Levirate vs Ghostmarriage - What's the difference?
levirate | ghostmarriage |
Having to do with one's husband's brother.
(countable) A marriage between a widow and her deceased husband's brother or, sometimes, heir.
(anthropology) The institution of levirate marriage.
* 1894 , Edward Westermarck, The History of Human Marriage , second ed., Macmillan and Co., page 510,
* 1986 , John S. Scullion, translator, Genesis 37-50: A Continental Commentary by Claus Westermann, Fortress Press, ISBN 080069502X, page 52,
* 2006 , Gary P. Ferraro, Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective , Thomson Wadsworth, ISBN 0495030392, page 219,
levirate
English
Adjective
(-)Usage notes
* This adjective is used almost exclusively as part of the phrase (levirate marriage).Noun
(en noun)- And it is, he says, impossible not to believe that the Levirate —that is, the practice of marrying a dead brother's widow—is derived from polyandry.
- It is only a secondary purpose of the levirate that the property of the deceased passes on to the one who is heir to his name, and is probably a later accretion.
- The levirate is found in patrilineal societies in which the bride marries into her husband's family while essentially severing her ties with her original family.
