Marriage

The essay is a response to this following text: Marriage is a cultural universal. Remember that a cultural universal is something that all human cultures do. Why is marriage so important to humans? Marriage is a key social institution that helps regulate individual behavior, sexuality, reproduction, allocation of wealth and resources, and inheritance of property; yet, it is also full of romantic ideals in some societies. As Westerners, we may think that marriage is mostly about finding the perfect “soul mate” and celebrating romantic love. However, marriage is about far more than the expression of undying romantic love. Marriage in some cultures is about the union of families rather than the union of two individuals. In some countries, marriages are arranged or approved by the entire family in order to secure the social or financial status of the family. As a result, divorce rates are quite low because the entire family is invested in the union. However, marriage is changing in our society and in societies across the globe. In our own society, people are marrying later, and many are not marrying at all or are choosing to have children outside of marriage. In many societies, marriage is also about money and who will inherit it. In addition, marriage is key to tracing one’s “lineage,” an anthropology term for something similar to a family tree. In this module, you will review many kinds of marriage, examine the many different forms of marriage developed by humans, and better understand the benefits of each form based on their cultural context.