Dislocal Marriage

a custom whereby spouses have separate residences, each in his own kinship group. According to some scholars, the custom dates from the period of transition from matriarchy to patriarchy. It was widespread among a number of tribes in Asia, Oceania, Africa, and North and South America, surviving into the 20th century among the Nayar in India. Sometimes regarded as vestigial forms of dislocal marriage are such customs as the residence of men in separate houses, found among many tribes of the world; the existence of separate dwellings for a wife with children and for the husband; the custom of temporary separate residence of spouses during the initial period after the conclusion of the marriage contract; and the division of family dwellings into women’s and men’s quarters.