11. Although the specifics of marriage customs varied, the indigenous peoples of the Americas were defined by a rigid community of interdependence within family units
Whilst there is no singular understanding of marriage within indigenous American society, with hundreds of distinct cultures existing across the two continents, there are several key themes which unify the divergent populations; among the most prominent and consistent feature is the important of family, specifically the extended rather than merely nuclear family within wider demographic groups and the role of said family unit in organizing and structuring everyday life.
Although there was often no official ceremony associated with an indigenous marriage, instead merely a private or family acknowledgment of the coupling, this should not be interpreted as reducing the importance attached to the union; likewise the common practice of polygyny – the taking by a man of multiple wives – and polyandry – the marrying of a woman to multiple men concurrently – should not be seen as diminishing this importance either. Instead, this cultural occurrence should, in fact, be seen as highlighting the immense importance placed on family, with the entire North American economic system dependent on familial connections to properly function; accordingly, should a husband die his wife would be expected to find a new husband, often from within her deceased’s immediate family, to maintain that communal connection and forestall economic decline. An example of this economic interdependence through marriage can be seen in the tribes of the Great Plains: a successful male hunter would collect many hides, and thus, in turn, require multiple wives to process the hides for sale, and so he would likely take his wife’s sister as an additional wife to aid with this commercial enterprise; likewise, a wife was often married to the brothers of her husband to solidify this economic entrenchment through multiple avenues of connective bond.