Intermarriage

Intermarriage normally refers to marriage between people belonging to different religions, tribes, nationalities or ethnic backgrounds. It has also been used to mean the opposite, namely marriage within a small group.

Marriages between different groups

Mixed marriages and relationships have probably been a part of human life, to some degree, ever since there were any divisions in the human species at all. Today with increased globalisation and its effect on communication and travel, rates of intermarriage may well be increasing. It is still very controversial or even forbidden in certain places of the world, while in some places is totally acceptable, or even encouraged for various reasons.

Some have speculated that at some point in the future, intermarriage will blend the human species into one homogeneous group again.

A social norm of "marrying out" is termed "exogamy". A pejorative term is "miscegenation".

Marriages within a small group

Intermarriage can also refer to the practise of continuous marriage between a relatively small number of families. Many royal families would continually intermarry, amongst themeselves or with other royal families. Intermarriage, in this fashion, was often practised for political reasons (to consolidate power or to improve trade), as well as the fact that many royal families felt it was beneath them to marry anyone else who was not also royalty. This type of intermarriage led to inbreeding where certain physical and genetic characteristics become more prominent with each passing generation. A famous instance of this was the disease haemophilia, which was present in several of Europe's royal families.

A social norm of "marrying in" is termed "endogamy".

See also

• Jewish view of marriage
• Interreligious marriage
• Interracial marriage
• Mixed marriage

External links

• Asian-Nation: Asian American Intermarriage/Interracial Marriage by C.N. Le, Ph.D.
• The Jewish view on Intermarriage