Social and economic factors in explanation of the increased rate of patrilineal endogamy in the Arab village in Israel

Rosenfeld, Henry

essay

Social and economic factors in explanation of the increased rate of patrilineal endogamy in the Arab village in Israel

mediterranean family structures • Cambridge [Eng.] • Published In 1976 • Pages: 115-136

By: Rosenfeld, Henry.

Abstract
In 1954, Rosenfeld investigated the marriage patterns of a Muslim and Christian Arab village in lower Galilee in Israel. At that time he analyzed the total number and type of marriages that took place between Muslims and Christian villagers over a period of from four to five generations. The next ten years brought about many changes in village life. This document re-examines how these changes have affected the marriage statistics for the same village from 1954-1963, and 1964-1969. Among other things the author found that the percentage of partilateral endogamous marriages, those made by men with women of their own patrilineage, had almost doubled for the Muslims and smaller groups of Christians, and the number of marriages with women from the village outside the groom's patrilineage, and with women outside the village, had decreased proportionately. Rosenfeld attempts to explain these changes in marriage patterns in light of the pronounced social, economic, and political changes that have taken place among villagers over the last generation (p. 115).

Sociocultural trends

Cultural participation

Urban and rural life

Labor supply and employment

Gender status

Social relationships and groups

Basis of marriage

Regulation of marriage

Arranging a marriage

Lineages

Religious denominations

Palestinians