Homogamy for birthplaces and cultural diversity
Keywords:
mate choice, geographical variation, marriage
Abstract
A major goal of anthropology is to understand the forces maintaining cultural variation. Although theoretical studies have proposed various mechanisms that may homogenize cultural diversity, recent empirical studies have suggested that there is considerable within-population cultural variation. In the present study, by analyzing marriage patterns in Japan in 1967, I show that the degree of homogamy in a prefecture was significantly affected by the diversity of birth prefectures of the inhabitants, indicating that a more culturally diverse prefecture might be more likely to resist the evolutionary forces that homogenize cultural diversity.