Just got home and read all the posts... what agony this Kitten pair is causing us! Instead of dreaming about SanRaj, we are spending our grey cells worrying about this pair! For this reason alone, they deserve our 😡
I am a sociolgist and I study India. So I apologise for the long explanation I give below. (if you have more questions, PM me).
What we are discussing here is what we call 'kinship and marriage' studies. I am also from south India where the uncle-niece marriage, and cross-cousin marriage are both practised, even today.
@ Hema- the rates of such marriage have decreased, as my own recent research shows. And they never were frequent in the past. If that was the case, south Indian gene pool will be very weak indeed😆
Such marriages happen where a woman's status is more equal, and her parents and brothers have more involvement and decision-making in her life, even after marriage. That is, wife-givers can also be wife-takers. In 'north Indian kinship' as we call it, wife-givers are not equal in status to wife-takers. so they cannot give and take girls between themselves in one generation or another.
How and why uncle-niece marriage evolved is hard to tell, and it varies from one community to another. But one thing is common across India- a man should be of a higher generation than his wife. That is, a maama can marry his baanji, but a bhua CANNOT marry her baanja, even if she is younger to him.
Therefore, Khemi being a maasi, cannot marry her baanja.
While a maama can marry his niece in south India, a chacha cannot! Uncle-niece marriage has to do with the role of a woman's natal family in her children's life.
@Sammie
Khemi is what we would call a 'classificatory' aunt, because she is 'classified' as an aunt. That is because Santo, being DM's second wife is classified as 'mother' in Indian kinship. Hiten is 'classified' as Khemi's nephew.
In Islamic societies, a woman's children can marry her sister's children. A man's children can marry his brother's children. But that does not happen in Indian kiship. Each 'kinship system' varies from another.
But most systems have what are called 'incest taboos'. A man marrying a maternal aunt would come under that.
Am not justifying the south Indian practice of a woman marrying maternal uncle, but giving explanation for why that system of marriage exists, while the other one, a man marrying his maternal aunt, does not exist.
I do not think Ekta has such lofty aims of challenging Indian systems of marriage and kiship! Which is why I am very upset because Kitten track seems solely intended to get some 'imaginary' TRPs!
CID
Cricket
