About the Book :
This book, running into six
volumes, provides encyclopedic information on the institution of marriage.
Tracing the origin and development of the institution of marriage, it deals not
only with marriage, in a narrow sense of the term, but every aspect of
heterosexuality-celibacy, incest, promiscuity, premarital sex, religious
prostitution, female coyness, endogamy, exogamy, monogamy, polygamy and
polyandry. It also discusses at length the marriage rites performed across the
world.
About Author :
Edvard (Alexander) Westermarck
(1862-1939) Finnish social anthropologist, philosopher, and sociologist, whose
area of specialization was the history of marriage, morality, and religious
institutions. Westermarck gained international fame with his doctoral thesis,
THE HISTORY OF HUMAN MARRIAGE, which was started by the ideas of Darwin and
attacked on the theory of primitive promiscuity. Westermarck was educated at the
Swedish lyceum. After graduating in 1881 he entered the University of Helsinki,
receiving his doctor degree (Ph.D.) in 1890. He also worked as a teacher at the
university. From 1907 to 1931 Westermarck acted as professor of sociology at the
London School of Economics and Political Science. At the same time he was
professor of practical philosophy at the University of Helsinki (1906-1918).
Between the years 1897 and 1904 Westermarck made several travels in Morocco, and
developed field study methods in social anthropology. Westermack spent two years
from 1900 to 1902 in Morocco but also constantly moved between Finland and
Britain. Westermarck died on September 9, 1939, in Tenhola.
Prof. Yogesh Atal is a
highly acclaimed Social Scientist of India. Starting his career in 1959 as an
Assistant Professor at the University of Sagar, he later worked in Panjab
University, Agra University, Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Council
of Social Science Research in different capacities. In 1974, Prof. Atal joined
UNESCO as the Head of its Regional Social Science Office for Asia and the
Pacific. Later, he was promoted as UNESCO Principal Director, from where he
retired in 1997. Presently, he is Chairman of the Programmes Committee of the
Indian Association of Social Science Institutions. Prof. Atal has a number of
books to his credit.
