A Methodological Analysis of Intergroup Marriage

Marriage between members of different groups has long been viewed as a key indicator of the strength of those groups' boundaries and the nature of the social relationships between them. (See, for example, Davis 1941; Gordon 1964; Merton 1941.) Although intermarriage is the ultimate sign of social acceptability, it is simultaneously a threat to a minority group's distinctiveness and, in the end, its very survival. In the United States, patterns of interethnic marriage show considerable differences between groups, differences that merit close attention. Even