Аннотация
This study examined the role of traditional marriage institutions in sustaining cultural identity and heritage preservation in Edo State, Nigeria. Among the Edo, marriage is governed not by individuals alone but by enduring social institutions, the council of elders, the Okaegbe or family head, lineage and family heads, and cultural custodians, that regulate rites, legitimise unions, transmit values, arbitrate disputes, and enforce norms. These institutions function as the organising machinery through which the rich heritage of Edo marriage, its introduction (Ivbuomo), symbolic bride price (Erhunmwun), coral-bead regalia, and communal rites, is codified, enforced, transmitted, and adapted. Adopting a descriptive survey design supported by key-informant interviews and observation, the study sampled 238 respondents, including elders, family heads, custodians, married couples, and youth, across selected Bini and Esan communities. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and chi-square tests at the 0.05 level of significance, within the frameworks of structural-functionalism and social-institutions theory. Findings show that marriage institutions perform strong roles in legitimising unions (90%), regulating rites and norms (88%), and upholding elders' authority (85%), and that respondents overwhelmingly affirm their contribution to cultural identity, heritage preservation, and social cohesion. However, the institutions face significant challenges from modernisation, the decline of elders' authority, youth detachment and migration, foreign values, and commercialisation. Chi-square analyses revealed statistically significant relationships between the strength of marriage institutions and cultural-identity affirmation, between institutional authority and heritage preservation, and between institutional adaptation and continuity. The study concludes that traditional marriage institutions are the decisive custodial mechanism sustaining Edo cultural identity and heritage, and that their revitalisation, through strengthened authority, documentation, legal recognition, and adaptive reform, is essential to the survival of the heritage they protect.