiri 

 woman would not be allowed to marry a man, Nayar 

 or other, of a lower caste. The status of the children 

 is determined by the Nayar rule of matrilineal 

 descent. There is no evidence to connect the practice 



among the Nayars and other cases occurring 

 sporadically in the Madras Presidency with Rajput 

 influence, and it is possible that with them it may 

 have a more ancient history and go back to a remote 

 derivation from the warrior caste. 



The institution of hypergamy appears to be a special 

 form of interaction between immigrants into India 

 and the indigenous population, and to be an inter- 

 mediate stage between the complete fusion which has 

 taken place in such cases in other parts of the world 

 and the segregation which has produced the more 

 characteristic forms of the caste system of India. 

 The development of hypergamv mav be referred to 

 three special conditions: (ij The especial strength of 

 a sentiment of the immigrants concerning the union 

 of their women with indigenous men ; (2) a short 

 distance of migration, so that the immigrants were 

 accompanied by a relatively large number of women ; 

 and (3) the military character of the invaders, which 

 allowed them to obtain indigenous women without 

 giving their own women in return. 



.An interesting discussion followed the reading of 

 the paper, in which emphasis was laid upon the im. 

 portance of the principles formulated bv Dr. Rivers 

 in their bearing upon questions of racial admixture 

 and fusion of language as a result of peaceful penetra- 

 tion or invasion in other parts of the world. Prof. 

 Parsons pointed out that the Saxons had brought a 

 large number of women with them to this country, 

 as was shown bv the skeletal remains, w'hereas the 

 Norsemen who invaded France constituted a male 

 invasion solely, and this probablv explained the almost 

 complete substitution of French among them for their 

 own language, the language of the native mothers 

 having prevailed. Mr. Ray pointed out that while 

 the words denoting close family connection in this 

 country were predominantiv Saxon, the language of 

 the children contained Celtic elements, as, for 

 example, the word "dad." Prof. C. G. Seligman 

 said that he had found a practice similar to hyper- 

 gamv among nomad Arab tribes of the Sudan, in 

 which black slaves, the offspring of Arab men and 

 indigenous women, although permitted to hold verv 

 high office in the ' tribe, were not allowed to marrv 

 .Arab women. Col. Hodgson pointed out that the 

 restriction of marriage to the eldest son also existed 

 among the Kyasths, the rea^n in this case being that 

 that son was the only true reincarnation of the father, 

 his younger brothers being the "children of sin." 



Studies in British Forestry.^ 



THE Forestry Commission ihas made a good start, 

 having acquired during the first year of its 

 operations as many as 65,000 acres of land, of which 

 \~po acres have been planted with trees. During the 

 present year 5900 acres of new plantations are 

 planned. These figures are well ahead of the 

 schedule of the first two years' work which was laid 

 down in the Reconstruction ■Forestry Sub-Committee 

 Report. This is satisfactory as regards the part 

 played by the State in national afforestation, but we 

 must not forget the work to be done by landowners 

 in replanting the extensive areas which were felled 

 during the war. 



\ Forestry Commission. Bulletin No. i : "Collection of Data as to ttie 

 Rate of Growth of Timber." ( I'o be obtained from the F*orestry<:ommis.sion 

 on sendine 4^. and a stamped addressed envelope.) Bulletin No. 2; "Survey 

 of Forest Insect Conditions in the British I-les, 1919." (H M. Stationery 

 Office.) Price \s. 6/i. net. Bulletin No. 3 : " Rat-; of (Growth of Conifers 

 in the British Isles." (H. M. Stationery Office.) Price 31. net. 



The Forestry Commission can assist private enter- 

 prise by money grants for planting, bv partnership 

 schemes, and by providing nursery plants at a cheap 

 rate, but it can also stimulate owners to active 

 measuies of afforestation by the publication of trust- 

 worthy facts and figures concerning all forestry 

 matters. We welcome, then, the three interesting 

 bulletins which have been recently issued. Technical 

 skill in the rearing and planting of trees is not lacking 

 in this country, but much ignorance prevails as to the 

 actual results obtainable by afforestation with different 

 species of trees. Bulletins Nos. i and 3 are concerned 

 mainly w:ith this question, and their perusal will en- 

 able ow'ners to deal intelligently with some problems 

 of replanting and afforestation. 



\ survey for the collection of statistics as to the 

 rate of growth and oroduction of timber in the United 

 Kingdom was carried out officially in 1917-19, and 



NO. 2672, VOL. 106] 



