sororate
- noun
- /ˈsɔːrəˌreɪt/
- Specialized
- In some cultures, the sororate custom allows a man to marry his deceased wife's sister.
- sororate marriages
- sororate partner
Examples
-
In former times, polygyny was possible, and both the sororate and the levirate were practiced.
Academic text (1991) -
The rather strong representation of Sub-Saharan Africa and North America in both samples reflects the frequent occurrence of the levirate and sororate in these areas.
Academic text (1990) -
Sapir does not indicate under which social conditions either of these two views of the levirate and sororate may be expected to occur.
Academic text (1990) -
The mother's levirate partner, it is true, is her legal husband, and the father's sororate partner is his legal wife, but they are not considered to be ego's legal parents.
Academic text (1990) -
Where, on the other hand, levirate and sororate marriages are considered to be new unions, the legal positions of the parents' levirate and sororate partners are not essentially different from those of any other second spouse of the parents.
Academic text (1990) -
Thus, the above-mentioned extension of the terms for father and mother, and stepfather and stepmother, obviously indicates that entering into levirate and sororate unions constitutes a right or a duty, and not a preference or a possibility.
Academic text (1990) -
The Garo (29) denote aunts by bifurcate merging terms, yet at sororate marriages they perform the same ceremony as that enacted at first marriages.
Academic text (1990) -
He had to follow the sororate tradition after his wife's sudden passing.
-
The sororate is often practiced as a way to keep wealth within the family after the death of a spouse.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Sororate comes from the Latin root soror meaning 'sister', and it names a custom where a man marries his wife's sister after his wife dies. So sororate is literally linked to 'sister', which is why it means marriage with the sister of a deceased wife.
