The ideation and instantiation of arranging marriage within an urban community in Pakistan, 1982–2000

Using longitudinal data and marriage arrangements in urban Pakistan, this paper discusses the consequences of changes in ideational systems. Merging different theoretical approaches (or cultures) within cultural anthropology, it argues that, while symbol systems are not an analogue of an external world, nevertheless they are effective drivers for how people relate to, adapt to and modify the external relations within which they are embedded. This allows for the accommodation of analytic viewpoints that favour both the symbolic construction of reality and the behavioural relations of how this construction is enacted.