Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Endogamy Among Members of the Knanaya Christians of India


Thomas of Cana who led a migration of Syriac Christians
from the Middle East to India between 345 and 800 A.D.
Image courtesy: www.wikipedia.org/

The Knanaya, also known as the Tekkumbhagar or 'Southists', are an endogamous group in the St. Thomas Christian community of Kerala, India. 

Syrian merchant Thomas of Cana, in between 345 and 800 A.D., led a migration of a group of these Christians from the Middle East to India. They use a kind of Syriac (a variety of middle Aramaic) language, related to Palestinian Aramaic that Jesus Christ spoke in his time.  

There are about 300,000 Knanaya Christians in India and other countries including the USA. Majority of these people belong to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Malankara Churches. 

Traditionally, they engage into endogamous marriage -- the custom of marrying only in one's own community, clan, caste, or ethnic group (tribe). They refuse to marry anyone coming from a different group. 

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