ABSTRACT
Materials for the construction of an all-India map of average marriage distance have hitherto been wanting. Village monographs that provide reliable measures of marriage migration distances are rare, and even sound estimates of average distances are scarce in village studies. The new material showed for the first time the full extent of female migration between villages, the only available explanation for the great bulk being that it is marriage migration. The contrasting pattern of a high level of local endogamy and short marriage distances, usually associated with a ‘southern’ kinship type, is well developed in Kerala and some adjoining districts, but it is not predominant throughout the southern, Dravidian-speaking zone. The Keralan pattern represents an exceptional situation, since much of population is matrilineal. The Keralan pattern represents an exceptional situation, since much of the population is matrilineal. The combination of fairly high local endogamy with medium-sized marriage fields, such as is found in Karnataka, suggests a mixing of kinship structures.
