ANTC09H3 Lecture 4: Week 4 Readings
Document Summary
The nayars and the definition of marriage kathleen gough. The notes and queries definition contains 2 criteria: that marriage is a union between one man and one woman, that it establishes the legitimacy of children. The nuer woman marriage does not conform to the first criterion but it does to the second. Dr. leach argued not only against the vagueness of the phrase, legitimate offspring but also against any use of potential legal paternity as a universal criterion of marriage. I would argue for purposes of cross cultural comparison we do need a single, parsimonious definition simply in order to isolate the phenomenon we wish to study. In support of his argument against using the legitimizing of children as a universal criterion of marriage, dr leach cited the nayar case. The nayars traditionally had no marriage in the strict sense of the term but only a.
