| Marriage is a relationship and bond, most commonly between a man and a woman, that plays a key role in the definition
of many families. Precise definitions vary historically and between and within
cultures, but it has been an important concept as a socially sanctioned bond in a sexual relationship. Globally, societies that sanction polygamy as a form of marriage are far less common than those that do not and monogamy is overwhelmingly most
widely practiced, followed distantly by polygyny, which is found primarily in tribal cultures, and with other forms being
extremely rare. Since the latter decades of the 20th century alternative
definitions have come to the fore and many of society's assumptions about the nature and purpose of marriage and family have been
challenged.
In modern times, the term marriage is generally reserved for a state sanctioned union. The phrase legally
married can be used to emphasize this point. In the United States there are two methods of receiving state sanction of a
marriage: common law marriage and obtaining a marriage license.
Since the 12th century Marriage or Holy Matrimony has been a sacrament in the
Catholic Church, as well as other Orthodoxies, where it is defined as
a relationship between man and woman (although same sex marriage exists in some countries and states). Marriage of some kind is
found in most societies, and typically married people form either a nuclear
household, which is often subsequently extended biologically, through children, or
part of an extended family network. Alternatively, people may choose to be "childfree". Finally, they may be childless due to infertility, and possibly seek treatment or consider adoption.
The term wedlock is a synonym for marriage, and is mainly used in the phrase "out of wedlock" to describe a child born of
parents who were not married (see illegitimacy).
There is wide variation in the precise form that marriage takes. Two of the most hotly-debated variants are discussed below:
same-sex marriage and polygamy.
Types of marriage
The type and functions of marriage vary from culture to culture. In the
United States, Europe, and China in the
early 21st century, legally sanctioned marriages are monogamous (although some pockets of society still sanction polygamy socially, if not legally) and divorce is relatively simple
and socially sanctioned. In the West, the prevailing view toward marriage
today is that it is based on emotional attachment between the partners and entered into voluntarily.
In the Islamic world, marriage is sanctioned between a man and a woman, however there
are verses in chapter 4 of the Qur'an which state that in certain conditions a man is allowed up to four wives. In Imperial China, formal marriage was sanctioned only between a man and a
woman, although a man could take several concubines and the children from the
union were considered legitimate.
Some societies permitted polygamy, in which a man could have multiple wives;
even in such societies however, most men have only one. In such societies, having multiple wives is generally considered a sign
of wealth and power. The status of multiple wives has varied from one society to another. In Islamic societies, the different wives were considered equal while in Imperial China, one woman was considered the
primary wife while the other women were considered concubines. Among the upper classes, the primary wife was an arranged marriage
with an elaborate formal ceremony while the concubines were taken on later with
minimal ceremony.
There are also many monogamous societies, where a marriage consists of only two
people, a very few polyandrous, where a woman could have multiple husbands.
Societies which permit group marriage are extremely rare, but have
existed in utopian societies such as the Oneida Community.
However, in 21st century Western cultures, while bigamy is illegal and sexual relations outside marriage are generally
frowned-upon, divorce and remarriage have been relatively easy to undertake. This has
led to a practice which some have called serial monogamy. In
particular, some have argued that the pattern of the rich divorcing their first wives and then taking on a trophy wife is similar to patterns of polygamy in other societies.
Legally sanctioned marriages are generally conducted between heterosexual couples, although there are countries that recognize
same-sex marriage, including The Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, the American state of Massachusetts. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland,
Greenland, Iceland, Germany, France, and the American state of Vermont allow couples to enter legal partnerships, but these partnerships are not considered
marriages even if they bestow many of the same legal benefits upon the couple.
Recognition
Couples usually seek social sanction for their marriages, and most societies require official approval of a religious or civil
body. Sociologists thus distinguish between a marriage ceremony conducted under the auspices of a religion and a state-sanctioned civil marriage.
In many jurisdictions the civil marriage ceremony may take place during the religious marriage ceremony, although they are two
distinct entities. In most American states the marriage may be officiated by a priest,
minister, or religious authority, and in such a case the
religious authority acts simultaneously as a religious authority and an agent of the state. In some countries such as France and Russia, it is necessary to be married by
the state before having a religious ceremony. Some states allow civil marriages which are not allowed by many religions, such as
same-sex marriages or civil unions, and marriage may also be created by the operation of the law alone as in common-law marriage, which is a judicial recognition that two people
living as domestic partners are entitled to the effects of marriage. Conversely, there are examples of people who
have a religious ceremony which is not recognized civilly. Examples include widows who
stand to lose a pension if they remarry and so undergo a marriage in the eyes of God, homosexual couples, some breakaway sects of
Mormonism which recognize polygamy,
retired couples that would lose pension benefits if legally married, Islamic men who wish to engage in polygamy that is condoned
in some situations under Islam and immigrants who do not wish to alert to the immigration
authorities that they are married either to a spouse they are leaving behind or because of the complexity of immigration laws
that may make it difficult for spouses to visit on a tourist visa.
In Europe it has tradionally been the churches' office to make marriages official by
registering them. Hence, it was a significant step towards a clear separation of church and state and also an intended and effective weakening of the Christian
churches' role in Germany, when Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduced the Zivilehe (civil marriage) in 1875. This law made the declaration of the marriage before an official clerk of the civil
administration (both spouses affirming their will to marry) the procedure to make a marriage legally valid and effective, and
reduced the clerical marriage to a mere private ceremony.
Rights and obligations
Typically, marriage is the institution through which people join together their lives in emotional and economic ways through forming a household. It often
confers rights and obligations with respect to raising children, holding property, sexual behaviour, kinship ties, tribal membership, relationship to society, inheritance, emotional intimacy, and love.
Marriage sometimes: establishes the legal father of a woman's child; establishes the legal mother of a man's child; gives the
husband or his family control over the wife's sexual services, labor, and/or property; gives the wife or her family control over
the husband's sexual services, labor, and/or property; establishes a joint fund of property for the benefit of children;
establishes a relationship between the families of the husband and wife. No society does all of these; no one of these is
universal (see Edmund Leach's article in "Marriage, Family, and Residence," edited by Paul Bohannan and John Middleton).
Marriage has traditionally been a prerequisite for starting a family, which usually serves as the building block of a
community and society. Thus, marriage not only serves the interests of the two individuals, but also the interests of their
children and the society of which they are a part.
In the Jewish, Muslim or Christian world, marriage is traditionally a prerequisite for sexual intercourse: unmarried people are not supposed to have sex,
which is then called fornication and is socially discouraged or even
criminalized. Sex with a person other than one's spouse, called adultery, is even
less acceptable and has also often been criminalized, especially in the case of a woman. Finally, in many cultures, it is assumed
that in agreeing to marry the wife permanently consents sexually so that spousal rape is a conceptual impossibility.
Marriage restrictions
Societies have always placed restrictions on marriage to relatives, though the degree of prohibited relationship varies
widely. In almost all societies marriage between brothers and sisters is forbidden, with Ancient Egyptian royalty being the rare
exception. In many societies marriage between some first cousins is preferred, while at the other extreme, the medieval Catholic church prohibited
marriage between distant cousins. The present day Catholic Church still maintains a standard of required distance (in both
consanguinity and affinity) for marriage. Many societies have also adopted other restrictions on whom one can marry, such as
prohibitions on marrying persons with the same surname, or persons with the same sacred animal.
Anthropologists refer to these sort of restrictions as exogamy. One exception to this pattern is in ancient Egypt, where marriage between brothers and sisters was permitted in the royal family; this privilege
was denied commoners and may have served to concentrate wealth and power in one family (See also incest). The consequence of the incest-taboo is exogamy, the requirement
to marry someone from another group. Anthropologists have thus pointed out that the incest taboo may serve to promote social
solidarity.
Societies have also at times required marriage from within a certain group. Anthropologists refer to these restrictions as
endogamy. An example of such restrictions would be a requirement to marry someone
from the same tribe. Racist laws adopted by some societies in the past to prohibit
marriage of persons of different races, or miscegenation, could also be
considered examples of endogamy.
As tolerance of homosexuality has become more widespread in Western
cultures, some governments have recognized a right to marriage by people of the same sex. This has in turn created a backlash,
most notably in the United States, where several states have specifically
outlawed gay marriage, often by popular referenda. At the federal level,
the Defense of Marriage Act has created a federal
definition of marriage as between a man and a woman as well as allowing one state to not recognize a same sex marriage recognized
by another state. Some people, including President George W. Bush,
advocate amending the Federal Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriages.
Currently, same-sex marriages are recognized by France, Belgium, the Netherlands, several Canadian provinces and territories
(soon all), as well as the states of Massachusetts and California. Legal challenges to marriage restrictions may soon expand the
recognition of same-sex marriages in Washington, New York, and other states.
Termination
Many societies provide for the termination of marriage through divorce. Marriages
can also be annulled, which is a legal proceeding that establishes that a
marriage was invalid from its beginning.
Weddings
The ceremony in which a marriage is enacted and announced to the community is called a wedding. A wedding in which a couple marry in the' eyes of the law' is called a civil marriage. Religions also facilitate weddings, in the 'eyes of God.' In many European and some Latin American countries, where someone chooses a religious ceremony, they must also
hold that ceremony separate from the civil ceremony. In some countries, notably the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Spain
both ceremonies can be held together; the officiant at the religious and community ceremony also serves as an agent of the state
to enact the civil marriage. That does not mean that the state is recognising religious marriages; the 'civil' ceremony
just takes place at the same time as the religious ceremony. Often this involves simply signing a register during the religious
ceremony. If for whatever reason, that civil element of the full ceremony is left out, in the eyes of the law no marriage took
place, irrespective of the holding of the religious ceremony.
The way in which a marriage is enacted has changed over time, as has the institution of marriage itself. In Europe during the Middle Ages, marriage was
enacted by the couple promising verbally to each other that they would be married to each other. This promise was known as the
verbum. As part of the Reformation, the role of recording marriages
and setting the rules for marriage passed to the state. By the 1600s many of the Protestant European countries had heavy state involvement in marriage.
Marriage and religion
Main article: Religious aspects of
marriage
Many religions have extensive teachings regarding marriage. Most Christian churches give some form of blessing to a marriage; the wedding ceremony typically includes some sort of pledge by the community to support the couple's relationship. In
the Eastern Orthodox church, it is one of the Mysteries, and is seen as an ordination and a martyrdom. In marriage, Christians
see a picture of the relationship between Jesus and the Church. In Judaism, marriage is viewed as a coming together of two
families, therefore prolonging the religion and cultural heritage of the Jewish people. Islam also recommends marriage highly; among other things, it helps in the pursuit of spiritual perfection. Hinduism sees marriage as a sacred duty that entails both religious and social obligations.
By contrast, Buddhism does not encourage or discourage marriage, although it does
teach how one might live a happily married life.
It is also worth noting that different religions have different beliefs as regards the breakup of marriage. For example,
the Roman Catholic Church does not permit divorce,
because in its eyes, a marriage is forged by God. The Church
states that what God joins together, humans cannot sunder. As a result, people who get a civil divorce are still considered
married in the eyes of the Catholic Church, which does not allow them to remarry, even if they are allowed a civil marriage. In
some special cases, however, Catholics can be permitted an annulment. With
a nullity, religions and the state often apply different rules, meaning that a couple, for example, could receive a divorce from
the state and not have their marriage annulled by the Catholic Church because the state disagrees with the church over whether an
annulment could be granted in a particular case. This produces the phenomenon of Catholics getting Church annulments
simultaneously with state divorces, allowing the ex-partners to marry other people in the eyes of both the Church and the
State.
Islam does allow divorce; however, there is a verse stated in the Qur'an describing divorce as the least desirable act allowed
between people. The general rule is for a man to allow his wife to stay until the end of her menstrual period or for 3 months if
she so wishes after the divorce. During this period they would be divorced in that they would simply be living under the same
roof but not functioning as man and wife. The Qur'an scholars suggest that the main point is to prevent any decisions by the
woman from being affected by hormonal fluctuations as well as to allow any heated arguments or differences to be resolved in a
civil manner before the marriage is completely terminated. However, there is no obligation on the woman to stay, if she so wishes
she may leave. The man is also obligated to give his wife a gift or monetary sum equivalent to at least half her mahr
(gift or monetary sum which is given to the wife at the commencement of the marriage). Specific conditions as to how a divorce is
conducted also apply if a woman is pregnant, or has given birth just prior to the divorce.
refer Qur'an 2:228-232, 236, 237, 241 and 65:1-7. See also 4:35.
Marriage and economics
The economics of marriage have changed over time. Historically, in many cultures the family of the bride had to provide a
dowry to pay a man for marrying their daughter. In other cultures, the family of the
groom had to pay a bride price to the bride's family for the right to marry
the daughter. In some cultures, dowries and bride prices are still demanded today. In both cases, the financial transaction takes
place between the groom (or his family) and the bride's family; the bride has no part in the transaction and often no choice in
whether to participate in the marriage.
In many modern legal systems, two people who marry have the choice between keeping their property separate or combining their
property. In the latter case, called community property, when
the marriage ends by divorce each owns half; if one partner dies the surviving
partner owns half and for the other half inheritance rules apply.
The respective maintenance obligations, during and eventually after a marriage, are regulated in most jurisdictions; see alimony.
It is possible to analyze the institution of marriage using economic theory; see David Friedman, Price Theory: Chapter 21: The
Economics of Love and Marriage (http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Academic/Price_Theory/PThy_Chapter_21/PThy_Chap_21.html).
Criticisms of marriage
Under the principle of church-state separation, libertarians criticize
the government regulation of and the state's involvement in marriage, because many now consider marriage a religious institution.
The libertarian view is that if government must recognize marriage at all, it should be treated as a contract like any other between two freely consenting parties, which would essentially reduce family law to a subset of contract law. The religious aspects should remain the
province of one's church and that church's ecclesiastical courts (if it has them). Relatively new legal developments like
palimony have already tilted certain governments slightly in this direction.
Other commentators have argued that marriage has a significant dark side, sometimes condemning individual local practices and
sometimes even the entire institution of marriage. A good many of these are feminist critiques, which claim that in many cultures marriage is particularly disadvantageous to women.
In many areas of the world, when a woman was in her early teens her father arranged a marriage for her in return for a
brideprice, sometimes to a man twice her age who was a stranger to her. Her
older husband then became her guardian and she could be cut off almost completely from her family. The woman had little or no say
in the marriage negotiations, which might even have occurred without her knowledge.
Some traditions allowed a woman who failed to bear a son to be given back to her father. This reflected the importance of
bearing children and extending the family to succeeding generations.
Often both parties are expected to be virgins before their marriage, but in many
cultures women were more strictly held to this standard. One old tradition in Europe, which survived into the twentieth century
in rural Greece, was for this to be proven by hanging the bloody bed sheet from the
wedding night from the side of the house. Similarly, sexual fidelity is very often
expected in marriage, but sometimes the expectations and penalties for women have been harsher than those for men.
In some traditions marriage could be a traumatic, unpleasant turn of events for a girl. "The Lot of Women" written in
Athens in the mid 5th century
BC laments this situation:
- Young women, in my opinion, have the sweetest existence known to mortals in their father's homes, for their innocence always
keeps children safe and happy. But when we reach puberty and can understand, we are
thrust out and sold away from our ancestral gods and from our parents. Some go to strange men's homes, others to foreigner's, some to joyless
houses, some to hostile. And all this once the first night has yoked us to our husband we are forced to praise and say that all
is well.
On the other hand, marriage has often served to assure the woman of her husband's continued support and enabled her to focus
more attention on the raising of her children. This security has typically been greater when and where divorce has been more
difficult to obtain.
Some older wedding traditions still survive in some form in today's ceremonies. Women may still be symbolically "given away"
by their fathers. Some brides still vow to "love and obey" their husbands and some
bridegrooms vow to "care for" their wives. A groom might remove his bride's garter, a symbol of her virginity, as a public
representation of his claim on her sexuality. Brides toss their bouquets towards a group of single women, who compete to catch
the bouquet; the woman who catches the bouquet is believed to have the good fortune
to be the next woman to get married.
One very common tradition is that of the groom carrying the bride over the threshold of their house. Investigating the origin
of this tradition around 100 AD, Plutarch postulated three different possibilities.
The first was that the act of picking up the bride was a symbolic re-enactment of the Rape
of the Sabines. Another was that it symbolized the bride's reluctance to surrender her virginity, which she did only under
duress. And the last suggested marital faithfulness - having been carried into the house by her husband she would only leave it
the same way. This of course was in the context of a patriarchal culture in which it was said that a woman should only leave her
house when she was so old that people would not ask whose wife she was, but whose mother.
These traditions, though often attacked by critics and scholars, nevertheless remain a treasured part of many ceremonies,
cherished by both bride and groom.
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