The Meaning of Marriage

1
The Meaning of Marriage

• Different Types of Marriages
• Defining Marriage
• Defining the Family
• Functions of Marriages and Families
• Contemporary View

2

• The history of marriage includes three general
  types to choosing a mate or partner.
• marriage by capture, marriage by arrangement and
  free-choice selection.

3
Marriage by Capture

• Marriage by capture has typically occurred in
  patriarchal societies where women were considered
  property.
• Patriarchal societies are an institution in which
  both power and authority are vested in the hands
  of the males, with the male wielding the greatest
  power.

4
Marriage by Arrangement

• The most common method of mate selection has been
  by arrangement. The parents, often with the aid
  of certain relatives or professional matchmakers,
  have chosen the spouse for their child.
• Essentially, marriage is seen as of group, rather
  than individual importance, and economics is
  often the driving force rather than love between
  the two individuals.

5

• There are four major reasons that determine mate
  choice in societies in which marriages are
  arranged. The first is price. The grooms
  family may need to pay for the bride, either in
  money or labor.
• The second consideration is social status. That
  is, the reputation of the family from which the
  spouse for ones child will come is very
  important.

6

• A third determinant is any continuous marriage
  arrangement. This refers to a set pattern for
  mate selection, which is carried on from
  generation of generation.
• The final criteria for mate choice are sororate
  and levirate arrangements, which refer to second
  marriages and tend to be based on brideprice
  obligations.

7
Brideprice

• Brideprice260 societies
• Bride service75 societies
• Dowry24 societies
• Gift or exchange31 societies
• No marriage payment152 societies

8
Dowry

• The dowry appears to be an inducement for a man
  to marry a particular woman and therefore relieve
  her family of the financial burden of caring for
  her.

9
Sororate and Levirate

• These terms refer to marriage practices designed
  to control remarriages after the death of the
  first spouse. In cultures that practice the
  sororate, a sister replaces a deceased wife.
• Under this system(levirate), it is the husband
  who dies, and his wife must be married to a
  brother of the deceased man.

10

• The chief reason that the Hindus and Hebrews
  practiced the levirate was religious and had to
  do with the importance of having a son in the
  family.

11
Matchmaking

• Matchmakers might act as intermediaries between
  the families or suggest potential spouses.

12
Free-Choice Mate Selection

• Free-mate selection is not the most common type
  of marriage around the world. In a survey of
  forty societies Researchers found only five in
  which completely free mate choice is permitted.

13

• The rule of exogamy declares that a person must
  marry outside his/her group.
• The rule of endogamy declares that a person must
  marry within his/her group.
• A final factor is propinquity (geographical
  nearness).

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Defining Marriage

• monogamy, in which there are two spouses, the
  husband and wife. But monogamy is a minority
  preference among world cultures, exhibited by
  only 24 percent of the known cultures.
• polygamy, the practice of having more than one
  wife or husband.

15

• polygny, the practice of having two or more
  wives.
• Polandry, the practice of having two or more
  husbands, is quite rare. Where is does exist, it
  coexists with polygny.

16
Defining Family

• affiliated kin, unrelated individuals who feel
  and are treated as if they were relatives.
• compadres (godparents) are considered family
  members.
• clan, a group of related families

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• nuclear family is the family type consisting of
  mother, father, and children.
• traditional family is the middle-class nuclear
  family in which womens primary roles are wife
  and mother, and mens primary roles are husband
  and bread winner.

18
Functions of Marriages and Families

• First it provides a source of intimate
  relationships.
• Second, it acts as a unit of economic cooperation
  and consumption.
• Third, it may produce and socialize children.
• Fourth, it assigns social roles and status to
  individuals.

19
Intimate Relationships

• Intimacy is a primary human need.
• In our families we generally find our strongest
  bonds.

20
Economic Cooperation

• The family is also a unit of economic cooperation
  that traditionally divides its lines between male
  and female roles.

21
Reproduction and Socialization

• Teaching the child how to fit into his or her
  particular culture is one of the familys most
  important tasks.
• The socialization function, however, is
  dramatically shifting away from the family.

22
Assignment of Social Role Status

• The family of orientation or origin is the family
  in which we grow up, the family that orients us
  to the world.
• The family of procreation is the family we form
  through marriage and childbearing.
• The family of cohabitation refers to the form
  through living or cohabitation, whether married
  or unmarried.

23
Why Live in Families

• First families off continuity as a result of
  emotional attachments, rights, and obligations.
• Second families offer close proximity.
• Conversation and relationships can be found in
  ones house or very near by.

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• Third, families offer is an abiding familiarity
  with others. The family knows each other very
  well, we show sides of our personality to members
  of our family that is not shown to other people.
• Fourth, families provide us with many economic
  benefits. They offer us economies of scale.
  Doing jobs such as cooking and laundry are just
  as easy to do for one as it is for several. Much
  of the time tasks are shared by family members.

25
Contemporary American Marriages and Families

• Cohabitation refers to individuals sharing living
  arrangements in an intimate relationship.
• Marriage is a combination of factors, including
  the womens movement, shifting demographics,
  family policy, and changing values, as they
  relate to sexuality.

26

• Family the recent model of the family has been
  considered to be the nuclear family. However the
  older model is wider and defines the family to
  include the extended family.