Types of marriage
Monogamy - a form of marriage in which an individual has only one spouse during their lifetime or at any one time (serial monogamy).
- a strong correlation between intensive plough agriculture, dowry and monogamy
Serial monogamy - governments that support monogamy, may allow divorce.
- in a number of Western countries divorce rates approach 50% and those who remarry do so on average 3 times
- divorce and remarriage can thus result in "serial monogamy", i.e. multiple marriages but only one legal spouse at a time
Polygamy - a marriage which includes more than two partners
- when a man is married to more than one wife at a time, the relationship is called polygyny, and there is no marriage bond between the wives; and when a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, it is called polyandry, and there is no marriage bond between the husbands.
- a molecular genetic study of global human genetic diversity argued that sexual polygyny was typical of human reproductive patterns until the shift to sedentary farming communities approximately 10,000 to 5,000 years ago in Europe and Asia, and more recently in Africa and the Americas
- the majority of Sub-Saharan African societies that practice extensive hoe agriculture show a correlation between "Bride price," and polygamy
- a survey of other cross-cultural samples has confirmed that the absence of the plough was the only predictor of polygamy, although other factors such as high male mortality in warfare (in non-state societies) and pathogen stress (in state societies) had some impact.
- marriages are classified according to the number of legal spouses an individual has where the suffix "-gamy" refers specifically to the number of spouses, as in bi-gamy (two spouses, generally illegal in most nations), and poly-gamy (more than one spouse).
- of 1,231 societies noted in the Ethnographic Atlas, 186 were monogamous; 453 had occasional polygyny; 588 had more frequent polygyny; and 4 had polyandry
- social tolerance for polygamy is different from the practice of polygamy, since it requires wealth to establish multiple households for multiple wives
Polygyny – given the imbalance in the sex ratios, the higher male infant mortality, the shorter life span of males, the loss of males in wartime, etc., women were left without financial support from husbands
- to correct this condition, females had to be killed at birth, remain single, become prostitutes, or be siphoned off into celibate religious orders
- polygynous systems have the advantage that they can promise, as did the Mormons, a home and family for every woman."
-l studies have suggested that the wive's relationship with other women, including co-wives and husband's female kin, are more critical relationships than that with her husband for her productive, reproductive and personal achievement
- in some societies, the co-wives are relatives, usually sisters, a practice called sororal polygyny; the pre-existing relationship between the co-wives is thought to decrease potential tensions within the marriage.[26]
- de facto form of polygyny is found in other parts of the world as well (including some Mormon sects and Muslim families in the United States),
- with the Lovedu of South Africa, or the Nuer of the Sudan an aristocratic women may become female 'husbands' by taking a number of polygamous wives
- these are not lesbian relationships, but a means of legitimately expanding a royal lineage by attaching these wives' children to it
- the relationships are considered polygynous, not polyandrous, because the female husband is in fact assuming masculine gendered political roles
- polygyny is allowed in Islam and Confucianism
- Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism have allowed polygyny in the past, but it is prohibited today
Polyandry - a female with multiple male husbands
- most commonly practiced by 28 societies in the Himalayan Mountains
- most common in egalitarian societies marked by high male mortality or male absenteeism
- associated with partible paternity, the cultural belief that a child can have more than one father
- related to the scarcity of land; the marriage of all brothers in a family to the same wife (fraternal polyandry) allows family land to remain intact and undivided
- if every brother married separately and had children, family land would be split into unsustainable small plots
- in Europe, this was prevented through the social practice of impartible inheritance (the dis-inheriting of the younger siblings, some of whom went on to become celibate monks and priests)
Plural marriages - group marriage (also known as multi-lateral marriage) is a form of polyamory in which more than two persons 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.
- historically it has been practiced by some cultures of Polynesia, Asia, Papua New Guinea and the Americas – as well as in some intentional communities and alternative subcultures such as the Oneida Perfectionists in up-state New York
Child marriages - child marriage is a marriage where one or both spouses are under the age of 18
- child marriages are often arranged between the families of the future bride and groom, sometimes as soon as the girl is born
- child marriage was common throughout history but is today condemned by international human rights organizations ]
- causes of child marriage include poverty, bride price, dowry, laws that allow child marriages, religious and social pressures, regional customs, fear of remaining unmarried, and perceived inability of women to work for money.
- most common in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with more than half of the girls in some countries in those regions being married before 18
Same-sex and third gender marriages - some cultures include third gender (two-spirited or transgendered) individuals, such as the berdache of the Zuni in New Mexico
- We'wha, one of the most revered Zuni elders (an Ihamana, spiritual leader) served as an emissary of the Zuni to Washington, where he met President Grover Cleveland
Temporary marriages - several cultures have practiced temporary and conditional marriages
- examples include the Celtic practice of handfasting and fixed-term marriages in the Muslim community
- pre-Islamic Arabs practiced a form of temporary marriage that carries on today in the practice of Nikah Mut'ah, a fixed-term marriage contract
- the Islamic prophet Muhammad sanctioned a temporary marriage – sigheh in Iran and muta'a in Iraq – which can provide a legitimizing cover for sex workers The same forms of temporary marriage have been used in Egypt, Lebanon and Iran
- Muslim controversies related to Nikah Mut'ah have resulted in the practice being confined mostly to Shi'ite communities
- the matrilineal Mosuo of China practice what they call "walking marriage"
- "walking marriages reflect sweeping changes in Chinese society" and refers to a type of temporary marriage in which male partners live elsewhere and make nightly visits
- a similar arrangement in Saudi Arabia, called misyar marriage, also involves the husband and wife living separately but meeting regularly
Cohabitation - in some jurisdictions cohabitation, in certain circumstances, may constitute a common-law marriage, an unregistered partnership, or otherwise provide the unmarried partners with various rights and responsibilities; and in some countries the laws recognize cohabitation in lieu of institutional marriage for taxation and social security benefits
- cohabitation may be an option pursued as a form of resistance to traditional institutionalized marriage
- some nations reserve the right to define the relationship as marital, or otherwise to regulate the relation, even if the relation has not been registered with the state or a religious institution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage
