Socioeconomic Structures and Mate Selection Among Urban Populations in Developing Regions
Author(s)
Feldman, Kerry D.
Abstract
Nearly half the population of developing nations now reside in urban centers, attracting diverse ethnic groups from their surrounding rural regions. Anthropologists devoted considerable attention to documenting and understanding the mate selection norms and practices of these groups in their traditional settings and a plethora of descent and alliance theories ensued concerning this basic biosocial phenomenon. The investigation of these same groups in their new urban contexts has not brought forth many efforts at similar cross-cultural analysis of mate selection practices, or theoretical efforts to explain the continuity and change in these practices beyond the limited confines of this or that group/city/nation. In this paper mate selection practices by groups which have migrated to urban settings in the developing world are examined in the diverse settings of squatter settlements in Turkey and the Philippines, caste systems in India, tribal societies of Africa, matrilineal and patrilineal societies and among peasant societies of Peru and Mexico. The differential impact of socioeconomic urban conditions on men and women is emphasized regarding mate selection practices. It is argued that cultural factors (in a cognitive sense of that phrase) or psychological factors are not sufficient explanations alone for the diverse response of migrants to these urban settings regarding what occurs in them to traditional mate selection practices. It is argued that the structure of the socioeconomic system these groups depend on in an urban setting must be analyzed as a major factor influencing the trends toward continuity or change in mate selection. Conversely, the “city” as an independent variable per se is not seen as the controlling factor in this regard.
