Some aspects of kinship and marriage patterns among the "Czechs of Vojvodovo"

The article is aimed at the analysis of kinship and marriage patterns in a "Czech compatriot community" in Bulgarian village Vojvodovo. The question of the definition of kinship, type of kin groups and the character of kinship and descent is discussed in the text. Vojvodovo villagers used to practice some specific types of marriage to maintain religious endogamy - marriages between relatives, so called "marriage alliances" and leviratic and sororatic marriages. The "marriage alliances", however, cannot be interpreted in terms of Levi-Straussian "alliance theory", since there were no clearly bounded unilineal descent groups (kinship was bilateral), and hence there were no structural units that could maintain "alliances". On the contrary, "marriage alliances" can be seen as a function of the endogamous community in its effort to perpetuate its singularity and uniqueness.