Marriage

Commonality and Diversity in Definition

In working toward a definition of marriage, scholars agree that no one definition of marriage applies to all cultures. Most definitions of marriage involve some outlining of rights associated with both sexual monopoly and rights with respect to children-although there are those who criticize marriage defined in this way because there are cultures that do not require marriage to legitimate children. In addition, the specifics of these rights vary across cultures. Anthropologists and other scholars have also noted that marriage is known in almost every society as a fundamental economic, social and cultural institution. Most people around the world expect to marry regardless of the particular cultural context, social class, country of origin, ethnic group, or religious background from which they come.

Nearly 45 years ago, E. E. Evans-Pritchard posited that in simple societies, there was no such thing as an unmarried woman; companionship was weak and women had little choice in whether they would or would not marry. In this view, marriage is a universal, or nearly universal, social institution.

In addition to the universality of marriage in simple societies, Evans-Pritchard also noted that the concept of romantic love was nonexistent; and women could not choose a career instead of marriage. During the same period, Meyer Fortes proclaimed that the topic of marriage had been exhausted in anthropological thought, given the breadth of kinship studies. His declaration that so much was known about the customs and institutions of marriage in all human societies, and his subsequent conclusion that it was unlikely that anything new on the subject of marriage could be added, failed to account for the ongoing impact of social change.

The Re-Examination of Marriage

The prevalence, or universality, of marriage around the world, however, masks its heterogeneity, the historical changes the institution has undergone in local contexts, and the shifts and variations in social roles and statuses of people both within, and outside, of marriage. The re-examination of marriage continues to reveal that marriage is more diverse and more fluid than previously implied. For the past two decades, scholars have examined how the encounter between local and translocal/global cultural currents reshapes social practices and cultural configurations; this is particularly evident in the realm of marital relationships and practices.

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