exogamy

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   marriage outside a defined kinship or social group, especially when required by custom or law

   The clan practiced exogamy and required its members to marry into another clan.

2. 2
   noun

   biology: mating or fusion of gametes between genetically unrelated individuals

   Exogamy in the breeding population reduced the chance that rare harmful traits would pair.

Coined in nineteenth-century anthropology from exo-, 'outside,' + -gamy, 'marriage,' ultimately from Greek gamos. John Ferguson McLennan introduced the term in 1865 for rules requiring marriage outside a group; biology later extended it to outbreeding between unrelated individuals.

Topics