Endogamous Group - Adherence

Adherence

Proponents claim that endogamy encourages group affiliation and bonding. It is a common practice among displanted cultures attempting to make roots in new countries while still resisting complete integration. It encourages group solidarity and ensures greater control over group resources (which may be important to preserve when a group is attempting to get established within an alien culture).

Endogamy can serve as a form of self-segregation; it helps a community to resist integrating and completely merging with surrounding populations. It helps minorities to survive as distinct communities over a long time, in societies with other practices and beliefs.

Ethno-religious groups which have long resisted complete integration, for example, the Romani people and the Ashkenazi Jews of Europe, practice a higher level of endogamy.

Notable examples of endogamous religious groups have been the Arab Christians in the Middle East, Assyrians, Jews, Yazidi Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan also the Mandaeans (early Christians and followers of John the Baptist) in Southern Iraq (all under Islamic majority), Turkmens and Armenians in Iran, Old Order Amish, Mennonites, Jehovah's Witnesses, Memons, Muslims, Knanaya Christians, Hindus (within their castes) and the Parsi of India (a non-Hindu minority in India). The caste system in India is based on an order of (predominantly) endogamous groups. Its formation is described in a shloka (verse) of the Purusha Sukta, a Vedic hymn, as follows:

ब्रा॒ह्म॒णॊ॓‌உस्य॒ मुख॑मासीत् । बा॒हू रा॑ज॒न्यः॑ कृ॒तः । ऊ॒रू तद॑स्य॒ यद्वैश्यः॑ । प॒द्भ्याग्ं शू॒द्रॊ अ॑जायतः ॥

brāhmaṇosya mukhamāsīt | bāhū rājanyaḥ kṛtaḥ | ūrū tadasya yadvaiśyaḥ | padbhyā śūdro ajāyata ||

The Brahmins came from His mouth; and from His arms came the kings. The merchants sprang forth from His thighs; and from His feet, the laborers were born.

In their 2009 study of outmarriage, Lucassen and Laarman clearly show a divide between immigrants of Caribbean and southern European descent and North African and South Asian descent. Whereas Caribbean and South European immigrants frequently intermarry with other ethnic groups in generation 1 and increasingly so in generation 2 (EU born), North African and South Asian immigrants show a weak tendency towards intermarriage in generation 1, and no significant increase in generation 2. On average, the tendency of Caribbean and South European immigrants to intermarry with other ethnic groups is four times higher than that of North African and South Asian immigrants.