Marriage IGCSE Global Perspectives

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that create kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged by a variety of ways, depending on the culture or demographic.

Such a union may also be called matrimony, while the ceremony that marks its beginning is usually called a wedding and the marital structure created is know as wedlock. People marry for many reasons, most often including one or more of the following: legal, social, emotional, economical, spiritual, and religious. These might include arranged marriages, family obligations, the legal establishment of a nuclear family unit, the legal protection of children and public declaration of love.

Group marriage Group marriage is a form of polyamory in which more than one man and more than one woman form a family unit, with all the members of the group marriage being considered to be married to all the other members of the group marriage, and all members of the marriage share parental responsibility for any children arising from the marriage.

Polygamy A form of marriage in which an individual can have several husbands or wives simultaneously. Polygamy exists in two specific forms, including polygyny and polyandry. Historically, both practices have been found, but polygyny is by far most common.

Polygyny A form of polygamy in which a husband can have several wives at the same time. Polygyny has been practiced in many cultures throughout history. It was accepted in ancient Hebrew society, in classical China, and in many traditional African and Polynesian cultures. In India it was practiced during ancient times; but today, it is largely illegal. It was accepted in ancient Greece, until the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church when having one wife, but multiple lovers became the norm. It was accepted in Sub-Saharan Africa for most of the past two millennia.

Wives in a polygynous marriage Polygamous marriages are not recognized in approximately 20% of modern societies. One modern viewpoint is that polygamy degrades women, treating them as property and slaves. This may be due to the asymmetric reproductive ability between men and women, wherein men are physically capable of producing many more offspring than women, thus making men more valuable in terms of reproductive ability. The inferior position that women experienced in polygynous societies is not acceptable by modern Western standards.

Polyandry A form of polygamy in which a woman can have several husbands at the same time. Polyandry in human relationships occurs or has occurred in Tibet, the Canadian Arctic, northern parts of Nepal, Bhutan, parts of India, the Nymba, and Sri Lanka, and is known to have been present in some pre-contact Polynesian societies, though probably only among higher caste women. It is also encountered in some regions of Mongolia, among the Mosuo people in China, and in some Sub-Saharan African such as the Maasai people in Kenya and northern Tanzania and American indigenous communities.

Fraternal polyandry Fraternal polyandry is a form of polyandry in which two or more brothers share one wife or more. Fraternal polyandry is found in certain areas of Tibet and Nepal, where polyandry is accepted as a social practice. The Toda people of southern India practice fraternal polyandry, but monogamy has become prevalent recently.

Monogamy A form of marriage in which one woman and one man are married only to each other. Monogamy is the state of having only one sexual partner at any one time.

Serial monogamy A form of marriage in which a person can have several spouses in his or her lifetime but only one spouse at a time. Serial monogamy is characterized by a series of long- or short-term, exclusive sexual relationships entered into consecutively over the lifespan.

Value of monogamy People disagree strongly about the value of monogamy and monogamy has been criticized and supported. Two common criticisms of monogamy are that socially monogamous marriage oppresses women and that lifelong sexual monogamy is unnatural and unrealistic. Supporters of monogamy have argued that a society that supports monogamous marriage can promote women's equality and that sexual monogamy facilitates intimate and lasting relationships.