Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]Pract it ioners of lev i rate l ive i n societ ies whose members a re genera l ly
pastoralists or engaged in simple agriculture. They are usually patrilo-
ca l a nd pat r i l i nea l; ma r r ied couples l ive w it h or nea r t he husba nd’s fa m-
ily, and inheritance rights are determined through the father. In many
of these societies, a husband obtains his wife by paying bride-wealth
or offering bride-service to her family. A wife becomes part of her hus-
band’s family at marriage or after she bears children, especially sons;
she will have no inheritance rights in her family of origin and will often
be unwelcome by her natal group in the event of divorce or widowhood.
Levirate acknowledges the investment made by the husband’s family in
acquiring the bride; while the man for whom she was acquired is now
dead, the family has an interest in retaining her work and fertility for
its members. Levirate also provides the widow with a place in her hus-
band’s family in the event that she is no longer welcome in her family of
origin. In some cases, then, levirate benefits both the dead and the liv-
ing, providing additional children for the deceased, a partner and home
among her dead husband’s kin for his widow, and a partner for an addi-
tional male without the need for bride-price. Since bride-price was often
paid not by an individual but by his family, levirate may benefit not only
individual family members, but the family as a unit.
Cultures that practice levirate tend to be exogamous; marriage within
the clan or group is discouraged and sometimes forbidden. Exogamy re-
duces the chances that a man’s sister-in-law is also his blood relative,
someone prohibited to him as a sexual partner.^17 Endogamy, the practice
of marrying within the extended clan or community, does not foreclose
the possibility of levirate, but as we shall see in rabbinic texts, it may
complicate the practice. Cultures that practice levirate are also often
polygynous; a man may be married to more than one woman, while a
woman is restricted to one husband. The practice of polygyny allows a
man to marry or have an ongoing sexual relationship with his brother’s
widow even if he is already married.
The inheritance customs of these communities reflect their patri-
lineality. There is an emphasis on lineage and on the preservation of the
family property. In some societies, men inherit from their fathers. Oth-
ers practice joint fraternal inheritance; property is passed down from
one brother to the next; the next generation does not inherit until all of
the grandfather’s sons are dead. Occasionally inheritance will be trans-