Marriage and Family

Sociology

Marriage and Family

Beth Suter

03/02/2015

Dr. Scott

        Marriage and family differ from one culture to another around the world. Throughout the different cultures family comes in a variety of forms; polygyny; having more than one husband, polyandry; more than one wife, having children after marriage, or even having a child before marriage. Due to this, it leads to family being defined in a broad definition. According to Henslin, J. 2012, family is two or more people who consider themselves to be related either by blood, marriage, or adoption. Family can be classified as nuclear when it consists of the husband, wife, and child, and extended when you include the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins (Henslin 2012).

        Marriage as well is difficult to define, what once seemed like the way it should be is now a distant understanding. Marriage now can consist of man and woman, woman and woman, or man and man. Even though this seems like a new concept, some Native American tribes allowed same sex marriage back as far as the late 1400’s (Henslin 2012). Even sex does not define marriage, the Nayar culture do not allow sex after marriage (La Barre, 1954). There are even cultures that marriage can happen after death if it did not occur before. With all the different constitutions of marriage it can be defined as “a groups approved mating arrangement, usually marked by a ritual of some sort” (Henslin 2012).

        Even though there are many differences in terms of marriage and family there are common cultural themes. Whether it be the way a mate is selected through or what determines the relation within a family based on the norms of a group. This also applies to the inheritance within a family decided by a cultural group’s idea of justice and logic (Henslin 2012). When it comes to the authority within a family you see the same general concept, patriarch within families meaning men as a whole dominate women as a whole. Another thing shared through each group is the lack of matriarch within families, this is where women dominate men. However, there is more and more families in current times that are seen as egalitarian; where authority is more or less equally divided between people or groups (Henslin 2012).

        In society today marriage and family is generated in many ways ranging from a cultures tradition where husbands are still chosen by the woman’s parents to the aid of social media, where you marry a person chosen by a profile you read on the internet. While these are both two very different and controversial ways to begin a marriage and family they both face a risk a loveless life. Cultures that chose mates for their children are also bound by not being able to leave the marriage if they are not happy. In this society it is more important for one not to shame their family than to have eternal happiness and healthy child rearing lives. In current times, where media can do it all, you are able to find the match of your dreams and using the internet to find out anything you need to know about a person to make sure they are “the one”. In the end if you’re not happy you can file for a divorce and move on.