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Marriage Alliances
for a Spanish translation by Laura Mancini (Dec 2020)
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Two-Section System. In this example of two patrilineal groups, to create the integration of the two groups, one marry one's cross-cousin, thus forming a Bilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage System. For a male, one's F Z D and M B D or for a female, one's M B S or F Z S are all one in the same persons, i.e., a cross-cousin. All one's parallel cousins would be brothers and sisters, and you wouldn't marry one of them. All one really needs to know is to marry the opposite sex, same generation, and other group or section. It is the simplest and likely oldest alliance formation. The Mardu have a Four-Section System, an extension of the same principles by combining two sets of two groups into the four sections.
Parallel-Cousin Cross-Cousin
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B = brother Z = sister H = husband W = wife
M = mother F = father S = son D = daughter
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Patrilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage System. Though rare, a highly integrative system of indirect marriage exchanges.