Regulating Sexual Behavior and Maintaining Social Order

Humans are social animals. In order to survive, rear our young, and pass on our specific cultural adaptive strategy, we must live in groups. Yet we have little or no biologically (or genetically) "hard-wired" behavior to make living in groups an easy thing to do. (This last statement is a comparative one: compared to other social mammals such as wolves, or even social primates such as chimpanzees, and certainly compared to social insects such as bees or ants, etc., little of our specific behavior is genetically determined.) One major way that humans regulate behavior in groups is to give people a certain position or status in the group, and to assign a certain role (culturally prescribed behavior) to go along with it.

To a large extent, cultures are able to maintain themselves because everyone occupies various statuses, and knows and performs the expected role assigned to each status. As noted above, it could be argued that "all" a culture really has to do to maintain themselves is provide food, raise the young to adulthood, and socialize/enculturate the young to their own culture. All of this is done in groups, and for any human group, unregulated sexual behavior makes people forget their roles, disrupts social order, and makes it impossible to get necessary tasks accomplished. (Even the thought of unregulated sex can make the young adolescent American totally unable to fulfil normal social roles--ask any parent!) As a result, every culture does regulate sexual behavior. It does this by assigning us to groups which limit sexual behavior with those in, or out of, the group, and the social institution of marriage, which in all cultures attempts to limit--with varying degrees of success--sexual behavior. Rules of exogamy and endogamy, and marriage are used by all cultures to regulate sexual behavior. (I hope you recognized that the above is part of an etic, functionalist explanation for why exogamy, endogamy, and marriage are universal.)

Exogamy

Exogamy has already been discussed in the context of band exogamy. All cultures have rules of exogamy; that is, all require you to marry outside of your group, though exactly how the group is defined varies from culture to culture. (See the text for theories as to why the immediate biological family is an almost universal exogamous group.)

Foragers like the San must marry outside their own band. (That does not mean San can marry siblings or other close biological relatives if these people are in another band; there is more than one exogamous group for San.) In the United States, your exogamous group generally includes your closest biological relatives, such as your parents, siblings, children, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and nieces and nephews. Many Americans believe that first cousins are always part of one's exogamous group, but in fact this depends upon state laws. In Hawai'i it is legal to marry your first cousin. To quote from the State rules regarding "Who is eligible to apply for a marriage license?": "Cousins may marry. However, the blood relationship between the prospective bride and groom cannot be closer than first cousin." (For all of these rules in Hawai'i, check the State Department of Health website.) Click here to find the other U.S. states which will allow you to marry your first cousin!

Some have claimed that in many cultures (such as our own) sex is an exogamous group: you must marry outside the group of same-sexed people. While normally the rules for regulating sexual behavior refer to heterosexual unions, it is indeed true that some cultures have explicit rules for regulating homosexual unions as well. This would make sense from a functionalist point of view.

Endogamy

The second way that cultures regulate marriage and mating is by rules of endogamy. Endogamy requires you to marry someone within your own group, as your specific culture defines that group. These rules apply most strictly to marriage; many cultures will allow (or at least look the other way) with regard to sexual behavior with someone outside your endogamous group, but you are still expected to marry someone within your group.

Examples of endogamous groups in American culture include religious groups, ethnic groups, social class, geographic regions, education levels, etc. None of these are enforced by law. (The only exception would be that an American cannot marry a non-American for the sole purpose of helping the non-American to become a permanent resident or citizen of the United States.) Still, if you imagine yourself bringing home different people as potential spouses to meet your parents, you will obtain some idea of the various endogamous groups to which you belong, and the strength of the rule of endogamy in your family.

(For a good recommended site--actually a kinship tutorial--covering these and all kinship-related concepts, click here.)