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- Title
NATIONALITY AND NATIVITY AS FACTORS IN MARRIAGE.
- Authors
Bossard, James H. S.
- Abstract
The subject of intermarriage between different nationality and nativity groups has been neglected in sociological study seemingly in proportion to its social significance. There are at least five reasons why a knowledge of intermarriage in the U.S. is important. Intermarriage is an index of the assimilative process. The heterogeneity of the population will be recalled, as will also the traditional boast of the country as the great melting pot in which many diverse groups are to be fused into the American of tomorrow. Secondly, marriage being so peculiarly intimate a relationship, intermarriage is a severely realistic index of the social distance between distinctive groups and peoples living within a given area. Intermarriage is an index of cultural similarities and dissimilarities in marriage. Various other indices of cultural background can be used, to be sure, but nationality constitutes a rough and ready index of broad cultural pattern, while the nativity class roughly indicates the stage of transition from the minutiae of the alien pattern to those of the older native stock. The article briefly summarizes two facts: first, when marriage is considered on both a nativity and a nationality basis, there is a significant amount of intermarriage and secondly, to the extent that nationality is indicative of a specific culture pattern, there is a corresponding amount of cultural blending or fusion in the marriages now being consummated.
- Subjects
UNITED States; INTERMARRIAGE; NATAL astrology; CROSS-cultural differences; INTERNATIONAL marriage; SOCIAL distance
- Publication
American Sociological Review, 1939, Vol 4, Issue 6, p792
- ISSN
0003-1224
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2083756