Abstract
India is the land of unity in diversity. There are many primitive societies in different stages of development and cultural evolution. In the present paper different forms and types of marriages prevalent among primitive Indian societies is discussed with special reference to Baiga. The study is based on information and data collected from 415 Baiga households of 10 villages, through semi-structured interview schedule. Simultaneously other anthropological techniques of data collection viz. observation, case-study and focused group discussion were also used to substantiate the quantitative information collected. The information regarding other primitive societies was collected during visit of different areas, from relevant literatures and through formal and informal discussions. It was found that among Indian tribes varied forms of marriage are in practice. For example, Khasi, Garo and Jaintia of North-East are known for matrilineality; Kinnaura, Lahulas and Raji are known for polyandry. Among Baiga it was found that 95.4 percent marriages are monogamous and rest 4.6 percent are polygamous. It can be concluded that the Indian Tribal world is still unique and passing through different stages of cultural evolution.
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