Marriage, a History

Marriage, a History
Author: Stephanie Coontz
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2006-02-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1101118253

Just when the clamor over "traditional" marriage couldn’t get any louder, along comes this groundbreaking book to ask, "What tradition?" In Marriage, a History, historian and marriage expert Stephanie Coontz takes readers from the marital intrigues of ancient Babylon to the torments of Victorian lovers to demonstrate how recent the idea of marrying for love is—and how absurd it would have seemed to most of our ancestors. It was when marriage moved into the emotional sphere in the nineteenth century, she argues, that it suffered as an institution just as it began to thrive as a personal relationship. This enlightening and hugely entertaining book brings intelligence, perspective, and wit to today’s marital debate.

Marriage in Culture

Marriage in Culture
Author: Janice E. Stockard
Publisher: Cengage Learning
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2002
Genre: !Kung (African people)
ISBN:

This text presents an ethnographic study of marriage practices in four cultures: !Kung San; Chinese; Iroquois; and Tibetan.

A Cultural History of Marriage in Antiquity

A Cultural History of Marriage in Antiquity
Author: Karen Klaiber Hersch
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2021-11-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350179655

Marriage, across cultures, is often defined as a union between consenting adults that lasts for the life of the partners. But is marriage a blessing, or curse? Does marriage represent the union of two hearts, or was it a necessary evil? Did matrimony bring a person a helpmeet for life, or was it a societally approved state entered into to improve one's social standing and produce legitimate heirs? The authors of this volume show that the peoples of the ancient Mediterranean were divided on all of these questions, and reveal ancient Greek and Roman opinions on marriage that were as varied and complex as they are today. Readers will discover in this book that ancients juggled multiple ideas that to the modern eye may appear to be contradictory. Thus, for example, Greek and Roman wives were expected to come to their grooms spotless virgins, while Greek and Roman husbands could enjoy multiple partnerships outside the marital union. Guided by our experts, we take an extensive journey through time and space, encountering evidence from such sources as diverse as Hammurabic law codes, Egyptian papyri, Greek epic and tragedy, Roman inscriptions and writings on the lives of early Christians. Applying innovative approaches and diverse methodologies, the authors of this volume reveal the tension and reconciliation between representations of marriage in antiquity and its lived reality. A Cultural History of Marriage in Antiquity presents an overview of the period with essays on Courtship and Ritual; Religion, State and Law; Kinship and Social Networks; the Family Economy; Love and Sex; the Breaking of Vows; and Representations of Marriage.

A History of Marriage Systems

A History of Marriage Systems
Author: Gladys Robina Quale
Publisher: Praeger
Total Pages: 426
Release: 1988-05-06
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN:

Readers seeking a historical and cross-cultural treatment of marriage and the family will not be disappointed by this book. A readable and comprehensive account of marriage, rich in colorful social history, Quale's work excels in the comparison of lines of development among the foremost cultures of the world. Particularly impressive in this regard is her treatment of the Eastern civilizations and how these differed from what demographic historians have come to call the `West European pattern' of marriage....Although written as a history, this book should be of interest to students of the family in the social sciences. While it is not a path-breaking work in the sense of providing significant novel conceptual or theoretical insights, it skillfully incorporates theoretical and empirical contributions from a multitude of disciplines. It devotes considerable attention to contemporary trends and consistently relates the institution of the family to the overall socioeconomic, political, and demographic contingencies within society....Quale has written an important book that contains a wealth of useful informaton and deserves serious consideration for use in graduate and undergraduate instruction. Journal of Marriage and the Family This is the first general worldwide history of marriage systems. Though it is comprehensive, it also uses contemporary American trends to illustrate broader tendencies in significant and sometimes dramatic ways. After going back to the earliest generations of human life to seek the roots of why and how human beings came to marry, it explores the various points in family life at which marriages are made, dissolved, and remade. It treats marriage systems as a basis for understanding how not only families, but whole societies operate. The functioning of a marriage system is perceived to be fully related to the overall economic and political situation within which families and individuals must make their way. The overall situation is looked at in a historical context, reflecting a condition of constant change. Quale traces the gradual modifications in patterns through the rise of agriculture and herding into commercial-urban societies and on to contemporary industrial-commercial life, comparing lines of development in the major regions of the world.

Marriage and Modernity

Marriage and Modernity
Author: Rochona Majumdar
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2009-04-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0822390809

An innovative cultural history of the evolution of modern marriage practices in Bengal, Marriage and Modernity challenges the assumption that arranged marriage is an antiquated practice. Rochona Majumdar demonstrates that in the late colonial period Bengali marriage practices underwent changes that led to a valorization of the larger, intergenerational family as a revered, “ancient” social institution, with arranged marriage as the apotheosis of an “Indian” tradition. She meticulously documents the ways that these newly embraced “traditions”—the extended family and arranged marriage—entered into competition and conversation with other emerging forms of kinship such as the modern unit of the couple, with both models participating promiscuously in the new “marketplace” for marriages, where matrimonial advertisements in the print media and the payment of dowry played central roles. Majumdar argues that together the kinship structures newly asserted as distinctively Indian and the emergence of the marriage market constituted what was and still is modern about marriages in India. Majumdar examines three broad developments related to the modernity of arranged marriage: the growth of a marriage market, concomitant debates about consumption and vulgarity in the conduct of weddings, and the legal regulation of family property and marriages. Drawing on matrimonial advertisements, wedding invitations, poems, photographs, legal debates, and a vast periodical literature, she shows that the modernization of families does not necessarily imply a transition from extended kinship to nuclear family structures, or from matrimonial agreements negotiated between families to marriage contracts between individuals. Colonial Bengal tells a very different story.

A Cultural History of Marriage in the Age of Empires

A Cultural History of Marriage in the Age of Empires
Author: Paul Puschmann
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2021-11-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350179744

During the age of empires (1800–1900), marriage was a key transition in the life course worldwide, a rite of passage everywhere with major cultural significance. This volume presents an overview of the period with essays on Courtship and Ritual; Religion, State and Law; Kinship and Social Networks; the Family Economy; Love and Sex; the Breaking of Vows; and Representations of Marriage. Using this framework, this volume explores global trends in marriage. In nineteenth-century Western Europe, marriage was increasingly regarded as the only way to reach happiness and self-fulfilment. In the United States former slaves obtained the right to marry, leading to a convergence in marriage patterns between the black and white populations. In Latin America, marriage remained less common, but marriage rates were nevertheless on the rise. In African and Asian societies, European colonial powers tried to change indigenous marriage customs like polygamy and arranged marriages, but had limited success. Across the globe, in a time of turbulent political and economic change, marriage and the family remained crucial institutions, the linchpins of society that they had been for centuries.

A Cultural History of Marriage in the Medieval Age

A Cultural History of Marriage in the Medieval Age
Author: Joanne M. Ferraro
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2021-11-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350001821

Marriage in Europe became a central pillar of society during the medieval period. Theologians, lawyers, and secular and church leaders agreed on a unique outline of the institution and its legal framework, the essential features of which remained in force until the 1980s. The medieval Western European definition of marriage was unique: before the legal consequences of marriage came into being, the parties had to promise to engage in sexual union only with one partner and to remain in the marriage until one of the parties died. This requirement had profound implications for inheritance rules and for the organization of the family economy; it was explained and justified in a multitude of theological discussions and legal decisions across all faiths on the European continent. Normative texts, built on the foundations of the scriptures of several religious traditions, provided an impressive intellectual framework around marriage. In addition, developments in iconography, including sculpture and painting, projected the dominant model of marriage, while social, demographic and cultural changes encouraged its adoption. This volume traces the medieval discussion of marriage in practice, law, theology and iconography. It provides an examination of the wider political and economic context of marriage and offers an overview of the ebb and flow of society's ideas about how expressions of human sexuality fit within the confines of a clearly defined social structure and ideology. A Cultural History of Marriage in the Medieval Age presents an overview of the period with essays on Courtship and Ritual; Religion, State and Law; Kinship and Social Networks; the Family Economy; Love and Sex; the Breaking of Vows; and Representations of Marriage.

A Cultural History of Marriage in the Modern Age

A Cultural History of Marriage in the Modern Age
Author: Christina Simmons
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2021-11-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350179787

Spanning cultures across the 20th century, this volume explores how marriage, especially in the West, was disestablished as the primary institution organizing social life. In the developing world, the economic, social, and legal foundations of traditional marriage are stronger but also weakening. Marriage changed because an industrial wage economy reduced familial patriarchal control of youth and women and spurred demands and possibilities for greater autonomy and choice in love. After the Second World War, when more married women pursued education and employment, and gays and lesbians gained visibility, feminism and gay liberation also challenged patriarchal and restrictive gender roles and helped to reshape marriage. In 1920 most people married for life; in the twenty-first century fewer marry, and serial monogamy prevails. Marriage is more diverse and flexible in form but also more fragile and optional than it once was. Over the century control of courtship shifted from parents to youth, and friends, as opposed to kin, became more important in sustaining marriages. Dual-wage-earner families replaced the male breadwinner. Social and political liberalism assailed conservative laws and religious regimes, expanding access to divorce and birth control. Although norms of masculinity and femininity retain huge power in most cultures, visions of more egalitarian and romantic love as the basis of marriage have gained traction-made appealing by the global spread of capitalist social relations and also broadcast by culture industries in the developed world. The legalization of same-sex marriage-in over twenty-five nations by 2020-epitomizes a century of change toward a less gender-defined ideal that includes a continued desire for social recognition and permanence. A Cultural History of Marriage in the Modern Age presents an overview of the period with essays on Courtship and Ritual; Religion, State and Law; Kinship and Social Networks; the Family Economy; Love and Sex; the Breaking of Vows; and Representations of Marriage.

A Cultural History of Marriage in the Age of Enlightenment

A Cultural History of Marriage in the Age of Enlightenment
Author: Edward Behrend-Martínez
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2021-11-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350103209

Could an institution as sacred and traditional as marriage undergo a revolution? Some people living during the so-called Age of Enlightenment thought so. By marrying for that selfish, personal emotion of love rather than to serve religious or family interests, to serve political demands or the demands of the pocketbook, a few but growing number of people revolutionized matrimony around the end of the eighteenth century. Marriage went from being a sacred state, instituted by the Church and involving everyone to – for a few intrepid people – a secular contract, a deal struck between two individuals based entirely on their mutual love and affection. Few would claim today that love is not the cornerstone of modern marriage. The easiest argument in favor of any marriage today, no matter how star-crossed the individuals, is that the couple is deeply and hopelessly in love with one another. But that was not always so clear. Before the eighteenth century very few couples united simply because they shared a mutual attraction and affection for one another. Yet only a century later most people would come to believe that mutual love and even attraction were necessary for any marriage to succeed. A Cultural History of Marriage in the Age of Enlightenment explores the ways that new ideas, cultural ideals, and economic changes, big and small, reshaped matrimony into the institution that it is today, allowing love to become the ultimate essential ingredient for modern marriages. A Cultural History of Marriage in the Age of Enlightenment presents an overview of the period with essays on Courtship and Ritual; Religion, State and Law; Kinship and Social Networks; the Family Economy; Love and Sex; the Breaking of Vows; and Representations of Marriage.

A Cultural History of Marriage in the Medieval Age

A Cultural History of Marriage in the Medieval Age
Author: Joanne M. Ferraro
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2021-11-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350179728

Marriage in Europe became a central pillar of society during the medieval period. Theologians, lawyers, and secular and church leaders agreed on a unique outline of the institution and its legal framework, the essential features of which remained in force until the 1980s. The medieval Western European definition of marriage was unique: before the legal consequences of marriage came into being, the parties had to promise to engage in sexual union only with one partner and to remain in the marriage until one of the parties died. This requirement had profound implications for inheritance rules and for the organization of the family economy; it was explained and justified in a multitude of theological discussions and legal decisions across all faiths on the European continent. Normative texts, built on the foundations of the scriptures of several religious traditions, provided an impressive intellectual framework around marriage. In addition, developments in iconography, including sculpture and painting, projected the dominant model of marriage, while social, demographic and cultural changes encouraged its adoption. This volume traces the medieval discussion of marriage in practice, law, theology and iconography. It provides an examination of the wider political and economic context of marriage and offers an overview of the ebb and flow of society's ideas about how expressions of human sexuality fit within the confines of a clearly defined social structure and ideology. A Cultural History of Marriage in the Medieval Age presents an overview of the period with essays on Courtship and Ritual; Religion, State and Law; Kinship and Social Networks; the Family Economy; Love and Sex; the Breaking of Vows; and Representations of Marriage.