Characteristics of Women in Consanguineous Marriages in Egypt, 1988–2000

Abstract

This article reviews three mechanisms related to autonomy, wealth, and local cultural factors, which are said to underly the high prevalence of consanguineous marriage in Arab societies. It then assesses each of them empirically in two stages. The first uses a pooled dataset constituted by the most recent marriage cohorts in the 1992 and 2000 waves of the Egyptian Demographic and Health Surveys. Three results stand out. The frequency of consanguinity in the most recent marriage cohorts (i) is strongly correlated with the frequency among older cohorts, signaling the strong clustering of underlying institutional (and unobserved) supports; (ii) tends to be more common among women who are poorer in absolute term, though wealthier than average in their communities; and (iii) varies temporally and across the rural-urban divide in its relationship to women's autonomy. A subsidiary analysis, using only the 2000 data, then identifies wealth and autonomy differences between first cousin patrilateral and matrilateral wives.Keywords Consanguinity Á Cousin marriage Á Endogamy Á Arab marriage Á Women's autonomy Á Egypt Résumé Cet article examine trois mécanismes en lien avec l'autorité, la fortune et les facteurs culturels locaux, qui sont connus pour influencer la fréquence élevée des mariages consanguins dans les sociétés arabes. Chacun de ces mécanismes est évalué en deux étapes: La première s'appuie sur la base de données des mariages les plus récents dans les vagues de 1992 et de 2000 de l'Enquête Démographique et de Santé égyptienne. Trois résultats sont mis en évidence, concernant la fréquence de la consanguinité parmi les mariages les plus récents: (1) celle-ci est fortement corrélée avec la fréquence parmi les générations les plus anciennes, ce qui indique l'existence d'un regroupement de facteurs institutionnels sous-jacents (non

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