The Junior Levirate and Junior Sororate: a Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

This paper describes a cross-cultural test of a set of hypotheses in which it is stated that the junior levirate and junior sororate are related to a particular pattern of rank ing of parallel cousins. Underlying the hypotheses is the view that, in the presence of such a pattern, senior levirate and sororate marriages will be prohibited, because they would create confusion in the ranking of siblings. The results of the test support the hypotheses.

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