TRADITIONAL VS NONTRADITIONAL MARRIAGE SYSTEMS

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TRADITIONAL V/S NON-TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE SYSTEMS

• HELSINKI 2008

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Article 16, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Men and women of full age, without any
  limitation due to race, nationality or religion,
  have the right to marry and to found a family.
  They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage,
  during marriage and at its dissolution. Marriage
  shall be entered into only with the free and full
  consent of the intending spouses.
• The Cairo Declaration of human Rights in Islam
  gives men and women the right to marriage
  regardless of their race, colour or nationality,
  but not religion.

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MARRIAGE

• Marriage is a personal union of individuals, an
  institution in which interpersonal relationships
  are acknowledged by the state and/or by religious
  authority.
• Marriage is often view as a contract (marriage
  contracts).
• Marriage changes personal and social status of
  the individuals who enter into it.
• Reasons for marriage - legal, social and
  economic stability
• Formation of a family unit (family viewed as
  greatest value)
• Procreation
• Legitimizing sexual relationship
• Public declaration of love
• Obtaining citizenship, or some material benefits

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TYPES OF MARRIAGES

• Monogamous heterosexual marriage a union
  between one man and one woman
• - Polygamous marriage a husband has several
  wives
• - Polyandrous marriage a wife has several
  husbands
• - Group marriage very rare type, typical for
  some African tribes, a group of men is married to
  a group of women
• - Same-sex marriages a union between same
  sex-couple

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ARRANGED MARRIAGES

• Typically an arranged (or pragmatic) marriage can
  be finalized only with the approval of the
  couple, though parents sometimes enforce arranged
  marriages on their children because of cultural
  tradition or for some other reasons, for ex.
  dowry or political reasons.
• Arranged marriages are still common in some
  countries, such as India, but now they are rare
  in the Western countries. In rural Indian
  villages child marriage is also practiced , with
  parents at times arranging the wedding, sometimes
  even before the child is born. This practice is
  now declared illegal under the Child Marriage
  Restraint Act.

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RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS RESULTING FROM THE
MARRIAGE ACT

• Giving a husband/wife or his/her family control
  over a spouses property and sometimes labor
• Giving a husband/wife responsibility for a
  spouses debts
• Giving a husband/wife control over his/her
  spouses affairs when the spouse is
  incapacitated
• Giving a husband/wife visitation rights when
  his/her spouse is incarcerated or hospitalized
  the right to take decisions
• Establishing the second legal guardian of a
  parents child
• Establishing a joint fund of property for the
  benefit of children
• Establishing a relationship between the families
  of the spouses.

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SOME HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT EUROPEAN MARRIAGES

• In the early Christian era marriage was thought
  of as a private matter, with no religious or
  other ceremonies being required. Prior to 1545,
  Christian marriages in Europe were by mutual
  consent, declaration of intention to marry. The
  couple would promise verbally to each other that
  they would be married to each other and no
  priests or witnesses have been required. This
  promise is known as verbum.
• If made in the present tense I marry you, it
  is unquestionably considered as starting the
  marriage from that same moment.
• If made in the future tense I will marry you,
  it is considered a betrothal. But if the couple
  proceeded to have sexual relations, it was
  considered a marriage.
• One of the functions of the Medieval Church was
  to register marriages, but this has not been
  obligatory. There was no State involvement in
  marriage and personal status.

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• A Medieval wedding ceremony (woodcut, Germany)

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• A Shinto married couple

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• A Ketubah in Arameic language, a Jewish Marriage
  Contract outlining the duties of each partner

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• An arranged marriage between Louis XIV of France
  and Maria Teresa of Spain

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• A Jewish wedding ceremony (1903)

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• A Hindy marriage ceremony

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• A Muslim Wedding in India

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Non-traditional marriages

• Same-Sex Marriages in the Modern West
• Parallel to the increased scrutiny sexual
  practices, more and more people attracted to
  those of their own sex formed underground
  communities, mostly in the urban areas. By the
  early 18 c. such subcultures existed in London
  and Paris, Amsterdam and major Dutch cities,
  Veniceand Florence, and most major Italian
  cities. In the USA such subcultures existed in
  New York, Chicago, San Francisko, Washington DC,
  before the World War I.
• On occasion same-sex couples were legally
  married.
• The structure of these marriages strictly
  followed the one of heterosexual marriages. In
  fact, whether a religious officer is present or
  not, the partners usualyy vow devotion to each
  other, wedding rings are exchanged, the bridal
  march is played, and the guests follow the
  patterns of heterosexual marriages.

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Boston Marriages

• The female same-sex relationship proliferated in
  the 19-th century as expanded economic
  opportunities gave some women greater freedom to
  marry or not and to fashion their own personal
  relationships. This era came up with a name of a
  long-term monogamous relationship between two
  otherwise unmarried women a Boston marriage.
  This relationships were so called because they
  were similar to the lives of a female couple in
  Henry Jamess novel (1885), The Bostonians.
• Boston marriages were popular among
  well-educated, professional women.

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• Less is known about same-sex unions in China. The
  first well-documented unions were those
  associated with the marriage-resistance
  movement in Southern China in the 19 c. and
  early 20 c.
• The development of Chinas international silk
  industry during this period helped many women to
  attain their economic independence from men.
  After acquiring this new freedom, thousands of
  women renounced marriage and became sou hei,
  women who took formal ceremonial vow not to
  marry. These women formed sisterhoods in which
  small groups of women (five to seven) would bond
  together for mutual support.
• Some scholars report that sisterhoods
  relationships shared many attributes of marriage,
  including a ceremony with witnesses and a
  division of labor within the family unit.

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Same-sex unions in non-western cultures

• They have typically served companionate, economic
  or cultural functions.The unions serve important
  functions for the partners economic,
  professional or social in nature. The unions may
  be temporary and are not necessary legal
  marriages, though they involve usually
  marriage-like features and even terminology.
• Military Wives. The most common functional
  same-sex union in history involves pair bonding
  in military settings. In these unions
  relationship is more similar to the ancient Greek
  model of erastes-eromenos relations.
• This is the case with the samurai warriors of
  feudal and Tokagawa Japan, who went to battle
  accompanied by apprentice warrior-lovers. A in
  marriage, sex was only one element of this
  relationship. The samurai was supposed to provide
  social backing, emotional support, and model of
  manliness for the apprentice. In exchange, the
  latter was expected to be worthy of his lover by
  being a good student of samurai manhood.

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• The warrior tradition of the samurai can be
  illustrated in African cultures even more
  vividly. Anthropologists documented the
  institution of boy-wives for military men among
  the tribes of Azande in wat is now Sudan. The
  Azande considered this relationship a marriage
  both legally and culturally. The warrior paid
  bride-price to the parents of the boy and
  performed services for them as he would have done
  had he married their daughter. If he proved to be
  a good son-in-law they might later replace the
  son by a daughter.
• If another man had relations with that boy, the
  husband may sue him at court for adultery. The
  warrior addressed the boy as diare (wife), and
  the boy addressed the warrior as kumbami
  (husband). The boy also performed housekeeping
  duties.

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• Travelling wives. Boys in female cloths often
  formed part of rich mens harems in Afganistan,
  at least as late as 19 c. Anthropologists
  describe them
• The Afghans are commercial travelers on a large
  scale and each caravan is accompanied by a number
  of boys and lads in womans attire, with rouged
  cheeks, long tresses and hennaed fingers and
  toes, riding luxuriously in camel-panniers. They
  are called travelling wives and the husbands
  trudge patiently by their sides.