Original scientific paper
An Example of Demographic Anthropology, the Study of Matrimonial Exchanges – Endogamy, Choice of Spouse and Preferential Marriage
Marie-Hélène Cazes
Abstract
The development of demographic studies in anthropology is directly linked to the success of population genetics. The
anthropodemographic or anthropogenetic approach is thus underpinned by questions of genetics. While demographers
focus on population dynamics and renewal in quantitative terms, population geneticists refer not to individuals but to
the sets of genes carried by individuals in a population. Their aim is to detect the factors and processes which influence
the genetic evolution of a group, i.e. which modify gene frequencies from one generation to the next. Among them are the
factors which affect modes of reproduction. To illustrate the association of these three approaches, i.e. demographic, anthropological
and genetic, I use here the example of matrimonial exchanges – which lie at the heart of the population renewal
process – among the Dogon of Boni, aMalian ethnic group living in the southern Sahel. We can see how successive
analyses – starting with endogamy at macroscopic level and moving down to the individual with choice of spouse and
preferential marriage – combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches, can be used to obtain a detailed description
of matrimonial exchanges which shed light upon and complement the three different viewpoints.
Keywords
demographic anthropology; genetic anthropology; matrimonial exchanges; endogamy; preferential marriages; Dogon of Roni; Mali
Hrčak ID:
27528
URI
Publication date:
12.5.2006.
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