What is Marriage?

A legally and socially sanctioned union, usually

between a man and a woman, that is regulated
by laws, rules, customs, beliefs, and attitudes that
prescribe the rights and duties of the partners
and accords status to their offspring
Also called matrimony or wedlock

What is Marriage?
According to Kathleen Gough,
- Marriage is a relationship established between
a woman and one or more persons
- Assures that a child born to the woman is
accorded full birth rights common to normal
members of his or her society, provided that he
child is conceived and born under certain
approved circumstances
- In biological terms, sexuality and reproduction
are not dependent on marriage; instead,
marriage is a means of assigning social identity
to children.
Universality of Marriage
Arguments about Marriage:
- Division of labor by sex
- Prolonged infant dependency of human children
- Sexual Competition
- Postpartum requirements for mothers
Basic Elements of Marriage
The parties' legal ability to marry each other
Mutual consent of the parties
Marriage contract as required by law
Main Legal Function of Marriage
- Ensure the rights of their partners with respect to
each other and to ensure the rights and define
the relationships of children within a community

Marital Customs and Laws
Forms of Marriages
Monogamy
- Marriage with one spouse exclusively and for life
Forms of Marriages
Serial Monogamy
- Marriage with one spouse at a time but with
remarriage after death or divorce

Forms of Marriages
Polygamy
- Marriage with more than one spouse at a time

Forms of Marriages
Polygny
- Marriage with more than one wife at a time
- In some societies, only men of high rank can seek
more than one wife and in stratified societies,
only men of wealth can afford to do so
- Common in horticultural societies where women
are responsible for production
- In sororal polygyny, a man marries two or more
sisters

Forms of Marriage
Polygny

Forms of Marriage
Same-Sex
- Marriage between two people of the same
biological sex and/or gender identity
Forms of Marriage
Polyandry
- Marriage with more than one husband at a time
- An alternative form of family in which a woman
marries and resides with two or more husbands,
either brothers or men who are unrelated
- Avoids subdividing the family estate and reduces
population growth
- Most common in Nepal, Tibet and India
- Fraternal polyandry is the most common form
were all brothers in a family, including those who
have not yet been born, are married to one
woman


Forms of Marriage
Polyandry

What is Legitimacy?
Assigns birth status to the children
Legally entitles the child and/or the mother to
the husbands property upon his death
Determines who is responsible for the child and
who controls the childs future
Marriage Rites and Rituals
The most universal ritual is one that symbolizes a
sacred union. This may be expressed by the
joining of hands, an exchange of rings or chains,
or the tying of garments
Marriage Rites and Rituals
INDIA
- As part of the pre-wedding ceremonies, there is an
Engagement Ceremony where the bride and groom
exchange rings and the families exchange gifts and
sweets
- Mehendi Ceremony is usually held at the bride's home
before the wedding ceremony and is the celebration
when the bride's palms, wrists, arms, legs, and feet are
decorated
- On the big day, the bride and groom put flower
garlands around each other's necks in the Var Mala
Ceremony to show the bride has accepted the groom
as her husband
Marriage Rites and Rituals
INDIA
Marriage Rites and Rituals
JAPAN
- Japanese ceremonies were traditionally held
in Shinto Shrines.
- The bride is painted pure white from head to toe,
declaring she is a maiden. She also wears a white
kimono and an elaborate head piece
- During the ceremony, the bride wears a white
hood to hide her "horns of jealousy" that she feels
toward her mother-in-law and to display her
resolve to become a gentle, obedient wife
- To symbolize their union, the couple drinks sake
together, becoming husband and wife once
they take the first sip


Marriage Rites and Rituals
JAPAN
Rites and Rituals
JAMAICA
- The entire village often comes together to help
plan the big day.
- Everyone in the village also gathers in the
street to see the bride and is publicly criticized
- Women wear the typical white wedding dress,
men wear a bush jacket for the event
Marriage Rites and Rituals
JAMAICA
Marriage Rites and Rituals
JAMAICA
- The reception is often held at the groom's house,
in a booth specially constructed for the event
and made of coconut boughs and flowers
- The celebration includes an abundance of
dancing, including the Quadrille, typically a
ballroom dance that slaves copied from their
masters

Marriage Rites and Rituals
JAMAICA
Marriage Rites and Rituals
GERMANY
- When a little girl is born in, several trees are
planted in her honor and are then sold once her
wedding date is set. The money from the sale will
be used for her dowry
- Friends and family create a wedding newspaper
filled with pictures, articles and stories of the
engaged couple and the proceeds, which is sold
at the wedding, help pay for the honeymoon

Marriage Rites and Rituals
GERMANY
- The ceremony is done in three parts.
- First, the day when couples have a civil
ceremony at city hall
- The next night is the party where many friends
and neighbors bring old dishes to break,
believing it to be good luck
- The third day is the religious ceremony. The flower
girl, the bride's only attendant, walks in front of
the bride and sprinkles petals on the floor to wish
the couple good luck

Marriage Rites and Rituals
GERMANY
Marriage Rites and Rituals
UNITED KINGDOM
- In Welsh wedding tradition, a man carved a
spoon out of wood and gave it to the woman he
loved. If she wore it, they were engaged
- Brides are often kidnapped by their families just
before their wedding day in Wales.
- The groom and his family follow and whoever
rescues her will be the next to get married

Marriage Rites and Rituals
- In her bouquet, a Welsh bride carries myrtle, a
symbol of love, and gives a cutting of the plant to
her bridesmaids as well. If the bridesmaid plants the
cutting in her yard and it blooms, she will soon
marry, according to Welsh tradition
Marriage Rites and Rituals
CHINA
- A middleman was used to cement the rather
lengthy engagement. The parents of the
prospective couple controlled the negotiations
- Once a man found a woman he wanted to
marry, the go-between would present gifts to the
girl's parents
- The go-between would also be responsible for
ascertaining the girl's date and hour of birth.
Both families would then review the auspicious
nature of the match, including the bride and
groom's birth dates and hours, as well as consult
an astrological expert

Marriage Rites and Rituals
CHINA
Marriage Rites and Rituals
MALAYSIA
- A groom might send his future bride child-bearing
presents, such as trays of food with origami
flowers and cranes made from currency bills
- During the ceremony they sit in while dressed in
brocades and feed each other yellow rice with
hands painted with henna
- At the ceremony, each guest might receive an
artistically decorated hard-boiled egg to
symbolize fertility
Marriage Rites and Rituals
MALAYSIA
Marriage Rites and Rituals
MOROCCO
- Weddings last from 3 days to a week depending
on the family and region of Morocco.
- Starts off with song and dance then the bride
dress in white gets on a large chair or the
Amariya along with her groom.
- They get carried around the wedding room so
that the guests can greet them and give them
their best wishes.
- Throughout the ceremony the bride changes into
as many as 7 different outfits

Marriage Rites and Rituals
MOROCCO
Marriage Rites and Rituals
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
- Before the wedding, the bride's friends
traditionally plant a tree in her yard and
decorate it with colored ribbons and painted
eggshells, because, according to legend, the
bride will live as long as the tree
- Before the marriage vows, a baby is placed in
the couple's bed, to bless their fertility
- The bride is also given three motherhood-
promoting dishes: wheat for fertility, millet mixed
with ashes that she must sort through in order to
prove her patience, and in the third a sparrow
hides under the lid



Marriage Rites and Rituals
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Marriage Rites and Rituals
ISLAM
- The bride and groom are separated at the
wedding and can only see each other if their
families allow
- The officiant goes to each room and asks the
man and woman separately if they take each
other in marriage
- A marriage contract is then signed in front of the
witnesses. Once the contract is signed, the
couple is brought together and declared man
and wife
Marriage Rites and Rituals
ISLAM
Bride Wealth Bride Service
Dowry Preferential Marriage
Economic Aspects of
Marriage
Economic Aspects of Marriage
Bridewealth
- Also known as bride price, compensates the
brides group for the loss of her labor and the
children she bears, who become full members of
the husbands group
- Common where land is plentiful and the labor of
additional women and children contributes to
the wealth and well being of the corporate
group (Goody 1976)
- Found in societies where women contribute a
great deal to subsistence, are valued as child
bearers and land is readily available and there is
sufficient work for all women.


Economic Aspects of Marriage
Bridewealth
- Example: Among the Dani of New Guinea, three
separate conjugal assets are recognized in
transations that are separated in time. A man
must make gifts of special valuables, such as
pigs, shells, or stones to his wifes family when:
1.He first contracts a marriage and his bride starts
working on his farm,
2.He acquires sexual rights in his wife and
consummates the marriage, and
3.His wife bears a child
Economic Aspects of Marriage
Bride Service
- Compensates the brides family for the loss of a
daughter. The groom moves in with the brides
family and works in exchange for his marital rights
Example: In the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 29:16-29,
Jacob labored for Laban for fourteen years to
marry Rachel. Originally the deal was seven
years, but Laban tricked Jacob by giving him
Leah on their wedding day, so Jacob had to
work another seven years to obtain the girl he
had originally fallen in love with, Rachel
Economic Aspects of Marriage
Dowry
- Transfer of goods or money from the brides
family to the bride
- Represents compensation for the future support
of the woman and her future children and is
found in societies where women contribute
relatively little to subsistence
Economic Aspects of Marriage
Dowry is found in societies where,
- Land is in short supply
- Womens labor cannot be used to intensify production
- Families do not want too many children, because
there is not enough land to pass on to heirs
- Females do not inherit land; instead, they are given a
dowry as a share of her parents estate.
Important feature of dowry is that it can be used to
support social ranking
Hypergamy- a system where in some societies large
dowry payments are used to attract a wealthy bride-
groom from an upper-status family

Economic Aspects of Marriage
Dowry
- Traditional Muslim dowry would include: gold jewelry, a
Koran, a prayer rug, prayer clothing (mekinah) for the
woman and gold jewelry. The "value" of the dowry is in
the gold .. the other items are symbolic
- Dowry originated in upper caste families as the
wedding gift to the bride from her family. The dowry
was later given to help with marriage expenses and
became a form of insurance in the case that her in-
laws mistreated her. Although the dowry was legally
prohibited in 1961, it continues to be highly
institutionalized. The groom often demands a dowry
consisting of a large sum of money, farm animals,
furniture, and electronics
Economic Aspects of Marriage
Preferential Marriage
- Reciprocity in marriage is sometimes achieved by
several intermarrying domestic groups that exchange
women in cycles and are called Circulating connubia
- To maintain reciprocity or to fulfill a marriage contract
for which bridewealth has been paid, the brother of a
deceased woman may permit the widower to marry
one or more of the deceased wifes sisters. This custom
is known as the sororate (deceased women is
replaced in marriage by her sister)
- Levirate is a preferential marriage in which the services
of a mans widow are retained within the domestic
unit by having her marry one of his brothers (a
deceased husband is replaced in marriage by his
brother)


Economic Aspects of Marriage
Preferential Marriage
- Muslims, for example, prefer that a man marry his
(real) fathers (real) brothers (real) daughter.
Quaranic inheritance in theory divided a mans
property equally among his sons and gives half-
shares to all his daughters

Incest Taboo
Refers to any cultural rule or norm that prohibits
sexual relations between close relatives
The sexual relations between related persons
which are subject to the taboo are called
incestuous relationships
In many cultures, certain types of cousin relations
are preferred as sexual and marital partners,
whereas in others these are taboo
Some cultures permit sexual and marital relations
between aunts/uncles and nephews/nieces

Incest Taboo
Incest Taboo
Trobriand Islanders
- Sexual relations between a woman and her
brother and a woman and her father is
prohibited but relations with a woman and his
father do not because the Trobrianders are
matrilineal; children belong to the clan of their
mother and not of their father
- A man and his father's sister will often have a
flirtatious relationship, and, far from being taboo,
Trobriand society encourages a man and his
father's sister, or the daughter of his father's sister
to have sexual relations or marry
What is Family?
A basic social unit consisting of parents and their
children, considered as a group, whether
dwelling together or not
A social unit consisting of one or more adults
together with the children they care for
Conjugal Matrifocal
Extended Blended
Family
Types
Family Types
Conjugal
- Is consisted of a husband, his wife, and children;
also called nuclear family
Family Types
Matrifocal
- Consists of a mother and her children. Generally,
these children are her biological offspring
- Biologic fathers may have a temporary place in
the family during the first years of the children's
lives, but they maintain a more permanent
position in their own original families.
Family Types
Matrifocal
Family Types
Extended
- Serves as a synonym of "consanguinal family"
(consanguine means "of the same blood)
- In societies dominated by the conjugal family, it
refers to "kindred" (an egocentric network of
relatives that extends beyond the domestic
group) who do not belong to the conjugal family

Extended
Family Types
Family Types
Blended
- The term blended family or stepfamily describes
families with mixed parents: one or both parents
remarried, bringing children of the former family
into the new family
Family Types
Blended
Single Parent
Childless
Grandparent
Cohabiting
Same-Sex
Foster
Alternative Types of Family
Single Parent
- Consists of one parent raising one or more
children on his own

Alternative Types of Family
Childless
- Sometimes the forgotten family, as it does not
meet the traditional standards set by society
- Consist of a husband and wife living and working
together
- Take on responsibility of pet ownership or have
extensive contact with their nieces and nephews
as a substitute for having their own children

Alternative Types of Family
Grandparent
- Many grandparents today are raising their
grandchildren for a variety of reasons. This could
be due to parents death, abandonment or
being unfit parents
- In addition, many grandparents take the lead
responsibility for child care, particularly when
both parents work

Alternative Types of Family
Cohabiting
- In this kind of family, a man and woman live
together but are not married
- If there are children, at least one of the adults is a
biological or adoptive parent

Alternative Types of Family
Same-Sex
- "Gay and lesbian parents are committed to and
effective at the parental role. Some research
indicates that gay fathers are more consistent in
setting limits and more responsive to their
children's needs than are heterosexual fathers"
(Berk, 2000, Pg 576)
- In lesbian families, quality of mother-child
interaction is as positive as in heterosexual
families. The great concern of gay and lesbian
parents is that their children will be stigmatised by
their parents sexual orientation" (Berk, 2000, Pg
577).
Alternative Types of Family
Same-Sex
Alternative Types of Families
Foster
- Foster parents are people who officially take a
child into their family for a period of time, without
becoming the child's legal parents. The child is
referred to as their foster child