Q1(b) Theoretical Significance of Purum Kinship System (10 M)

Introduction

The Purum tribe of Manipur follows a distinctive prescriptive marriage system, where each of their six exogamous clans has a fixed “wife-giving” and “wife-taking” clan. This creates a closed cycle of marital exchanges that has attracted considerable attention from anthropologists. Prof. Das (1936) provided a detailed ethnographic account locating the Purums in four villages (Purum Khullen, Purum Tampak, Purum Changlinglong, and Purum Chumbang) and describing their five patrilineal sibs (Marrim, Makan, Kheyang, Thao, Parpa). Claude Lévi-Strauss employed the Purum case in The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949) as a classic example of elementary structures and restricted exchange marriage systems.

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1. Illustration of Prescriptive Alliance

The Purums exemplify elementary kinship structures, where marriage partners are prescribed rather than chosen.
This system provides clarity in alliance formation, as marriages are not left to chance but follow fixed rules of reciprocity.

2. Basis for Lévi-Strauss’ Alliance Theory

Claude Lévi-Strauss used the Purum case as a model for his alliance theory, which emphasized marriage as a system of exchange of women between groups.
Purums demonstrate a restricted exchange system, where each clan both gives and takes wives in a closed cycle.

3. Contribution to Comparative Kinship Studies

The Purum system is contrasted with other systems like:

• Generalized exchange (e.g., Kachin of Burma) where wife-giving and wife-taking are asymmetric and expansive.
• Complex structures where marriage choice is flexible.

Such comparison helped anthropologists classify kinship systems into elementary vs. complex structures.

4. Functionalist Perspective

For W. H. R. Rivers, the Purums demonstrated how kinship and marriage rules serve as mechanisms of social control and integration.
By fixing alliances, the system ensures cohesion among clans, preventing conflict and maintaining equilibrium.

5. Challenge to Descent Theory

British functionalists like Radcliffe-Brown stressed descent groups as the basis of kinship.
The Purum case showed that marriage alliance is equally fundamental, as it binds descent groups together through obligatory exchange.

Prominent Studies

• Cheithou Charles Yuhlung (2007) in “Matrilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage among the Chothe of Manipur” (Sociological Bulletin) re-examined the so-called Purum system and clarified that the Chothe practice a prescriptive matrilateral cross-cousin marriage. Despite social change, the Chothe system remains, in Rodney Needham’s words, “ideal, stable and adaptive.”
• Rodney Needham (2004) in “Analysis of Purum Affinal Alliance,” in Kinship and Family: An Anthropological Reader (eds. Parkin & Stone), treated the Purums as a classic case illustrating the Dravidian model of alliance.
• R. Reid (1967) in “Marriage Systems and Algebraic Group Theory” (American Anthropologist) criticized mathematical models for failing to capture the Purum asymmetrical alliance system, noting its proscriptive rules resist universal formulations.

Conclusion

The Purum kinship system is not merely an ethnographic curiosity but a theoretical landmark in anthropology. It provided a concrete case to understand the logic of prescriptive marriage, shaped Lévi-Strauss’s alliance theory, and influenced the debate between descent and alliance schools. Its significance lies in showing how small tribal societies embody systematic principles of social organization, making the Purums a classic reference in kinship studies.