Inheritance, Demographic Structure, and Marriage: a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to assess the relationship between in heritance rules, and marriage and population structure. Differential mating op portunity is evaluated under conditions of partible and impartible inheritance by contrasting demographic characteristics of maters with those of nonmaters. Age at marriage and characteristics of the family of origin are compared between the populations of St. Barthelemy, French West Indies, where inheritance is partible, and Sanday, Orkney Islands, Scotland, where inheritance is impartible. These factors do not significantly affect mating opportunity where inheritance is parti ble. In contrast, where inheritance is impartible, birth order and sibship size have a considerable impact on the probability of marriage for both males and females. Temporal variation in these patterns for cohorts born between 1881 and 1940 is assessed, and implications for populations structure discussed.