bridewealth zeitzen postmarital koktvedgaard polygyny somerford ketubah westermarck matrilocal polyandry polygynous brideprice monogamy nuer mosuo cohabitation gamy polygamy matrimony exogamy patrilocal polygamous wedlock stoning nikah polyandrous dowry concubinage alimony dower
when did western nations develop the idea that marriage should be based on love and last a lifetime
Marriage - wikipedia Marriage Jump to : navigation , search For other uses , see Marriage ( disambiguation ) . An automated process has detected links on this page on the local or global blacklist . If the links are appropriate you may request whitelisting by following these instructions ; otherwise consider removing or replacing them with more appropriate links . ( To hide this tag , set the `` invisible '' field to `` true '' ) List of blacklisted links : ( show ) https://web.archive.org/web/20090227154653/http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/objectID/709FAEE4-ABEA-4E17-BA34836388313A3C/118/304/192/FAQ/ Triggered by \ bnolo \. com \ b on the local blacklist `` Married '' and `` Matrimony '' redirect here . For other uses , see Married ( disambiguation ) and Matrimony ( disambiguation ) . A pair of wedding rings Part of a series on the Anthropology of kinship Basic concepts ( hide ) Affinity Consanguinity Marriage Incest taboo Endogamy Exogamy Moiety Monogamy Polygyny Polygamy Concubinage Polyandry Bride price Bride service Dowry Parallel / cross cousins Cousin marriage Levirate Ghost marriage Joking relationship Family Lineage Clan Cohabitation Fictive / Milk / Nurture kinship Descent Cognatic / Bilateral Matrilateral House society Avunculate Linealities Ambilineality Unilineality Matrilineality Patrilineality Household forms and residence Extended Matrifocal Matrilocal Nuclear Patrilocal Terminology ( show ) Kinship terminology Classificatory terminologies By group Iroquois Crow Omaha Eskimo Hawaiian Sudanese Dravidian Case studies ( show ) Australian Aboriginal Burmese Chinese Philippine Polyandry in Tibet / in India Feminist Chambri Mosuo Sexuality Coming of Age in Samoa Major theorists ( show ) Diane Bell Tom Boellstorff Jack Goody Gilbert Herdt Don Kulick Roger Lancaster Louise Lamphere Eleanor Leacock Claude Lévi - Strauss Bronisław Malinowski Margaret Mead Henrietta Moore Lewis H. Morgan Stephen O. Murray Michelle Rosaldo David M. Schneider Marilyn Strathern Related articles ( show ) Alliance theory Matrilineal / matrilocal societies Feminist anthropology Sex and Repression in Savage Society Social Bonding and Nurture Kinship Social anthropology Cultural anthropology Relationships Types ( hide ) Genetic Kinship Family Sibling Cousin By marriage Husband Wife Open marriage Polyandry Polygamy Polygyny Partner Partners Significant other Boyfriend Girlfriend Cohabitation Same - sex Life partner Friendship ( romantic ) Sexual Casual Monogamy Non-monogamy Mutual monogamy Polyamory Polyfidelity Cicisbeo Concubinage Courtesan Mistress Activities ( show ) Bonding Courtship Dating Engagement Mating Meet market Romance Singles event Wedding Endings ( show ) Breakup Separation Annulment Divorce Widowhood Emotions and feelings ( show ) Affinity Attachment Intimacy Jealousy Limerence Love Platonic unconditional Passion Sexuality Practices ( show ) Bride price dower dowry service Hypergamy Infidelity Sexual activity Transgression Repression Abuse ( show ) Child Dating Disengaging from an abuser Domestic Elderly Narcissistic parent Power and control Swedish royal wedding clothes from 1766 at Livrustkammaren in Stockholm Marriage , also called matrimony or wedlock , is a socially or ritually recognised union between spouses that establishes rights and obligations between those spouses , as well as between them and any resulting biological or adopted children and affinity ( in - laws and other family through marriage ) . The definition of marriage varies around the world not only between cultures and between religions , but also throughout the history of any given culture and religion , evolving to both expand and constrict in who and what is encompassed , but typically it is principally an institution in which interpersonal relationships , usually sexual , are acknowledged or sanctioned . In some cultures , marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity . When defined broadly , marriage is considered a cultural universal . A marriage ceremony is known as a wedding . Nepali wedding Individuals may marry for several reasons , including legal , social , libidinal , emotional , financial , spiritual , and religious purposes . Whom they marry may be influenced by socially determined rules of incest , prescriptive marriage rules , parental choice and individual desire . In some areas of the world , arranged marriage , child marriage , polygamy , and sometimes forced marriage , may be practiced as a cultural tradition . Conversely , such practices may be outlawed and penalized in parts of the world out of concerns of the infringement of women 's rights , or the infringement of children 's rights ( both female and male children ) , and because of international law . In developed parts of the world , there has been a general trend towards ensuring equal rights within marriage for women and legally recognizing the marriages of interfaith , interracial , and same - sex couples . These trends coincide with the broader human rights movement . Marriage can be recognized by a state , an organization , a religious authority , a tribal group , a local community , or peers . It is often viewed as a contract . When a marriage is performed and carried out by a government institution in accordance with the marriage laws of the jurisdiction , without religious content , it is a civil marriage . Civil marriage recognizes and creates the rights and obligations intrinsic to matrimony before the state . When a marriage is performed with religious content under the auspices of a religious institution it is a religious marriage . Religious marriage recognizes and creates the rights and obligations intrinsic to matrimony before that religion . Religious marriage is known variously as sacramental marriage in Catholicism , nikah in Islam , nissuin in Judaism , and various other names in other faith traditions , each with their own constraints as to what constitutes , and who can enter into , a valid religious marriage . Some countries do not recognize locally performed religious marriage on its own , and require a separate civil marriage for official purposes . Conversely , civil marriage does not exist in some countries governed by a religious legal system , such as Saudi Arabia , where marriages contracted abroad might not be recognized if they were contracted contrary to Saudi interpretations of Islamic religious law . In countries governed by a mixed secular - religious legal system , such as in Lebanon and Israel , locally performed civil marriage also does not exist within the country , preventing interfaith and various other marriages contradicting religious laws from being entered into in the country , however , civil marriages performed abroad are recognized by the state even if they conflict with religious laws ( in the case of recognition of marriage in Israel , this includes recognition of not only interfaith civil marriages performed abroad , but also overseas same - sex civil marriages ) . The act of marriage usually creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved , and any offspring they may produce or adopt . In terms of legal recognition , most sovereign states and other jurisdictions limit marriage to opposite - sex couples and a diminishing number of these permit polygyny , child marriages , and forced marriages . Over the twentieth century , a growing number of countries and other jurisdictions have lifted bans on and have established legal recognition for interracial marriage , interfaith marriage , and most recently , gender - neutral marriage . Some cultures allow the dissolution of marriage through divorce or annulment . In some areas , child marriages and polygamy may occur in spite of national laws against the practice . Since the late twentieth century , major social changes in Western countries have led to changes in the demographics of marriage , with the age of first marriage increasing , fewer people marrying , and more couples choosing to cohabit rather than marry . For example , the number of marriages in Europe decreased by 30 % from 1975 to 2005 . Historically , in most cultures , married women had very few rights of their own , being considered , along with the family 's children , the property of the husband ; as such , they could not own or inherit property , or represent themselves legally ( see for example coverture ) . In Europe , the United States , and other places in the developed world , beginning in the late 19th century and lasting through the 21st century , marriage has undergone gradual legal changes , aimed at improving the rights of the wife . These changes included giving wives legal identities of their own , abolishing the right of husbands to physically discipline their wives , giving wives property rights , liberalizing divorce laws , providing wives with reproductive rights of their own , and requiring a wife 's consent when sexual relations occur . These changes have occurred primarily in Western countries . In the 21st century , there continue to be controversies regarding the legal status of married women , legal acceptance of or leniency towards violence within marriage ( especially sexual violence ) , traditional marriage customs such as dowry and bride price , forced marriage , marriageable age , and criminalization of consensual behaviors such as premarital and extramarital sex . Contents ( hide ) 1 Etymology 2 Definitions 2.1 Relation recognized by custom or law 2.2 Legitimacy of offspring 2.3 Collection of rights 2.4 Right of sexual access 3 Types of marriage 3.1 Monogamy 3.1. 1 Serial monogamy 3.2 Polygamy 3.2. 1 Polygyny 3.2. 2 Polyandry 3.2. 3 Plural marriage 3.3 Child marriage 3.4 Same - sex and third - gender marriages 3.5 Temporary marriages 3.6 Cohabitation 4 Partner selection 4.1 Social status 4.2 The incest taboo , exogamy and endogamy 4.3 Prescriptive marriage 4.4 Forced marriage 5 Economic considerations 5.1 Dowry 5.2 Dower 5.3 Bridewealth 5.4 Taxation 6 Post-marital residence 7 Marriage law 7.1 Rights and obligations 7.2 Property regime 7.3 Marriage restrictions 7.3. 1 Age 7.3. 2 Kinship 7.3. 3 Race 7.3. 4 Same - sex marriage recognition 7.3. 5 Number of spouses in a marriage 7.4 State recognition 7.4. 1 Marriage license , civil ceremony and registration 7.4. 2 Common - law marriage 7.4. 3 Civil unions 7.4. 4 `` Marriage of convenience '' 7.5 Contemporary legal and human rights criticisms of marriage 7.5. 1 Power and gender roles in opposite - sex marriages 7.5. 2 Sex outside of marriage 7.5. 3 Marriage and sexual violence 7.5. 4 Marriage laws , human rights and the global status of women 7.5. 5 Right and ability to divorce 7.5. 6 Dowry and bridewealth 7.5. 7 Children born outside marriage 8 Marriage and religion 8.1 Abrahamic religions 8.1. 1 Bahá'í 8.1. 2 Christianity 8.1. 2.1 Christian attitudes to same - sex marriage 8.1. 3 Islam 8.1. 4 Judaism 8.2 Hinduism 8.3 Buddhism 8.4 Sikhism 8.5 Wicca 9 Marriage and health 10 Divorce and annulment 11 History of marriage 11.1 Ancient world 11.1. 1 Ancient Near East 11.1. 2 Classical Greece and Rome 11.1. 3 Germanic tribes 11.2 Europe 11.3 China 12 See also 13 Notes 14 References 15 External links Etymology The word `` marriage '' derives from Middle English mariage , which first appears in 1250 -- 1300 CE . This in turn is derived from Old French , marier ( to marry ) , and ultimately Latin , marītāre , meaning to provide with a husband or wife and marītāri meaning to get married . The adjective marīt - us - a , - um meaning matrimonial or nuptial could also be used in the masculine form as a noun for `` husband '' and in the feminine form for `` wife '' . The related word `` matrimony '' derives from the Old French word matremoine , which appears around 1300 CE and ultimately derives from Latin mātrimōnium , which combines the two concepts : mater meaning `` mother '' and the suffix - monium signifying `` action , state , or condition '' . Definitions Anthropologists have proposed several competing definitions of marriage in an attempt to encompass the wide variety of marital practices observed across cultures . Even within Western culture , `` definitions of marriage have careened from one extreme to another and everywhere in between '' ( as Evan Gerstmann has put it ) . Relation recognized by custom or law In The History of Human Marriage ( 1922 ) , Edvard Westermarck defined marriage as `` a more or less durable connection between male and female lasting beyond the mere act of propagation till after the birth of the offspring . '' In The Future of Marriage in Western Civilization ( 1936 ) , he rejected his earlier definition , instead provisionally defining marriage as `` a relation of one or more men to one or more women that is recognized by custom or law '' . Legitimacy of offspring The anthropological handbook Notes and Queries ( 1951 ) defined marriage as `` a union between a man and a woman such that children born to the woman are the recognized legitimate offspring of both partners . '' In recognition of a practice by the Nuer people of Sudan allowing women to act as a husband in certain circumstances ( the ghost marriage ) , Kathleen Gough suggested modifying this to `` a woman and one or more other persons . '' In an analysis of marriage among the Nayar , a polyandrous society in India , Gough found that the group lacked a husband role in the conventional sense ; that unitary role in the west was divided between a non-resident `` social father '' of the woman 's children , and her lovers who were the actual procreators . None of these men had legal rights to the woman 's child . This forced Gough to disregard sexual access as a key element of marriage and to define it in terms of legitimacy of offspring alone : marriage is `` a relationship established between a woman and one or more other persons , which provides a child born to the woman under circumstances not prohibited by the rules of relationship , is accorded full birth - status rights common to normal members of his society or social stratum . '' Economic anthropologist Duran Bell has criticized the legitimacy - based definition on the basis that some societies do not require marriage for legitimacy . He argued that a legitimacy - based definition of marriage is circular in societies where illegitimacy has no other legal or social implications for a child other than the mother being unmarried . Collection of rights Edmund Leach criticized Gough 's definition for being too restrictive in terms of recognized legitimate offspring and suggested that marriage be viewed in terms of the different types of rights it serves to establish . In 1955 article in Man , Leach argued that no one definition of marriage applied to all cultures . He offered a list of ten rights associated with marriage , including sexual monopoly and rights with respect to children , with specific rights differing across cultures . Those rights , according to Leach , included : `` To establish a legal father of a woman 's children . To establish a legal mother of a man 's children . To give the husband a monopoly in the wife 's sexuality . To give the wife a monopoly in the husband 's sexuality . To give the husband partial or monopolistic rights to the wife 's domestic and other labour services . To give the wife partial or monopolistic rights to the husband 's domestic and other labour services . To give the husband partial or total control over property belonging or potentially accruing to the wife . To give the wife partial or total control over property belonging or potentially accruing to the husband . To establish a joint fund of property -- a partnership -- for the benefit of the children of the marriage . To establish a socially significant ' relationship of affinity ' between the husband and his wife 's brothers . '' Right of sexual access In a 1997 article in Current Anthropology , Duran Bell describes marriage as `` a relationship between one or more men ( male or female ) in severalty to one or more women that provides those men with a demand - right of sexual access within a domestic group and identifies women who bear the obligation of yielding to the demands of those specific men . '' In referring to `` men in severalty '' , Bell is referring to corporate kin groups such as lineages which , in having paid brideprice , retain a right in a woman 's offspring even if her husband ( a lineage member ) deceases ( Levirate marriage ) . In referring to `` men ( male or female ) '' , Bell is referring to women within the lineage who may stand in as the `` social fathers '' of the wife 's children born of other lovers . ( See Nuer `` ghost marriage '' ) Types of marriage Monogamy Ancient Sumerian depiction of the marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid Main article : Monogamy Monogamy is a form of marriage in which an individual has only one spouse during their lifetime or at any one time ( serial monogamy ) . Anthropologist Jack Goody 's comparative study of marriage around the world utilizing the Ethnographic Atlas found a strong correlation between intensive plough agriculture , dowry and monogamy . This pattern was found in a broad swath of Eurasian societies from Japan to Ireland . The majority of Sub-Saharan African societies that practice extensive hoe agriculture , in contrast , show a correlation between `` bride price '' and polygamy . A further study drawing on the Ethnographic Atlas showed a statistical correlation between increasing size of the society , the belief in `` high gods '' to support human morality , and monogamy . In the countries which do not permit polygamy , a person who marries in one of those countries a person while still being lawfully married to another commits the crime of bigamy . In all cases , the second marriage is considered legally null and void . Besides the second and subsequent marriages being void , the bigamist is also liable to other penalties , which also vary between jurisdictions . Serial monogamy Governments that support monogamy may allow easy divorce . In a number of Western countries divorce rates approach 50 % . Those who remarry do so on average three times . Divorce and remarriage can thus result in `` serial monogamy '' , i.e. having multiple marriages but only one legal spouse at a time . This can be interpreted as a form of plural mating , as are those societies dominated by female - headed families in the Caribbean , Mauritius and Brazil where there is frequent rotation of unmarried partners . In all , these account for 16 to 24 % of the `` monogamous '' category . Serial monogamy creates a new kind of relative , the `` ex - '' . The `` ex-wife '' , for example , remains an active part of her `` ex-husband's '' or `` ex-wife's '' life , as they may be tied together by transfers of resources ( alimony , child support ) , or shared child custody . Bob Simpson notes that in the British case , serial monogamy creates an `` extended family '' -- a number of households tied together in this way , including mobile children ( possible exes may include an ex-wife , an ex-brother - in - law , etc. , but not an `` ex-child '' ) . These `` unclear families '' do not fit the mould of the monogamous nuclear family . As a series of connected households , they come to resemble the polygynous model of separate households maintained by mothers with children , tied by a male to whom they are married or divorced . Polygamy Main article : Polygamy Polygamy is 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 . If a marriage includes multiple husbands and / or wives , it can be called group marriage . 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 . As noted above , Anthropologist Jack Goody 's comparative study of marriage around the world utilizing the Ethnographic Atlas found that 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 . 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 ) . Societies show variable acceptance of polygamy as a cultural ideal and practice . According to the Ethnographic Atlas , of 1,231 societies noted , 186 were monogamous ; 453 had occasional polygyny ; 588 had more frequent polygyny ; and 4 had polyandry . However , as Miriam Zeitzen writes , social tolerance for polygamy is different from the practice of polygamy , since it requires wealth to establish multiple households for multiple wives . The actual practice of polygamy in a tolerant society may actually be low , with the majority of aspirant polygamists practicing monogamous marriage . Tracking the occurrence of polygamy is further complicated in jurisdictions where it has been banned , but continues to be practiced ( de facto polygamy ) . Zeitzen also notes that Western perceptions of African society and marriage patterns are biased by `` contradictory concerns of nostalgia for traditional African culture versus critique of polygamy as oppressive to women or detrimental to development . '' Polygamy has been condemned as being a form of human rights abuse , with concerns arising over domestic abuse , forced marriage , and neglect . The vast majority of the world 's countries , including virtually all of the world 's developed nations , do not permit polygamy . There have been calls for the abolition of polygamy in developing countries . Polygyny Main article : Polygyny See also : Concubinage Polygyny usually grants wives equal status , although the husband may have personal preferences . One type of de facto polygyny is concubinage , where only one woman gets a wife 's rights and status , while other women remain legal house mistresses . Although a society may be classified as polygynous , not all marriages in it necessarily are ; monogamous marriages may in fact predominate . It is to this flexibility that Anthropologist Robin Fox attributes its success as a social support system : `` This has often meant -- 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. -- that often 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 . '' Nonetheless , polygyny is a gender issue which offers men asymmetrical benefits . In some cases , there is a large age discrepancy ( as much as a generation ) between a man and his youngest wife , compounding the power differential between the two . Tensions not only exist between genders , but also within genders ; senior and junior men compete for wives , and senior and junior wives in the same household may experience radically different life conditions , and internal hierarchy . Several 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 . Fox argues that `` the major difference between polygyny and monogamy could be stated thus : while plural mating occurs in both systems , under polygyny several unions may be recognized as being legal marriages while under monogamy only one of the unions is so recognized . Often , however , it is difficult to draw a hard and fast line between the two . '' As polygamy in Africa is increasingly subject to legal limitations , a variant form of de facto ( as opposed to legal or de jure ) polygyny is being practised in urban centres . Although it does not involve multiple ( now illegal ) formal marriages , the domestic and personal arrangements follow old polygynous patterns . The 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 ) . In some societies such as the Lovedu of South Africa , or the Nuer of the Sudan , aristocratic women may become female ' husbands . ' In the Lovedu case , this female husband may take a number of polygamous wives . This is not a lesbian relationship , 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 . Religious groups have differing views on the legitimacy of polygyny . It is allowed in Islam and Confucianism . Judaism and Christianity have mentioned practices involving polygyny in the past , however , outright religious acceptance of such practices was not addressed until its rejection in later passages . They do explicitly prohibit polygyny today . Polyandry Main articles : Polyandry , Polyandry in Tibet , and Polyandry in India Polyandry is notably more rare than polygyny , though less rare than the figure commonly cited in the Ethnographic Atlas ( 1980 ) which listed only those polyandrous societies found in the Himalayan Mountains . More recent studies have found 53 societies outside the 28 found in the Himalayans which practice polyandry . It is most common in egalitarian societies marked by high male mortality or male absenteeism . It is associated with partible paternity , the cultural belief that a child can have more than one father . The explanation for polyandry in the Himalayan Mountains is 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 most siblings , some of whom went on to become celibate monks and priests ) . Plural marriage 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 . No country legally condones group marriages , neither under the law nor as a common law marriage , but 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 . Of the 250 societies reported by the American anthropologist George Murdock in 1949 , only the Kaingang of Brazil had any group marriages at all . Child marriage Main article : Child marriage A child marriage is a marriage where one or both spouses are under the age of 18 . It is related to child betrothal and teenage pregnancy . Child marriage was common throughout history , even up until the 1900s in the United States , where in 1880 CE , in the state of Delaware , the age of consent for marriage was 7 years old . Still , in 2017 , over half of the 50 United States have no explicit minimum age to marry and several states set the age as low as 14 . Today it is condemned by international human rights organizations . Child marriages are often arranged between the families of the future bride and groom , sometimes as soon as the girl is born . However , in the late 1800s in England and the United States , feminist activists began calling for raised age of consent laws , which was eventually handled in the 1920s , having been raised to 16 - 18 . Child marriages can also occur in the context of bride kidnapping . In the year 1552 CE , John Somerford and Jane Somerford Brereton were both married at the ages of 3 and 2 , respectively . Twelve years later , in 1564 , John filed for divorce . While child marriage is observed for both boys and girls , the overwhelming majority of child spouses are girls . In many cases , only one marriage - partner is a child , usually the female , due to the importance placed upon female virginity . 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 . Today , child marriages are widespread in parts of the world ; being 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 . The incidence of child marriage has been falling in most parts of the world . In developed countries child marriage is outlawed or restricted . Girls who marry before 18 are at greater risk of becoming victims of domestic violence , than those who marry later , especially when they are married to a much older man . Same - sex and third - gender marriages Main articles : Same - sex marriage and History of same - sex unions As noted above , several kinds of same - sex , non-sexual marriages exist in some lineage - based societies . This section relates to same - sex sexual unions . Some cultures include third gender ( two - spirit or transgender ) 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 . We'wha had a husband who was generally recognized as such . While it is a relatively new practice to grant same - sex couples the same form of legal marital recognition as commonly granted to mixed - sex couples , there is some history of recorded same - sex unions around the world . Ancient Greek same - sex relationships were like modern companionate marriages , unlike their different - sex marriages in which the spouses had few emotional ties , and the husband had freedom to engage in outside sexual liaisons . The Codex Theodosianus ( C. Th. 9.7. 3 ) issued in 438 CE imposed severe penalties or death on same - sex relationships , but the exact intent of the law and its relation to social practice is unclear , as only a few examples of same - sex relationships in that culture exist . Same - sex unions were celebrated in some regions of China , such as Fujian . Possibly the earliest documented same - sex wedding in Latin Christendom occurred in Rome , Italy , at the San Giovanni a Porta Latina basilica in 1581 . 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 to make the donation of a human ova legal for in vitro fertilisation ; a woman can not , however , use this kind of marriage to obtain a sperm donation . 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 '' . Cohabitation See also : Cohabitation and Common - law marriage 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 . This is the case , for example , in Australia . Cohabitation may be an option pursued as a form of resistance to traditional institutionalized marriage . However , in this context , 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 . Conversely , institutionalized marriages may not involve cohabitation . In some cases couples living together do not wish to be recognized as married . This may occur because pension or alimony rights are adversely affected ; because of taxation considerations ; because of immigration issues , or for other reasons . Such marriages have also been increasingly common in Beijing . Guo Jianmei , director of the center for women 's studies at Beijing University , told a Newsday correspondent , `` Walking marriages reflect sweeping changes in Chinese society . '' A `` walking marriage '' refers to a type of temporary marriage formed by the Mosuo of China , 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 . Partner selection There is wide cross-cultural variation in the social rules governing the selection of a partner for marriage . There is variation in the degree to which partner selection is an individual decision by the partners or a collective decision by the partners ' kin groups , and there is variation in the rules regulating which partners are valid choices . The United Nations World Fertility Report of 2003 reports that 89 % of all people get married before age forty - nine . The percent of women and men who marry before age forty - nine drops to nearly 50 % in some nations and reaches near 100 % in other nations . In other cultures with less strict rules governing the groups from which a partner can be chosen the selection of a marriage partner may involve either the couple going through a selection process of courtship or the marriage may be arranged by the couple 's parents or an outside party , a matchmaker . Social status Main article : Hypergamy Some people want to marry a person with higher or lower status than them . Others want to marry people who have similar status . In many societies women marry men who are of higher social status . There are marriages where each party has sought a partner of similar status . There are other marriages in which the man is older than the woman . The incest taboo , exogamy and endogamy Further information : Prohibited degree of kinship , Cousin marriage , Affinity ( canon law ) , and Avunculate marriage Societies have often placed restrictions on marriage to relatives , though the degree of prohibited relationship varies widely . Marriages between parents and children , or between full siblings , with few exceptions , have been considered incest and forbidden . However , marriages between more distant relatives have been much more common , with one estimate being that 80 % of all marriages in history have been between second cousins or closer . This proportion has fallen dramatically , but still more than 10 % of all marriages are believed to be between people who are second cousins or more closely related . In the United States , such marriages are now highly stigmatized , and laws ban most or all first - cousin marriage in 30 states . Specifics vary : in South Korea , historically it was illegal to marry someone with the same last name and same ancestral line . An Avunculate marriage is a marriage that occurs between an uncle and his niece or between an aunt and her nephew . Such marriages are illegal in most countries due to incest restrictions . However a small number of countries have legalized it , including Argentina , Australia , Austria , Malaysia , and Russia . Family chart showing relatives who , in Islamic Sharia law , would be considered mahrim ( or maharem ) : unmarriageable kin with whom sexual intercourse would be considered incestuous . In various societies the choice of partner is often limited to suitable persons from specific social groups . In some societies the rule is that a partner is selected from an individual 's own social group -- endogamy , this is often the case in class and caste based societies . But in other societies a partner must be chosen from a different group than one 's own -- exogamy , this may be the case in societies practicing totemic religion where society is divided into several exogamous totemic clans , such as most Aboriginal Australian societies . In other societies a person is expected to marry their cross-cousin , a woman must marry her father 's sister 's son and a man must marry his mother 's brother 's daughter -- this is often the case if either a society has a rule of tracing kinship exclusively through patrilineal or matrilineal descent groups as among the Akan people of West Africa . Another kind of marriage selection is the levirate marriage in which widows are obligated to marry their husband 's brother , mostly found in societies where kinship is based on endogamous clan groups . Religion has commonly weighed in on the matter of which relatives , if any , are allowed to marry . Relations may be by consanguinity or affinity , meaning by blood or by marriage . On the marriage of cousins , Catholic policy has evolved from initial acceptance , through a long period of general prohibition , to the contemporary requirement for a dispensation . Islam has always allowed it , while Hindu texts vary widely . Prescriptive marriage Main article : Arranged marriage An arranged marriage between Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain . In a wide array of lineage - based societies with a classificatory kinship system , potential spouses are sought from a specific class of relative as determined by a prescriptive marriage rule . This rule may be expressed by anthropologists using a `` descriptive '' kinship term , such as a `` man 's mother 's brother 's daughter '' ( also known as a `` cross-cousin '' ) . Such descriptive rules mask the participant 's perspective : a man should marry a woman from his mother 's lineage . Within the society 's kinship terminology , such relatives are usually indicated by a specific term which sets them apart as potentially marriageable . Pierre Bourdieu notes , however , that very few marriages ever follow the rule , and that when they do so , it is for `` practical kinship '' reasons such as the preservation of family property , rather than the `` official kinship '' ideology . Insofar as regular marriages following prescriptive rules occur , lineages are linked together in fixed relationships ; these ties between lineages may form political alliances in kinship dominated societies . French structural anthropologist Claude Lévi - Strauss developed alliance theory to account for the `` elementary '' kinship structures created by the limited number of prescriptive marriage rules possible . A pragmatic ( or ' arranged ' ) marriage is made easier by formal procedures of family or group politics . A responsible authority sets up or encourages the marriage ; they may , indeed , engage a professional matchmaker to find a suitable spouse for an unmarried person . The authority figure could be parents , family , a religious official , or a group consensus . In some cases , the authority figure may choose a match for purposes other than marital harmony . Forced marriage Main article : Forced marriage Criticism about the Azeri society tradition from domestic violence to the social and political participation of women in the community A forced marriage is a marriage in which one or both of the parties is married against their will . Forced marriages continue to be practiced in parts of the world , especially in South Asia and Africa . The line between forced marriage and consensual marriage may become blurred , because the social norms of these cultures dictate that one should never oppose the desire of one 's parents / relatives in regard to the choice of a spouse ; in such cultures it is not necessary for violence , threats , intimidation etc. to occur , the person simply `` consents '' to the marriage even if he / she does n't want it , out of the implied social pressure and duty . The customs of bride price and dowry , that exist in parts of the world , can lead to buying and selling people into marriage . In some societies , ranging from Central Asia to the Caucasus to Africa , the custom of bride kidnapping still exists , in which a woman is captured by a man and his friends . Sometimes this covers an elopement , but sometimes it depends on sexual violence . In previous times , raptio was a larger - scale version of this , with groups of women captured by groups of men , sometimes in war ; the most famous example is The Rape of the Sabine Women , which provided the first citizens of Rome with their wives . Other marriage partners are more or less imposed on an individual . For example , widow inheritance provides a widow with another man from her late husband 's brothers . In rural areas of India , child marriage is practiced , with parents often arranging the wedding , sometimes even before the child is born . This practice was made illegal under the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 . Economic considerations See also : Economics of marriage and Family economics The financial aspects of marriage vary between cultures and have changed over time . In some cultures , dowries and bridewealth continue to be required today . In both cases , the financial arrangements are usually made between the groom ( or his family ) and the bride 's family ; with the bride often not being involved in the negotiations , and often not having a choice in whether to participate in the marriage . In Early modern Britain , the social status of the couple was supposed to be equal . After the marriage , all the property ( called `` fortune '' ) and expected inheritances of the wife belonged to the husband . Dowry A dowry is `` a process whereby parental property is distributed to a daughter at her marriage ( i.e. inter vivos ) rather than at the holder 's death ( mortis causa ) ... A dowry establishes some variety of conjugal fund , the nature of which may vary widely . This fund ensures her support ( or endowment ) in widowhood and eventually goes to provide for her sons and daughters . '' In some cultures , especially in countries such as Turkey , India , Bangladesh , Pakistan , Sri Lanka , Morocco , Nepal , dowries continue to be expected . In India , thousands of dowry - related deaths have taken place on yearly basis , to counter this problem , several jurisdictions have enacted laws restricting or banning dowry ( see Dowry law in India ) . In Nepal , dowry was made illegal in 2009 . Some authors believe that the giving and receiving of dowry reflects the status and even the effort to climb high in social hierarchy . Dower Main articles : Bride price and Dower Direct Dowry contrasts with bridewealth , which is paid by the groom or his family to the bride 's parents , and with indirect dowry ( or dower ) , which is property given to the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage and which remains under her ownership and control . In the Jewish tradition , the rabbis in ancient times insisted on the marriage couple entering into a prenuptial agreement , called a ketubah . Besides other things , the ketubah provided for an amount to be paid by the husband in the event of a divorce or his estate in the event of his death . This amount was a replacement of the biblical dower or bride price , which was payable at the time of the marriage by the groom to the father of the bride . This innovation was put in place because the biblical bride price created a major social problem : many young prospective husbands could not raise the bride price at the time when they would normally be expected to marry . So , to enable these young men to marry , the rabbis , in effect , delayed the time that the amount would be payable , when they would be more likely to have the sum . It may also be noted that both the dower and the ketubah amounts served the same purpose : the protection for the wife should her support cease , either by death or divorce . The only difference between the two systems was the timing of the payment . It is the predecessor to the wife 's present - day entitlement to maintenance in the event of the breakup of marriage , and family maintenance in the event of the husband not providing adequately for the wife in his will . Another function performed by the ketubah amount was to provide a disincentive for the husband contemplating divorcing his wife : he would need to have the amount to be able to pay to the wife . Morning gifts , which might also be arranged by the bride 's father rather than the bride , are given to the bride herself ; the name derives from the Germanic tribal custom of giving them the morning after the wedding night . She might have control of this morning gift during the lifetime of her husband , but is entitled to it when widowed . If the amount of her inheritance is settled by law rather than agreement , it may be called dower . Depending on legal systems and the exact arrangement , she may not be entitled to dispose of it after her death , and may lose the property if she remarries . Morning gifts were preserved for centuries in morganatic marriage , a union where the wife 's inferior social status was held to prohibit her children from inheriting a noble 's titles or estates . In this case , the morning gift would support the wife and children . Another legal provision for widowhood was jointure , in which property , often land , would be held in joint tenancy , so that it would automatically go to the widow on her husband 's death . Islamic tradition has similar practices . A ' mahr ' , either immediate or deferred , is the woman 's portion of the groom 's wealth ( divorce ) or estate ( death ) . These amounts are usually set on the basis of the groom 's own and family wealth and incomes , but in some parts these are set very high so as to provide a disincentive for the groom exercising the divorce , or the husband 's family ' inheriting ' a large portion of the estate , especially if there are no male offspring from the marriage . In some countries , including Iran , the mahr or alimony can amount to more than a man can ever hope to earn , sometimes up to US $1,000,000 ( 4000 official Iranian gold coins ) . If the husband can not pay the mahr , either in case of a divorce or on demand , according to the current laws in Iran , he will have to pay it by installments . Failure to pay the mahr might even lead to imprisonment . Bridewealth Main article : Bride price Traditional , formal presentation of the bridewealth ( also known as `` sin sot '' ) at an engagement ceremony in Thailand Bridewealth is a common practice in parts of Southeast Asia ( Thailand , Cambodia ) , parts of Central Asia , and in much of sub-Saharan Africa . It is also known as brideprice although this has fallen in disfavor as it implies the purchase of the bride . Bridewealth is the amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom . In anthropological literature , bride price has often been explained as payment made to compensate the bride 's family for the loss of her labor and fertility . In some cases , bridewealth is a means by which the groom 's family 's ties to the children of the union are recognized . Taxation In some countries a married person or couple benefits from various taxation advantages not available to a single person . For example , spouses may be allowed to average their combined incomes . This is advantageous to a married couple with disparate incomes . To compensate for this , countries may provide a higher tax bracket for the averaged income of a married couple . While income averaging might still benefit a married couple with a stay - at - home spouse , such averaging would cause a married couple with roughly equal personal incomes to pay more total tax than they would as two single persons . In the United States , this is called the marriage penalty . When the rates applied by the tax code are not based income averaging , but rather on the sum of individuals ' incomes , higher rates will usually apply to each individual in a two - earner households in a progressive tax systems . This is most often the case with high - income taxpayers and is another situation called a marriage penalty . Conversely , when progressive tax is levied on the individual with no consideration for the partnership , dual - income couples fare much better than single - income couples with similar household incomes . The effect can be increased when the welfare system treats the same income as a shared income thereby denying welfare access to the non-earning spouse . Such systems apply in Australia and Canada , for example . Postmarital residence In many Western cultures , marriage usually leads to the formation of a new household comprising the married couple , with the married couple living together in the same home , often sharing the same bed , but in some other cultures this is not the tradition . Among the Minangkabau of West Sumatra , residency after marriage is matrilocal , with the husband moving into the household of his wife 's mother . Residency after marriage can also be patrilocal or avunculocal . In these cases , married couples may not form an independent household , but remain part of an extended family household . Early theories explaining the determinants of postmarital residence connected it with the sexual division of labor . However , to date , cross-cultural tests of this hypothesis using worldwide samples have failed to find any significant relationship between these two variables . However , Korotayev 's tests show that the female contribution to subsistence does correlate significantly with matrilocal residence in general . However , this correlation is masked by a general polygyny factor . Although , in different - sex marriages , an increase in the female contribution to subsistence tends to lead to matrilocal residence , it also tends simultaneously to lead to general non-sororal polygyny which effectively destroys matrilocality . If this polygyny factor is controlled ( e.g. , through a multiple regression model ) , division of labor turns out to be a significant predictor of postmarital residence . Thus , Murdock 's hypotheses regarding the relationships between the sexual division of labor and postmarital residence were basically correct , though the actual relationships between those two groups of variables are more complicated than he expected . There has been a trend toward the neolocal residence in western societies . Marriage law Family law Family Marriage and other equivalent or similar unions and status Marriage Types of marriages Prenuptial agreement Cohabitation Concubinage Common - law marriage Civil union Domestic partnership Validity of marriages Void and Voidable marriages Annulment Dissolution of marriages Divorce Adultery Grounds for divorce No - fault divorce Matrimonial Causes Act Legal separation Alimony Parenting plan Residence ( UK ( E.W. and NI ) ) Parental rights Custody Evaluator ( U.S. ) Parenting coordinator ( U.S. ) Other issues Paternity Legitimacy Child custody Legal guardian Adoption Child support Contact & visitation CAFCASS ( UK ( E.W. ) ) Grandparent visitation U.N. Rights of the Child Children 's rights Emancipation Foster care Ward Parental child abduction Private international law Private international law Divorce Marriage Hague Convention ( adoption ) International child abduction Hague Convention ( child abduction ) Hague Convention ( maintenance ) Family and criminal code ( or criminal law ) Paternity fraud Bigamy CPS ( U.S. ) Child abuse Domestic violence Incest Child - selling Main article : Marriage law Marriage laws refer to the legal requirements which determine the validity of a marriage , which vary considerably between countries . Rights and obligations See also : Matrimonial regime and Rights and responsibilities of marriages in the United States A marriage bestows rights and obligations on the married parties , and sometimes on relatives as well , being the sole mechanism for the creation of affinal ties ( in - laws ) . These may include , depending on jurisdiction : Giving one spouse or his / her family control over the other spouse 's sexual services , labor , and property . Giving one spouse responsibility for the other 's debts . Giving one spouse visitation rights when the other is incarcerated or hospitalized . Giving one spouse control over the other 's affairs when the other is incapacitated . Establishing the second legal guardian of a parent 's child . Establishing a joint fund of property for the benefit of children . Establishing a relationship between the families of the spouses . These rights and obligations vary considerably between societies , and between groups within society . These might include arranged marriages , family obligations , the legal establishment of a nuclear family unit , the legal protection of children and public declaration of commitment . Property regime In many countries today , each marriage partner has the choice of keeping his or her property separate or combining properties . In the latter case , called community property , when the marriage ends by divorce each owns half . In lieu of a will or trust , property owned by the deceased generally is inherited by the surviving spouse . In some legal systems , the partners in a marriage are `` jointly liable '' for the debts of the marriage . This has a basis in a traditional legal notion called the `` Doctrine of Necessities '' whereby , in a heterosexual marriage , a husband was responsible to provide necessary things for his wife . Where this is the case , one partner may be sued to collect a debt for which they did not expressly contract . Critics of this practice note that debt collection agencies can abuse this by claiming an unreasonably wide range of debts to be expenses of the marriage . The cost of defense and the burden of proof is then placed on the non-contracting party to prove that the expense is not a debt of the family . The respective maintenance obligations , both during and eventually after a marriage , are regulated in most jurisdictions ; alimony is one such method . Marriage restrictions Marriage is an institution that is historically filled with restrictions . From age , to race , to social status , to consanguinity , to gender , restrictions are placed on marriage by society for reasons of benefiting the children , passing on healthy genes , maintaining cultural values , or because of prejudice and fear . Almost all cultures that recognize marriage also recognize adultery as a violation of the terms of marriage . Age Most jurisdictions set a minimum age for marriage , that is , a person must attain a certain age to be legally allowed to marry . This age may depend on circumstances , for instance exceptions from the general rule may be permitted if the parents of a young person express their consent and / or if a court decides that said marriage is in the best interest of the young person ( often this applies in cases where a girl is pregnant ) . Although most age restrictions are in place in order to prevent children from being forced into marriages , especially to much older partners -- marriages which can have negative education and health related consequences , and lead to child sexual abuse and other forms of violence -- such child marriages remain common in parts of the world . According to the UN , child marriages are most common in rural sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia . The ten countries with the highest rates of child marriage are : Niger ( 75 % ) , Chad , Central African Republic , Bangladesh , Guinea , Mozambique , Mali , Burkina Faso , South Sudan , and Malawi . Kinship Main article : Cousin marriage See also : Coefficient of relationship To prohibit incest and eugenic reasons , marriage laws have set restrictions for relatives to marry . Direct blood relatives are usually prohibited to marry , while for branch line relatives , laws are wary . Race U.S States , by the date of repeal of anti-miscegenation laws : No laws passed Repealed before 1887 Repealed between 1948 and 1967 Overturned on 12 June 1967 Main article : Interracial marriage Laws banning `` race - mixing '' were enforced in certain North American jurisdictions from 1691 until 1967 , in Nazi Germany ( The Nuremberg Laws ) from 1935 until 1945 , and in South Africa during most part of the Apartheid era ( 1949 -- 1985 ) . All these laws primarily banned marriage between persons of different racially or ethnically defined groups , which was termed `` amalgamation '' or `` miscegenation '' in the U.S. The laws in Nazi Germany and many of the U.S. states , as well as South Africa , also banned sexual relations between such individuals . In the United States , laws in some but not all of the states prohibited the marriage of whites and blacks , and in many states also the intermarriage of whites with Native Americans or Asians . In the U.S. , such laws were known as anti-miscegenation laws . From 1913 until 1948 , 30 out of the then 48 states enforced such laws . Although an `` Anti-Miscegenation Amendment '' to the United States Constitution was proposed in 1871 , in 1912 -- 1913 , and in 1928 , no nationwide law against racially mixed marriages was ever enacted . In 1967 , the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled in Loving v. Virginia that anti-miscegenation laws are unconstitutional . With this ruling , these laws were no longer in effect in the remaining 16 states that still had them . The Nazi ban on interracial marriage and interracial sex was enacted in September 1935 as part of the Nuremberg Laws , the Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre ( The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour ) . The Nuremberg Laws classified Jews as a race and forbade marriage and extramarital sexual relations at first with people of Jewish descent , but was later ended to the `` Gypsies , Negroes or their bastard offspring '' and people of `` German or related blood '' . Such relations were marked as Rassenschande ( lit . `` race - disgrace '' ) and could be punished by imprisonment ( usually followed by deportation to a concentration camp ) and even by death . South Africa under apartheid also banned interracial marriage . The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act , 1949 prohibited marriage between persons of different races , and the Immorality Act of 1950 made sexual relations with a person of a different race a crime . Same - sex marriage recognition Marriage open to same - sex couples Recognized when performed in certain other jurisdictions Government / court announced intention to legalize marriage Civil unions / domestic partnerships Government / court announced intention to legalize civil unions Unregistered cohabitation Same - sex unions not legally recognized Colors higher in the list override those lower down . rings = individual cases Main article : Same - sex marriage The first laws in modern times recognizing same - sex marriage were enacted during the first decade of the 21st century . As of 1 October 2017 , same - sex marriage is legal ( nationwide or in some parts ) in the following countries : Argentina , Belgium , Brazil , Canada , Colombia , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Iceland , Ireland , Luxembourg , Malta , Mexico , the Netherlands , New Zealand , Norway , Portugal , South Africa , Spain , Sweden , the United Kingdom , the United States and Uruguay . Same - sex marriage is likely to soon become legal in Taiwan , after a constitutional court ruling in May 2017 . Introduction of same - sex marriage laws has varied by jurisdiction , being variously accomplished through a legislative change to marriage laws , a court ruling based on constitutional guarantees of equality , or by direct popular vote ( via an initiative or a referendum ) . The recognition of same - sex marriage is a political , social , civil rights and religious issue in many nations , and debates continue to arise over whether same - sex couples should be allowed marriage , be required to hold a different status ( a civil union ) , or be denied recognition of such rights . Allowing same - gender couples to legally marry is considered to be one of the most important of all LGBT rights . Number of spouses in a marriage Polygamy permitted and practiced Legal status unknown or ambiguous Polygamy generally illegal , but practice not fully criminalised Polygamy fully outlawed / abolished and practice fully criminalised Notes : India , Singapore , and Sri Lanka : illegal in all forms , except for Muslims . Federal Eritrea : law bans polygamous marriage but certain countries and regions with Sharia allow it . Muslims only may legally contract polygamous marriages . Mauritius : polygamous unions are not legally recognized . Muslim men may `` marry '' up to four women , who do not however enjoy the legal status of wives . Main article : Legality of polygamy Polygyny is widely practiced in mostly Muslim and African countries . In the Middle Eastern region , Israel , Turkey and Tunisia are notable exceptions . In most other jurisdictions , polygamy is illegal . For example , In the United States , polygamy is illegal in all 50 states . Over a century ago , citizens of the self - governing territory of what is present - day Utah were forced by the United States federal government to abandon the practice of polygamy through the vigorous enforcement of several Acts of Congress and eventually complied . The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints formally abolished the practice in 1890 , in a document labeled ' The Manifesto ' . Among American Muslims , a small minority of around 50,000 to 100,000 people are estimated to live in families with a husband maintaining an illegal polygamous relationship . Several countries such as India and Sri Lanka , permit only their Islamic citizens to practice polygamy . Some Indians have converted to Islam in order to bypass such legal restrictions . Predominantly Christian nations usually do not allow polygamous unions , with a handful of exceptions being the Republic of the Congo , Uganda , and Zambia . Myanmar ( frequently referred to as Burma ) is also the only predominantly Buddhist nation to allow for civil polygynous marriages , though such is rarely tolerated by the Burmese population . State recognition In various jurisdictions , a civil marriage may take place as part of the religious marriage ceremony , although they are theoretically distinct . Some jurisdictions allow civil marriages in circumstances which are notably not allowed by particular religions , such as same - sex marriages or civil unions . The opposite case may happen as well . Partners may not have full juridical acting capacity and churches may have less strict limits than the civil jurisdictions . This particularly applies to minimum age , or physical infirmities . It is possible for two people to be recognised as married by a religious or other institution , but not by the state , and hence without the legal rights and obligations of marriage ; or to have a civil marriage deemed invalid and sinful by a religion . Similarly , a couple may remain married in religious eyes after a civil divorce . Marriage license , civil ceremony and registration Main article : Wedding Couple married in a Shinto ceremony in Takayama , Gifu prefecture . A newly married Assyrian couple . A marriage is usually formalized at a wedding or marriage ceremony . The ceremony may be officiated either by a religious official , by a government official or by a state approved celebrant . In various European and some Latin American countries , any religious ceremony must be held separately from the required civil ceremony . Some countries -- such as Belgium , Bulgaria , France , the Netherlands , Romania and Turkey -- require that a civil ceremony take place before any religious one . In some countries -- notably the United States , Canada , the United Kingdom , the Republic of Ireland , Norway and Spain -- both ceremonies can be held together ; the officiant at the religious and civil ceremony also serving as agent of the state to perform the civil ceremony . To avoid any implication that the state is `` recognizing '' a religious marriage ( which is prohibited in some countries ) -- the `` civil '' ceremony is said to be taking place at the same time as the religious ceremony . Often this involves simply signing a register during the religious ceremony . If the civil element of the religious ceremony is omitted , the marriage ceremony is not recognized as a marriage by government under the law . Some countries , such as Australia , permit marriages to be held in private and at any location ; others , including England and Wales , require that the civil ceremony be conducted in a place open to the public and specially sanctioned by law for the purpose . In England , the place of marriage formerly had to be a church or register office , but this was extended to any public venue with the necessary licence . An exception can be made in the case of marriage by special emergency license ( UK : licence ) , which is normally granted only when one of the parties is terminally ill . Rules about where and when persons can marry vary from place to place . Some regulations require one of the parties to reside within the jurisdiction of the register office ( formerly parish ) . Each religious authority has rules for the manner in which marriages are to be conducted by their officials and members . Where religious marriages are recognised by the state , the officiator must also conform with the law of the jurisdiction . Common - law marriage See also : Common - law marriage In a small number of jurisdictions marriage relationships may be created by the operation of the law alone . Unlike the typical ceremonial marriage with legal contract , wedding ceremony , and other details , a common - law marriage may be called `` marriage by habit and repute ( cohabitation ) . '' A de facto common - law marriage without a license or ceremony is legally binding in some jurisdictions but has no legal consequence in others . Civil unions Main article : Civil union Various advocates of same - sex marriage , such as this protester at a demonstration in New York City against California Proposition 8 , consider civil unions an inferior alternative to legal recognition of same - sex marriage . A civil union , also referred to as a civil partnership , is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage . Beginning with Denmark in 1989 , civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in several countries in order to provide same - sex couples rights , benefits , and responsibilities similar ( in some countries , identical ) to opposite - sex civil marriage . In some jurisdictions , such as Brazil , New Zealand , Uruguay , Ecuador , France and the U.S. states of Hawaii and Illinois , civil unions are also open to opposite - sex couples . `` Marriage of convenience '' Sometimes people marry to take advantage of a certain situation , sometimes called a marriage of convenience or a sham marriage . For example , according to one publisher of information about green card marriages , `` Every year over 450,000 United States citizens marry foreign - born individuals and petition for them to obtain a permanent residency ( Green Card ) in the United States . '' While this is likely an overestimate , in 2003 alone 184,741 immigrants were admitted to the U.S. as spouses of U.S. citizens . More were admitted as fiancés of US citizens for the purpose of being married within 90 days . Regardless of the number of people entering the US to marry a US citizen , it does not indicate the number of these marriages that are convenience marriages , which number could include some of those with the motive of obtaining permanent residency , but also include people who are US citizens . One example would be to obtain an inheritance that has a marriage clause . Another example would be to save money on health insurance or to enter a health plan with preexisting conditions offered by the new spouse 's employer . Other situations exist , and , in fact , all marriages have a complex combination of conveniences motivating the parties to marry . A marriage of convenience is one that is devoid of normal reasons to marry . In certain countries like Singapore sham marriages like these are punishable criminal offences . Contemporary legal and Human rights criticisms of marriage `` Esposas de Matrimonio '' ( `` Wedding Cuffs '' ) , a wedding ring sculpture expressing the criticism of marriages ' effects on individual liberty . Esposas is a play on Spanish , in which the singular form of the word esposa refers to a spouse , and the plural refers to handcuffs . Main article : Criticism of marriage People have proposed arguments against marriage for reasons that include political , philosophical and religious criticisms ; concerns about the divorce rate ; individual liberty and gender equality ; questioning the necessity of having a personal relationship sanctioned by government or religious authorities ; or the promotion of celibacy for religious or philosophical reasons . Power and gender roles in opposite - sex marriages Feminist theory approaches opposite - sex marriage as an institution traditionally rooted in patriarchy that promotes male superiority and power over women . This power dynamic conceptualizes men as `` the provider operating in the public sphere '' and women as `` the caregivers operating within the private sphere '' . `` Theoretically , women ... ( were ) defined as the property of their husbands ... The adultery of a woman was always treated with more severity than that of a man . '' `` ( F ) eminist demands for a wife 's control over her own property were not met ( in parts of Britain ) until ... ( laws were passed in the late 19th century ) . '' Traditional heterosexual marriage imposed an obligation of the wife to be sexually available for her husband and an obligation of the husband to provide material / financial support for the wife . Numerous philosophers , feminists and other academic figures have commented on this throughout history , condemning the hypocrisy of legal and religious authorities in regard to sexual issues ; pointing to the lack of choice of a woman in regard to controlling her own sexuality ; and drawing parallels between marriage , an institution promoted as sacred , and prostitution , widely condemned and vilified ( though often tolerated as a `` necessary evil '' ) . Mary Wollstonecraft , in the 18th century , described marriage as `` legal prostitution '' . Emma Goldman wrote in 1910 : `` To the moralist prostitution does not consist so much in the fact that the woman sells her body , but rather that she sells it out of wedlock '' . Bertrand Russell in his book Marriage and Morals wrote that : `` Marriage is for woman the commonest mode of livelihood , and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution . '' Angela Carter in Nights at the Circus wrote : `` What is marriage but prostitution to one man instead of many ? '' Some critics object to what they see as propaganda in relation to marriage -- from the government , religious organizations , the media -- which aggressively promote marriage as a solution for all social problems ; such propaganda includes , for instance , marriage promotion in schools , where children , especially girls , are bombarded with positive information about marriage , being presented only with the information prepared by authorities . The performance of dominant gender roles by men and submissive gender roles by women influence the power dynamic of a heterosexual marriage . In some American households , women internalize gender role stereotypes and often assimilate into the role of `` wife '' , `` mother '' , and `` caretaker '' in conformity to societal norms and their male partner . Author bell hooks states `` within the family structure , individuals learn to accept sexist oppression as ' natural ' and are primed to support other forms of oppression , including heterosexist domination . '' `` ( T ) he cultural , economic , political and legal supremacy of the husband '' was `` ( t ) raditional ... under English law '' . This patriarchal dynamic is contrasted with a conception of egalitarian or Peer Marriage in which power and labour are divided equally , and not according to gender roles . In the US , studies have shown that , despite egalitarian ideals being common , less than half of respondents viewed their opposite - sex relationships as equal in power , with unequal relationships being more commonly dominated by the male partner . Studies also show that married couples find the highest level of satisfaction in egalitarian relationships and lowest levels of satisfaction in wife dominate relationships . In recent years , egalitarian or Peer Marriages have been receiving increasing focus and attention politically , economically and culturally in a number of countries , including the United States . Sex outside of marriage See also : Chastity and Adultery Christ and the woman taken in adultery by Jan Brueghel the Elder , Pinakothek Magdalene laundries were institutions that existed from the 18th to the late 20th centuries , throughout Europe and North America , where `` fallen women '' , including unmarried mothers , were detained . Photo : Magdalene laundry in Ireland , ca . early twentieth century . Different societies demonstrate variable tolerance of extramarital sex . The Standard Cross-Cultural Sample describes the occurrence of extramarital sex by gender in over 50 pre-industrial cultures . The occurrence of extramarital sex by men is described as `` universal '' in 6 cultures , `` moderate '' in 29 cultures , `` occasional '' in 6 cultures , and `` uncommon '' in 10 cultures . The occurrence of extramarital sex by women is described as `` universal '' in 6 cultures , `` moderate '' in 23 cultures , `` occasional '' in 9 cultures , and `` uncommon '' in 15 cultures . Three studies using nationally representative samples in the United States found that between 10 -- 15 % of women and 20 -- 25 % of men engage in extramarital sex . Many of the world 's major religions look with disfavor on sexual relations outside marriage . There are non-secular states that sanction criminal penalties for sexual intercourse before marriage . Sexual relations by a married person with someone other than his / her spouse is known as adultery . Adultery is considered in many jurisdictions to be a crime and grounds for divorce . In some countries , such as Saudi Arabia , Pakistan , Afghanistan , Iran , Kuwait , Maldives , Morocco , Oman , Mauritania , United Arab Emirates , Sudan , Yemen , any form of sexual activity outside marriage is illegal . In some parts of the world , women and girls accused of having sexual relations outside marriage are at risk of becoming victims of honor killings committed by their families . In 2011 several people were sentenced to death by stoning after being accused of adultery in Iran , Somalia , Afghanistan , Sudan , Mali and Pakistan . Practices such as honor killings and stoning continue to be supported by mainstream politicians and other officials in some countries . In Pakistan , after the 2008 Balochistan honour killings in which five women were killed by tribesmen of the Umrani Tribe of Balochistan , Pakistani Federal Minister for Postal Services Israr Ullah Zehri defended the practice ; he said : `` These are centuries - old traditions , and I will continue to defend them . Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid . '' Marriage and sexual violence Main article : Marital rape An issue that is a serious concern regarding marriage and which has been the object of international scrutiny is that of sexual violence within marriage . Throughout much of the history , in most cultures , sex in marriage was considered a ' right ' , that could be taken by force ( often by a man from a woman ) , if ' denied ' . As the concept of human rights started to develop in the 20th century , and with the arrival of second - wave feminism , such views have become less widely held . The legal and social concept of marital rape has developed in most industrialized countries in the mid - to late 20th century ; in many other parts of the world it is not recognized as a form of abuse , socially or legally . Several countries in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia made marital rape illegal before 1970 , and other countries in Western Europe and the English - speaking Western world outlawed it in the 1980s and 1990s . In England and Wales , marital rape was made illegal in 1991 . Although marital rape is being increasingly criminalized in developing countries too , cultural , religious , and traditional ideologies about `` conjugal rights '' remain very strong in many parts of the world ; and even in many countries that have adequate laws against rape in marriage these laws are rarely enforced . Apart from the issue of rape committed against one 's spouse , marriage is , in many parts of the world , closely connected with other forms of sexual violence : in some places , like Morocco , unmarried girls and women who are raped are often forced by their families to marry their rapist . Because being the victim of rape and losing virginity carry extreme social stigma , and the victims are deemed to have their `` reputation '' tarnished , a marriage with the rapist is arranged . This is claimed to be in the advantage of both the victim -- who does not remain unmarried and does n't lose social status -- and of the rapist , who avoids punishment . In 2012 , after a Moroccan 16 - year - old girl committed suicide after having been forced by her family to marry her rapist and enduring further abuse by the rapist after they married , there have been protests from activists against this practice which is common in Morocco . In some societies , the very high social and religious importance of marital fidelity , especially female fidelity , has as result the criminalization of adultery , often with harsh penalties such as stoning or flogging ; as well as leniency towards punishment of violence related to infidelity ( such as honor killings ) . In the 21st century , criminal laws against adultery have become controversial with international organizations calling for their abolition . Opponents of adultery laws argue that these laws are a major contributor to discrimination and violence against women , as they are enforced selectively mostly against women ; that they prevent women from reporting sexual violence ; and that they maintain social norms which justify violent crimes committed against women by husbands , families and communities . A Joint Statement by the United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice states that `` Adultery as a criminal offence violates women 's human rights '' . Some human rights organizations argue that the criminalization of adultery also violates internationally recognized protections for private life , as it represents an arbitrary interference with an individual 's privacy , which is not permitted under international law . Marriage laws , Human rights and the global status of women The laws surrounding heterosexual marriage in many countries have come under international scrutiny because they contradict international standards of human rights ; institutionalize violence against women , child marriage and forced marriage ; require the permission of a husband for his wife to work in a paid job , sign legal documents , file criminal charges against someone , sue in civil court etc. ; sanction the use by husbands of violence to `` discipline '' their wives ; and discriminate against women in divorce . Such things were legal even in many Western countries until recently : for instance , in France , married women obtained the right to work without their husband 's permission in 1965 , and in West Germany women obtained this right in 1977 ( by comparison women in East Germany had many more rights ) . In Spain , during Franco 's era , a married woman needed her husband 's consent , referred to as the permiso marital , for almost all economic activities , including employment , ownership of property , and even traveling away from home ; the permiso marital was abolished in 1975 . An absolute submission of a wife to her husband is accepted as natural in many parts of the world , for instance surveys by UNICEF have shown that the percentage of women aged 15 -- 49 who think that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances is as high as 90 % in Afghanistan and Jordan , 87 % in Mali , 86 % in Guinea and Timor - Leste , 81 % in Laos , 80 % in Central African Republic . Detailed results from Afghanistan show that 78.4 % of women agree with a beating if the wife `` goes out without telling him ( the husband ) '' and 76.2 % agree `` if she argues with him '' . Throughout history , and still today in many countries , laws have provided for extenuating circumstances , partial or complete defenses , for men who killed their wives due to adultery , with such acts often being seen as crimes of passion and being covered by legal defenses such as provocation or defense of family honor . Right and ability to divorce While international law and conventions recognize the need for consent for entering a marriage - namely that people can not be forced to get married against their will - the right to obtain a divorce is not recognized ; therefore holding a person in a marriage against their will ( if such person has consented to entering in it ) is not considered a violation of human rights , with the issue of divorce being left at the appreciation of individual states . The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly ruled that under the European Convention on Human Rights there is neither a right to apply to divorce , nor a right to obtain the divorce if applied for it ; in 2017 , in Babiarz v. Poland , the Court ruled that Poland was entitled to deny a divorce because the grounds for divorce were not met , even if the marriage in question was acknowledged both by Polish courts and by the ECHR as being a legal fiction involving a long term separation where the husband lived with another woman with whom he had an 11 - years - old child . In the EU , the last country to allow divorce was Malta , in 2011 . Around the world , the only countries to forbid divorce are Philippines and Vatican City , although in practice in many countries which use a fault based divorce system obtaining a divorce is very difficult . The ability to divorce , in law and practice , has been and continues to be a controversial issue in many countries , and public discourse involves different ideologies such as feminism , social conservatism , religious interpretations . Dowry and bridewealth Anti-dowry poster in Bangalore , India . In recent years , the customs of dowry and bride price have received international criticism for inciting conflicts between families and clans ; contributing to violence against women ; promoting materialism ; increasing property crimes ( where men steal goods such as cattle in order to be able to pay the bride price ) ; and making it difficult for poor people to marry . African women 's rights campaigners advocate the abolishing of bride price , which they argue is based on the idea that women are a form of property which can be bought . Bride price has also been criticized for contributing to child trafficking as impoverished parents sell their young daughters to rich older men . A senior Papua New Guinea police officer has called for the abolishing of bride price arguing that it is one of the main reasons for the mistreatment of women in that country . The opposite practice of dowry has been linked to a high level of violence ( see Dowry death ) and to crimes such as extortion . Children born outside marriage Further information : Legitimacy ( family law ) The Outcast , by Richard Redgrave , 1851 . A patriarch casts his daughter and her illegitimate baby out of the family home . Percentage of births to unmarried women , selected countries , 1980 and 2007 . Historically , and still in many countries , children born outside marriage suffered severe social stigma and discrimination . In England and Wales , such children were known as bastards and whoresons . There are significant differences between world regions in regard to the social and legal position of non-marital births , ranging from being fully accepted and uncontroversial to being severely stigmatized and discriminated . The 1975 European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock protects the rights of children born to unmarried parents . The convention states , among others , that : `` The father and mother of a child born out of wedlock shall have the same obligation to maintain the child as if it were born in wedlock '' and that `` A child born out of wedlock shall have the same right of succession in the estate of its father and its mother and of a member of its father 's or mother 's family , as if it had been born in wedlock . '' While in most Western countries legal inequalities between children born inside and outside marriage have largely been abolished , this is not the case in some parts of the world . The legal status of an unmarried father differs greatly from country to country . Without voluntary formal recognition of the child by the father , in most cases there is a need of due process of law in order to establish paternity . In some countries however , unmarried cohabitation of a couple for a specific period of time does create a presumption of paternity similar to that of formal marriage . This is the case in Australia . Under what circumstances can a paternity action be initiated , the rights and responsibilities of a father once paternity has been established ( whether he can obtain parental responsibility and whether he can be forced to support the child ) as well as the legal position of a father who voluntarily acknowledges the child , vary widely by jurisdiction . A special situation arises when a married woman has a child by a man other than her husband . Some countries , such as Israel , refuse to accept a legal challenge of paternity in such a circumstance , in order to avoid the stigmatization of the child ( see Mamzer , a concept under Jewish law ) . In 2010 , the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of a German man who had fathered twins with a married woman , granting him right of contact with the twins , despite the fact that the mother and her husband had forbidden him to see the children . The steps that an unmarried father must take in order to obtain rights to his child vary by country . In some countries ( such as the UK -- since 2003 in England and Wales , 2006 in Scotland , and 2002 in Northern Ireland ) it is sufficient for the father to be listed on the birth certificate for him to have parental rights ; in other countries , such as Ireland , simply being listed on the birth certificate does not offer any rights , additional legal steps must be taken ( if the mother agrees , the parents can both sign a `` statutory declaration '' , but if the mother does not agree , the father has to apply to court ) . Children born outside marriage have become more common , and in some countries , the majority . Recent data from Latin America showed figures for non-marital childbearing to be 74 % for Colombia , 69 % for Peru , 68 % for Chile , 66 % for Brazil , 58 % for Argentina , 55 % for Mexico . In 2012 , in the European Union , 40 % of births were outside marriage , and in the United States , in 2013 , the figure was similar , at 40.6 % . In the United Kingdom 47.6 % of births were to unmarried women in 2012 ; in Ireland the figure was 35.1 % . During the first half of the 20th century unmarried women in some Western countries were coerced by authorities to give their children up for adoption . This was especially the case in Australia , through the forced adoptions in Australia , with most of these adoptions taking place between the 1950s and the 1970s . In 2013 , Julia Gillard , then Prime Minister of Australia , offered a national apology to those affected by the forced adoptions . Some married couples choose not to have children . Others are unable to have children because of infertility or other factors preventing conception or the bearing of children . In some cultures , marriage imposes an obligation on women to bear children . In northern Ghana , for example , payment of bridewealth signifies a woman 's requirement to bear children , and women using birth control face substantial threats of physical abuse and reprisals . Marriage and religion `` Marriage is the union of two different surnames , in friendship and in love , in order to continue the posterity of the former sages , and to furnish those who shall preside at the sacrifices to heaven and earth , at those in the ancestral temple , and at those at the altars to the spirits of the land and grain . '' <Td_colspan="3"> -- Confucius , Further information : Religion and divorce Religions develop in specific geographic and social milieux . Unsurprisingly , religious attitudes and practices relating to marriage can vary . The precepts of mainstream religions include , as a rule , unequivocal prescriptions for marriage , establishing both rituals and rules of conduct . Abrahamic religions Rembrandt 's depiction of Samson 's marriage feast Bahá'í The Bahá'í Faith encourages marriage and views it as a mutually strengthening bond , but it is not obligatory . A Bahá'í marriage requires the couple to choose each other , and then obtain the consent of all living parents . Christianity Crowning during Holy Matrimony in the Syro - Malabar Catholic Church , an Eastern Catholic Church and a part of the Saint Thomas Christian community in India Main article : Christian views on marriage Further information : Wedding § Christian customs Christian wedding in Kyoto , Japan Russian orthodox wedding ceremony Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man , and he brought her to the man . The man said , `` This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called ' woman ' , for she was taken out of man . '' For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife , and they will become one flesh . ... So they are no longer two , but one . Therefore what God has joined together , let man not separate . -- Jesus Christian marriages are based upon the teachings of Jesus and the Paul the Apostle . As of 2015 many Christian denominations regard marriage as a sacrament , sacred institution , or covenant , but this was not always the case before the 1184 Council of Verona officially recognized marriage as a sacrament . Before then , no specific ritual was prescribed for celebrating a marriage : `` Marriage vows did not have to be exchanged in a church , nor was a priest 's presence required . A couple could exchange consent anywhere , anytime . '' Decrees on marriage of the Roman Catholic Council of Trent ( twenty - fourth session of 1563 ) made the validity of marriage dependent on the wedding occurring in the presence of a priest and two witnesses . The absence of a requirement of parental consent ended a debate that proceeded from the 12th century . In the case of a civil divorce , the innocent spouse had and has no right to marry again until the death of the other spouse terminates the still valid marriage , even if the other spouse was guilty of adultery . The Christian Church performed marriages in the narthex of the church prior to the 16th century , when the emphasis was on the marital contract and betrothal . Subsequently , the ceremony moved inside the sacristy of the church . Christians often marry for religious reasons , ranging from following the biblical injunction for a `` man to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife , and the two shall become one '' , to accessing the Divine grace of the Roman Catholic Sacrament . Catholics , Eastern Orthodox , as well as many Anglicans and Methodists , consider marriage termed holy matrimony to be an expression of divine grace , termed a sacrament and mystery in the first two Christian traditions . In Western ritual , the ministers of the sacrament are the spouses themselves , with a bishop , priest , or deacon merely witnessing the union on behalf of the Church and blessing it . In Eastern ritual churches , the bishop or priest functions as the actual minister of the Sacred Mystery ; Eastern Orthodox deacons may not perform marriages . Western Christians commonly refer to marriage as a vocation , while Eastern Christians consider it an ordination and a martyrdom , though the theological emphases indicated by the various names are not excluded by the teachings of either tradition . Marriage is commonly celebrated in the context of a Eucharistic service ( a nuptial Mass or Divine Liturgy ) . The sacrament of marriage is indicative of the relationship between Christ and the Church . The Roman Catholic tradition of the 12th and 13th centuries defined marriage as a sacrament ordained by God , signifying the mystical marriage of Christ to his Church . The matrimonial covenant , by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life , is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring ; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament . For Catholic and Methodist Christians , the mutual love between man and wife becomes an image of the eternal love with which God loves humankind . In the United Methodist Church , the celebration of Holy Matrimony ideally occurs in the context of a Service of Worship , which includes the celebration of the Eucharist . Likewise , the celebration of marriage between two Catholics normally takes place during the public liturgical celebration of the Holy Mass , because of its sacramental connection with the unity of the Paschal mystery of Christ ( Communion ) . Sacramental marriage confers a perpetual and exclusive bond between the spouses . By its nature , the institution of marriage and conjugal love is ordered to the procreation and upbringing of offspring . Marriage creates rights and duties in the Church between the spouses and towards their children : `` ( e ) ntering marriage with the intention of never having children is a grave wrong and more than likely grounds for an annulment '' . According to current Roman Catholic legislation , progeny of annulled relationships are considered legitimate . Civilly remarried persons who civilly divorced a living and lawful spouse are not separated from the Church , but they can not receive Eucharistic Communion . Divorce and remarriage , while generally not encouraged , are regarded differently by each Christian denomination . Most Protestant Churches allow persons to marry again after a divorce , while other require an annulment . The Eastern Orthodox Church allows divorce for a limited number of reasons , and in theory , but usually not in practice , requires that a marriage after divorce be celebrated with a penitential overtone . With respect to marriage between a Christian and a pagan , the early Church `` sometimes took a more lenient view , invoking the so - called Pauline privilege of permissible separation ( 1 Cor. 7 ) as legitimate grounds for allowing a convert to divorce a pagan spouse and then marry a Christian . '' The Catholic Church adheres to the proscription of Jesus in Matthew , 19 : 6 that married spouses who have consummated their marriage `` are no longer two , but one flesh . Therefore , what God has joined together , no human being must separate . '' Consequently , the Catholic Church understands that it is wholly without authority to terminate a sacramentally valid and consummated marriage , and its Codex Iuris Canonici ( 1983 Code of Canon Law ) confirms this in Canons 1055 - 7 . Specifically , Canon 1056 declares that `` the essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility ; in ( C ) hristian marriage they acquire a distinctive firmness by reason of the sacrament . '' Canon 1057 , § 2 declares that marriage is `` an irrevocable covenant '' . Therefore , divorce of such a marriage is a metaphysical , moral , and legal impossibility . However , the Church has the authority to annul a presumed `` marriage '' by declaring it to have been invalid from the beginning , i.e. , declaring it not to be and never to have been a marriage , in an annulment procedure , which is basically a fact - finding and fact - declaring effort . For Protestant denominations , the purposes of marriage include intimate companionship , rearing children , and mutual support for both spouses to fulfill their life callings . Most Reformed Christians did not regard marriage to the status of a sacrament `` because they did not regard matrimony as a necessary means of grace for salvation '' ; nevertheless it is considered a covenant between spouses before God . In addition , some Protestant denominations ( such as the Methodist Churches ) affirmed that Holy Matrimony is a `` means of grace , thus , sacramental in character '' . A couple following their marriage in the Manti Utah Temple Since the 16th century , five competing models of marriage have shaped Protestant marriage and legal tradition : The Protestant Reformationists denied the Roman Catholic sacramental model . Martin Luther saw marriage as a social `` estate of the earthly kingdom ... subject to the prince , not the Pope . '' John Calvin taught that marriage was a covenant of grace that required the coercive power of the state to preserve its integrity . Anglicans regarded marriage as a domestic commonwealth within England and the Church . By the 17th century , Anglican theologians had begun to develop a theology of marriage as opposed to the Roman Catholic model of marriage . These `` regarded the interlocking commonwealths of state , church , and family as something of an earthly form of heavenly government '' . Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints ( LDS Church ) believe that `` marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator 's plan for the eternal destiny of His children . '' Their view of marriage is that family relationships can endure beyond the grave . This is known as ' eternal marriage ' which can be eternal only when authorized priesthood holders perform the sealing ordinance in sacred temples . Christian attitudes to same - sex marriage A same - sex couple exchanging wedding vows in a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Main article : Religious arguments about same - sex marriage Although many Christian denominations do not currently perform same - sex marriages , many do , such as the Presbyterian Church ( U.S.A ) , some dioceses of the Episcopal Church , the Metropolitan Community Church , Quakers , United Church of Canada , and United Church of Christ congregations , and some Anglican dioceses , for example . Same - sex marriage is recognized by various religious denominations . Islam This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . ( August 2011 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message ) Main article : Islamic marital jurisprudence Newlywed couples visit Timur 's statues to receive wedding blessings in Uzbekistan . A Muslim bride of Pakistan origin signing the nikkah nama or marriage certificate . A Muslim couple being wed alongside the Tungabhadra River at Hampi , India . Islam also commends marriage , with the age of marriage being whenever the individuals feel ready , financially and emotionally . In Islam , polygyny is allowed while polyandry is not , with the specific limitation that a man can have no more than four legal wives at any one time and an unlimited number of female slaves as concubines , with the requirement that the man is able and willing to partition his time and wealth equally among the respective wives . For a Muslim wedding to take place , the bridegroom and the guardian of the bride ( wali ) must both agree on the marriage . Should the guardian disagree on the marriage , it may not legally take place . If the wali of the girl her father or paternal grandfather , he has the right to force her into marriage even against her proclaimed will , if it is her first marriage . A guardian who is allowed to force the bride into marriage is called wali mujbir . From an Islamic ( Sharia ) law perspective , the minimum requirements and responsibilities in a Muslim marriage are that the groom provide living expenses ( housing , clothing , food , maintenance ) to the bride , and in return , the bride 's main responsibility is raising children to be proper Muslims . All other rights and responsibilities are to be decided between the husband and wife , and may even be included as stipulations in the marriage contract before the marriage actually takes place , so long as they do not go against the minimum requirements of the marriage . In Sunni Islam and Ahmadiyya Islam , marriage must take place in the presence of at least two reliable witnesses , with the consent of the guardian of the bride and the consent of the groom . Following the marriage , the couple may consummate the marriage . To create an ' urf marriage , it is sufficient that a man and a woman indicate an intention to marry each other and recite the requisite words in front of a suitable Muslim . The wedding party usually follows but can be held days , or months later , whenever the couple and their families want to , however there can be no concealment of the marriage as it is regarded as public notification due to the requirement of witnesses . In Shia Islam , marriage may take place without the presence of witnesses as is often the case in temporary Nikah mut'ah ( prohibited in Sunni Islam ) , but with the consent of both the bride and the groom . Following the marriage they may consummate their marriage . Judaism A Jewish wedding , painting by Jozef Israëls , 1903 A Ketubah in Hebrew , a Jewish marriage - contract outlining the duties of each partner . Main article : Jewish views on marriage In Judaism , marriage is based on the laws of the Torah and is a contractual bond between spouses in which the spouses dedicate to be exclusive to one another . This contract is called Kiddushin . Though procreation is not the sole purpose , a Jewish marriage is also expected to fulfill the commandment to have children . The main focus centers around the relationship between the spouses . Kabbalistically , marriage is understood to mean that the spouses are merging into a single soul . This is why a man is considered `` incomplete '' if he is not married , as his soul is only one part of a larger whole that remains to be unified . The Hebrew Bible ( Christian Old Testament ) describes a number of marriages , including those of Isaac ( Gen 24 : 49 -- 67 ) , Jacob ( Gen 29 : 27 ) and Samson ( Judges 14 : 7 -- 12 ) . Polygyny , or men having multiple wives at once , is one of the most common marital arrangements represented in the Hebrew Bible . Today Ashkenazi Jews are prohibited to take more than one wife because of a ban instituted on this by Gershom ben Judah ( Died 1040 ) . Among ancient Hebrews , marriage was a domestic affair and not a religious ceremony ; the participation of a priest or rabbi was not required . Betrothal ( erusin ) , which refers to the time that this binding contract is made , is distinct from marriage itself ( nissu'in ) , with the time between these events varying substantially . In biblical times , a wife was regarded as chattel , belonging to her husband ; the descriptions of the Bible suggest that she would be expected to perform tasks such as spinning , sewing , weaving , manufacture of clothing , fetching of water , baking of bread , and animal husbandry . However , wives were usually looked after with care , and men with more than one wife were expected to ensure that they continue to give the first wife food , clothing , and marital rights . Since a wife was regarded as property , her husband was originally free to divorce her for any reason , at any time . Divorcing a woman against her will was also banned by Gershom ben Judah . A divorced couple were permitted to get back together , unless the wife had married someone else after her divorce . Hinduism Main article : Marriage in Hinduism Hindu marriage ceremony from a Rajput wedding . A Nepali Hindu couple in marriage ceremony . Hinduism sees marriage as a sacred duty that entails both religious and social obligations . Old Hindu literature in Sanskrit gives many different types of marriages and their categorization ranging from `` Gandharva Vivaha '' ( instant marriage by mutual consent of participants only , without any need for even a single third person as witness ) to normal ( present day ) marriages , to `` Rakshasa Vivaha '' ( `` demoniac '' marriage , performed by abduction of one participant by the other participant , usually , but not always , with the help of other persons ) . In India and generally in South Asia , arranged marriages , the spouse 's parents or an older family member choose the partner , are still predominant in comparison with so called love marriages until nowadays . The Hindu Widow 's Remarriage Act 1856 empowers a Hindu widow to remarry . According to some estimates , there was n't even 1 % of divorce among Hindu arranged marriages . Buddhism Main article : Buddhist view of marriage The Buddhist view of marriage considers marriage a secular affair and thus not a sacrament . Buddhists are expected to follow the civil laws regarding marriage laid out by their respective governments . Gautama Buddha , being a kshatriya was required by Shakyan tradition to pass a series of tests to prove himself as a warrior , before he was allowed to marry . Sikhism In a Sikh marriage , the couple walks around the Guru Granth Sahib holy book four times , and a holy man recites from it in the kirtan style . The ceremony is known as ' Anand Karaj ' and represents the holy union of two souls united as one . Wicca Wiccan marriages are commonly known as handfastings . Although handfastings vary for each Wiccan they often involve honoring Wiccan gods . Sex is considered a pious and sacred activity . Marriage and health Main article : Marriage and health Marriage , like other close relationships , exerts considerable influence on health . Married people experience lower morbidity and mortality across such diverse health threats as cancer , heart attacks , and surgery . Research on marriage and health is part of the broader study of the benefits of social relationships . Social ties provide people with a sense of identity , purpose , belonging and support . Simply being married , as well as the quality of one 's marriage , has been linked to diverse measures of health . The health - protective effect of marriage is stronger for men than women . Marital status -- the simple fact of being married -- confers more health benefits to men than women . Women 's health is more strongly impacted than men 's by marital conflict or satisfaction , such that unhappily married women do not enjoy better health relative to their single counterparts . Most research on marriage and health has focused on heterosexual couples , and more work is needed to clarify the health impacts of same - sex marriage . Divorce and annulment Main articles : Divorce and Divorce law by country In most societies , the death of one of the partners terminates the marriage , and in monogamous societies this allows the other partner to remarry , though sometimes after a waiting or mourning period . In some societies , a marriage can be annulled , when an authority declares that a marriage never happened . Jurisdictions often have provisions for void marriages or voidable marriages . A marriage may also be terminated through divorce . Countries that have relatively recently legalized divorce are Italy ( 1970 ) , Portugal ( 1975 ) , Brazil ( 1977 ) , Spain ( 1981 ) , Argentina ( 1987 ) , Paraguay ( 1991 ) , Colombia ( 1991 ) , Ireland ( 1996 ) , Chile ( 2004 ) and Malta ( 2011 ) . As of 2012 , the Philippines and the Vatican City are the only jurisdictions which do not allow divorce ( this is currently under discussion in Philippines ) . ) After divorce , one spouse may have to pay alimony . Laws concerning divorce and the ease with which a divorce can be obtained vary widely around the world . After a divorce or an annulment , the people concerned are free to remarry ( or marry ) . A statutory right of two married partners to mutually consent to divorce was enacted in western nations in the mid-20th century . In the United States no - fault divorce was first enacted in California in 1969 and the final state to legalize it was New York in 1989 . About 45 % of marriages in Britain and , according to a 2009 study , 46 % of marriages in the U.S. end in divorce . History of marriage The history of marriage is often considered under History of the family or legal history . Ancient world Ancient near East Many cultures have legends concerning the origins of marriage . The way in which a marriage is conducted and its rules and ramifications has changed over time , as has the institution itself , depending on the culture or demographic of the time . According to ancient Hebrew tradition , a wife was seen as being property of high value and was , therefore , usually , carefully looked after . Early nomadic communities in the middle east practised a form of marriage known as beena , in which a wife would own a tent of her own , within which she retains complete independence from her husband ; this principle appears to survive in parts of early Israelite society , as some early passages of the Bible appear to portray certain wives as each owning a tent as a personal possession ( specifically , Jael , Sarah , and Jacob 's wives ) . The husband , too , is indirectly implied to have some responsibilities to his wife . The Covenant Code orders `` If he take him another ; her food , her clothing , and her duty of marriage , shall he not diminish ( or lessen ) '' . If the husband does not provide the first wife with these things , she is to be divorced , without cost to her . The Talmud interprets this as a requirement for a man to provide food and clothing to , and have sex with , each of his wives . However , `` duty of marriage '' is also interpreted as whatever one does as a married couple , which is more than just sexual activity . And the term diminish , which means to lessen , shows the man must treat her as if he was not married to another . As a polygynous society , the Israelites did not have any laws that imposed marital fidelity on men . However , the prophet Malachi states that none should be faithless to the wife of his youth and that God hates divorce . Adulterous married women , adulterous betrothed women , and the men who slept with them however , were subject to the death penalty by the biblical laws against adultery According to the Priestly Code of the Book of Numbers , if a pregnant woman was suspected of adultery , she was to be subjected to the Ordeal of Bitter Water , a form of trial by ordeal , but one that took a miracle to convict . The literary prophets indicate that adultery was a frequent occurrence , despite their strong protests against it , and these legal strictnesses . Classical Greece and Rome See also : Marriage in ancient Rome and Ancient Greek wedding customs In ancient Greece , no specific civil ceremony was required for the creation of a heterosexual marriage -- only mutual agreement and the fact that the couple must regard each other as husband and wife accordingly . Men usually married when they were in their 20s and women in their teens . It has been suggested that these ages made sense for the Greeks because men were generally done with military service or financially established by their late 20s , and marrying a teenage girl ensured ample time for her to bear children , as life expectancies were significantly lower . Married Greek women had few rights in ancient Greek society and were expected to take care of the house and children . Time was an important factor in Greek marriage . For example , there were superstitions that being married during a full moon was good luck and , according to Robert Flacelière , Greeks married in the winter . Inheritance was more important than feelings : a woman whose father dies without male heirs could be forced to marry her nearest male relative -- even if she had to divorce her husband first . There were several types of marriages in ancient Roman society . The traditional ( `` conventional '' ) form called conventio in manum required a ceremony with witnesses and was also dissolved with a ceremony . In this type of marriage , a woman lost her family rights of inheritance of her old family and gained them with her new one . She now was subject to the authority of her husband . There was the free marriage known as sine manu . In this arrangement , the wife remained a member of her original family ; she stayed under the authority of her father , kept her family rights of inheritance with her old family and did not gain any with the new family . The minimum age of marriage for girls was 12 . Germanic tribes Seuso and his wife Among ancient Germanic tribes , the bride and groom were roughly the same age and generally older than their Roman counterparts , at least according to Tacitus : The youths partake late of the pleasures of love , and hence pass the age of puberty unexhausted : nor are the virgins hurried into marriage ; the same maturity , the same full growth is required : the sexes unite equally matched and robust ; and the children inherit the vigor of their parents . Where Aristotle had set the prime of life at 37 years for men and 18 for women , the Visigothic Code of law in the 7th century placed the prime of life at 20 years for both men and women , after which both presumably married . Tacitus states that ancient Germanic brides were on average about 20 and were roughly the same age as their husbands . Tacitus , however , had never visited the German - speaking lands and most of his information on Germania comes from secondary sources . In addition , Anglo - Saxon women , like those of other Germanic tribes , are marked as women from the age of 12 and older , based on archaeological finds , implying that the age of marriage coincided with puberty . Europe Further information : History of the family and Royal intermarriage Woodcut . How Reymont and Melusina were betrothed / And by the bishop were blessed in their bed on their wedlock . From the Melusine , 15th century . From the early Christian era ( 30 to 325 CE ) , marriage was thought of as primarily a private matter , with no uniform religious or other ceremony being required . However , bishop Ignatius of Antioch writing around 110 to bishop Polycarp of Smyrna exhorts , `` ( I ) t becomes both men and women who marry , to form their union with the approval of the bishop , that their marriage may be according to God , and not after their own lust . '' In 12th century Europe , women took the surname of their husbands and starting in the second half of the 16th century parental consent along with the church 's consent was required for marriage . With few local exceptions , until 1545 , Christian marriages in Europe were by mutual consent , declaration of intention to marry and upon the subsequent physical union of the parties . The couple would promise verbally to each other that they would be married to each other ; the presence of a priest or witnesses was not required . This promise was known as the `` verbum . '' If freely given and made in the present tense ( e.g. , `` I marry you '' ) , it was unquestionably binding ; if made in the future tense ( `` I will marry you '' ) , it would constitute a betrothal . In 1552 a wedding took place in Zufia , Navarre , between Diego de Zufia and Mari - Miguel following the custom as it was in the realm since the Middle Ages , but the man denounced the marriage on the grounds that its validity was conditioned to `` riding '' her ( `` si te cabalgo , lo cual dixo de bascuence ( ... ) balvin yo baneça aren senar içateko '' ) . The tribunal of the kingdom rejected the husband 's claim , validating the wedding , but the husband appealed to the tribunal in Zaragoza , and this institution annulled the marriage . According to the Charter of Navarre , the basic union consisted of a civil marriage with no priest required and at least two witnesses , and the contract could be broken using the same formula . The Church in turn lashed out at those who got married twice or thrice in a row while their formers spouses were still alive . In 1563 the Council of Trent , twenty - fourth session , required that a valid marriage must be performed by a priest before two witnesses . One of the functions of churches from the Middle Ages was to register marriages , which was not obligatory . There was no state involvement in marriage and personal status , with these issues being adjudicated in ecclesiastical courts . During the Middle Ages marriages were arranged , sometimes as early as birth , and these early pledges to marry were often used to ensure treaties between different royal families , nobles , and heirs of fiefdoms . The church resisted these imposed unions , and increased the number of causes for nullification of these arrangements . As Christianity spread during the Roman period and the Middle Ages , the idea of free choice in selecting marriage partners increased and spread with it . In Medieval Western Europe , later marriage and higher rates of definitive celibacy ( the so - called `` European marriage pattern '' ) helped to constrain patriarchy at its most extreme level . For example , Medieval England saw marriage age as variable depending on economic circumstances , with couples delaying marriage until the early twenties when times were bad and falling to the late teens after the Black Death , when there were labor shortages ; by appearances , marriage of adolescents was not the norm in England . Where the strong influence of classical Celtic and Germanic cultures ( which were not rigidly patriarchal ) helped to offset the Judaeo - Roman patriarchal influence , in Eastern Europe the tradition of early and universal marriage ( often in early adolescence ) as well as traditional Slavic patrilocal custom led to a greatly inferior status of women at all levels of society . The average age of marriage for most of Northwestern Europe from 1500 to 1800 was around 25 years of age ; as the Church dictated that both parties had to be at least 21 years of age to marry without the consent of their parents , the bride and groom were roughly the same age , with most brides in their early twenties and most grooms two or three years older , and a substantial number of women married for the first time in their thirties and forties , particularly in urban areas , with the average age at first marriage rising and falling as circumstances dictated . In better times , more people could afford to marry earlier and thus fertility rose and conversely marriages were delayed or forgone when times were bad , thus restricting family size ; after the Black Death , the greater availability of profitable jobs allowed more people to marry young and have more children , but the stabilization of the population in the 16th century meant fewer job opportunities and thus more people delaying marriages . The age of marriage was not absolute , however , as child marriages occurred throughout the Middle Ages and later , with just some of them including : The 1552 CE marriage between John Somerford and Jane Somerford Brereto , at the ages of 3 and 2 , respectively . In the early 1900s , Magnus Hirschfeld surveyed the age of consent in about 50 countries , which he found to often range between 12 - 16 . In the Vatican , the age of consent was 12 . As part of the Protestant Reformation , the role of recording marriages and setting the rules for marriage passed to the state , reflecting Martin Luther 's view that marriage was a `` worldly thing '' . By the 17th century , many of the Protestant European countries had a state involvement in marriage . In England , under the Anglican Church , marriage by consent and cohabitation was valid until the passage of Lord Hardwicke 's Act in 1753 . This act instituted certain requirements for marriage , including the performance of a religious ceremony observed by witnesses . A marriage in 1960 in Italy . Photo by Paolo Monti . As part of the Counter-Reformation , in 1563 the Council of Trent decreed that a Roman Catholic marriage would be recognized only if the marriage ceremony was officiated by a priest with two witnesses . The Council also authorized a Catechism , issued in 1566 , which defined marriage as `` The conjugal union of man and woman , contracted between two qualified persons , which obliges them to live together throughout life . '' In the early modern period , John Calvin and his Protestant colleagues reformulated Christian marriage by enacting the Marriage Ordinance of Geneva , which imposed `` The dual requirements of state registration and church consecration to constitute marriage '' for recognition . In England and Wales , Lord Hardwicke 's Marriage Act 1753 required a formal ceremony of marriage , thereby curtailing the practice of Fleet Marriage , an irregular or a clandestine marriage . These were clandestine or irregular marriages performed at Fleet Prison , and at hundreds of other places . From the 1690s until the Marriage Act of 1753 as many as 300,000 clandestine marriages were performed at Fleet Prison alone . The Act required a marriage ceremony to be officiated by an Anglican priest in the Anglican Church with two witnesses and registration . The Act did not apply to Jewish marriages or those of Quakers , whose marriages continued to be governed by their own customs . Newlyweds after a civil ceremony in the tower of Stockholm City Hall in 2016 In England and Wales , since 1837 , civil marriages have been recognized as a legal alternative to church marriages under the Marriage Act 1836 . In Germany , civil marriages were recognized in 1875 . This law permitted a declaration of the marriage before an official clerk of the civil administration , when both spouses affirm their will to marry , to constitute a legally recognized valid and effective marriage , and allowed an optional private clerical marriage ceremony . In contemporary English common law , a marriage is a voluntary contract by a man and a woman , in which by agreement they choose to become husband and wife . Edvard Westermarck proposed that `` the institution of marriage has probably developed out of a primeval habit '' . As of 2000 , the average marriage age range was 25 -- 44 years for men and 22 -- 39 years for women . China Main article : Chinese marriage The mythological origin of Chinese heterosexual marriage is a story about Nüwa and Fu Xi who invented proper marriage procedures after becoming married . In ancient Chinese society , people of the same surname are supposed to consult with their family trees prior to marriage to reduce the potential risk of unintentional incest . Marrying one 's maternal relatives was generally not thought of as incest . Families sometimes intermarried from one generation to another . Over time , Chinese people became more geographically mobile . Individuals remained members of their biological families . When a couple died , the husband and the wife were buried separately in the respective clan 's graveyard . In a maternal marriage a male would become a son - in - law who lived in the wife 's home . The New Marriage Law of 1950 radically changed Chinese heterosexual marriage traditions , enforcing monogamy , equality of men and women , and choice in marriage ; arranged marriages were the most common type of marriage in China until then . Starting October 2003 , it became legal to marry or divorce without authorization from the couple 's work units . Although people with infectious diseases such as AIDS may now marry , marriage is still illegal for the mentally ill . See also List of people who remarried the same spouse Convention on Consent to Marriage , Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages Notes Jump up ^ Same - sex marriage is legal in the states of Campeche , Chiapas , Chihuahua , Coahuila , Colima , Jalisco , Michoacán , Morelos , Nayarit , Puebla , Quintana Roo and Mexico City as well as in some municipalities in Guerrero , Querétaro and Tamaulipas . Same - sex marriages performed in these jurisdictions are recognized throughout Mexico . Jump up ^ Same - sex marriage is legal in the Netherlands proper . Same - sex marriages performed there are recognized in Aruba , Curaçao and Sint Maarten . Jump up ^ Same - sex marriage is legal in New Zealand proper , though is not legal in Tokelau , the Cook Islands and Niue , which together make up the Realm of New Zealand . Jump up ^ Same - sex marriage is legal in England , Wales and Scotland ; though is notably not legal in Northern Ireland . Same - sex marriage is legal in the overseas territories of Akrotiri and Dhekelia , Ascension Island , Bermuda , the British Antarctic Territory , the British Indian Ocean Territory , Falkland Islands , Gibraltar , the Pitcairn Islands and Tristan da Cunha and in the Crown dependencies of Guernsey and the Isle of Man . Jump up ^ Same - sex marriage is legal in all 50 states , the District of Columbia , Guam , the Northern Mariana Islands , Puerto Rico , the United States Virgin Islands and some tribal jurisdictions . Some tribal jurisdictions do not recognize same - sex marriage . Congress ( not the federal courts ) has legal authority over Indian country . Thus , unless Congress passes a law regarding same - sex marriage for Indian tribes , federally recognized American Indian tribes have the legal right to form their own marriage laws . American Samoa is the only unincorporated territory of the United States not to have legalized same - sex marriage . References Jump up ^ Haviland , William A. ; Prins , Harald E.L. ; McBride , Bunny ; Walrath , Dana ( 2011 ) . Cultural Anthropology : The Human Challenge ( 13th ed . ) . Cengage Learning . ISBN 978 - 0 - 495 - 81178 - 7 . `` A nonethnocentric definition of marriage is a culturally sanctioned union between two or more people that establishes certain rights and obligations between the people , between them and their children , and between them and their in - laws . '' Jump up ^ Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2008 , Vol. 1 , p. 1353 , US Department of State . Jump up ^ Map : In Legalizing Gay Marriage , England Joins Growing International Community The Lowdown Archived 27 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine ... Blogs.kqed.org ( 15 July 2013 ) . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . Jump up ^ Vucheva , Elitsa. ( 30 July 2013 ) / Social Affairs / Europeans marry older , less often . Euobserver.com . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . Jump up ^ Oxford English Dictionary 11th Edition , `` marriage '' Jump up ^ `` Online Etymology Dictionary '' . Etymonline.com . ^ Jump up to : Bell , Duran ( 1997 ) . `` Defining Marriage and Legitimacy '' ( PDF ) . Current Anthropology. 38 ( 2 ) : 237 -- 54 . doi : 10.1086 / 204606 . JSTOR 2744491 . Jump up ^ Gerstmann , Evan . Same - sex Marriage and the Constitution , p. 22 ( Cambridge University Press , 2004 ) . Jump up ^ Westermarck , Edward ( 2003 - 04 - 01 ) . History of Human Marriage 1922 . Kessinger Publishing . p. 71 . ISBN 9780766146181 . Jump up ^ Westermarck , Edward ( 1936 ) . The Future of Marriage in Western Civilisation . Books for Libraries Press . p. 3 . ISBN 9780836953046 . Jump up ^ Notes and Queries on Anthropology . Royal Anthropological Institute . 1951 . p. 110 . Jump up ^ Gough , E. Kathleen ( 1959 ) . `` The Nayars and the Definition of Marriage '' . Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland . 89 : 23 -- 34 . Nuer female - female marriage is done to keep property within a family that has no sons . It is not a form of lesbianism . Jump up ^ Gough , Kathleen ( 1968 ) . `` The Nayars and the Definition of Marriage '' . In Paul Bohannan & John Middleton . Marriage , Family and Residence . New York : Natural History Press . p. 68 . Jump up ^ Leach , Edmund ( Dec 1955 ) . `` Polyandry , Inheritance and the Definition of Marriage '' . Man . 55 ( 12 ) : 183 . doi : 10.2307 / 2795331 . Jump up ^ Lung , Tang ( 2014 ) . `` Marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi '' . Ancient History Encyclopedia . Ancient History Encyclopedia . ^ Jump up to : Goody , Jack ( 1976 ) . Production and Reproduction : A Comparative Study of the Domestic Domain . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . p. 7 . Jump up ^ Roes , Frans L. ( 1992 ) . `` The Size of Societies , Monogamy , and Belief in High Gods Supporting Human Morality '' . Tijdschrift voor sociale wetenschappen. 37 ( 1 ) : 53 -- 8 . Jump up ^ Fox , Robin ( 1997 ) . Reproduction & Succession : Studies in Anthropology , Law and Society . New Brunswick , NJ : Transaction Publishers . p. 34 . Jump up ^ Simpson , Bob ( 1998 ) . Changing Families : An Ethnographic Approach to Divorce and Separation . Oxford : Berg . ^ Jump up to : Zeitzen , Miriam Koktvedgaard ( 2008 ) . Polygamy : a cross-cultural analysis . Berg . p. 3 . ISBN 1 - 84520 - 220 - 1 . Jump up ^ Dupanloup I , Pereira L , Bertorelle G , Calafell F , Prata MJ , Amorim A , Barbujani G ( 2003 ) . `` A recent shift from polygyny to monogamy in humans is suggested by the analysis of worldwide Y - chromosome diversity '' . J Mol Evol. 57 ( 1 ) : 85 -- 97 . doi : 10.1007 / s00239 - 003 - 2458 - x . PMID 12962309 . Jump up ^ Ember , Carol R. ( 2011 ) . `` What we know and what we do n't know about variation in social organization : Melvin Ember 's approach to the study of kinship '' . Cross-Cultural Research . 45 ( 1 ) : 27 -- 30 . doi : 10.1177 / 1069397110383947 . Jump up ^ Ethnographic Atlas Codebook derived from George P. Murdock 's Ethnographic Atlas recording the marital composition of 1231 societies from 1960 to 1980 ^ Jump up to : Zeitzen , Miriam Koktvedgaard ( 2008 ) . Polygamy : A Cross-Cultural Analysis . Oxford : Berg . p. 5 . ISBN 1847886175 . Jump up ^ Fox , Robin ( 1997 ) . Reproduction & Succession : Studies in Anthropology , Law , and Society . New Brunswick , NJ : Transaction Publishers . p. 48 . Jump up ^ Zeitzen , Miriam Koktvedgaard ( 2008 ) . Polygamy : A Cross-Cultural Analysis . Oxford : Berg . pp. 125 -- 7 . ^ Jump up to : Zeitzen , Miriam Koktvedgaard ( 2008 ) . Polygamy : A Cross-Cultural Analysis . Oxford : Berg . p. 9 . Jump up ^ Fox , Robin ( 1997 ) . Reproduction & Succession : Studies in Anthropology , Law and Society . New Brunswick , NJ : Transaction Publishers . p. 21 . Jump up ^ Zeitzen , Miriam Koktvedgaard ( 2008 ) . Polygamy : A Cross-Cultural Analysis . Oxford : Berg . pp. 17 , 89 -- 107 . Jump up ^ Starkweather , Katherine ; Hames , Raymond ( June 2012 ) . `` A survey of non-classical polyandry '' . Human Nature . 23 ( 2 ) : 149 -- 172 . doi : 10.1007 / s12110 - 012 - 9144 - x . Jump up ^ Starkweather , Katherine ; Hames , Raymond ( June 2012 ) . `` A survey of non-classical polyandry '' . Human Nature . 23 ( 2 ) : 150 . Jump up ^ Levine , Nancy ( 1998 ) . The Dynamics of polyandry : kinship , domesticity , and population on the Tibetan border . Chicago : University of Chicago Press . Jump up ^ Murdock , 1949 , p. 24 . `` group marriage or a marital union embracing at once several men and several women . '' Jump up ^ `` Group Marriage '' . Encyclopædia Britannica . Jump up ^ Child Marriage UNICEF ( 2011 ) Jump up ^ `` Q & A : Child Marriage and Violations of Girls ' Rights - Human Rights Watch '' . Retrieved 7 October 2014 . Jump up ^ Robertson , Stephen . `` Age of Consent Laws '' . Children and Youth in History . Retrieved 18 October 2015 . Jump up ^ `` Understanding State Statutes on Minimum Marriage Age and Exceptions Laws '' ( PDF ) . Tahirih Justice Center . Retrieved 27 May 2017 . ^ Jump up to : `` I have a right to - BBC World Service '' . Retrieved 7 October 2014 . ^ Jump up to : `` WHO - Child marriages : 39 000 every day '' . Retrieved 7 October 2014 . Jump up ^ Bullough , Vern L. `` Age of Consent '' . Encyclopedia . Gale Group . Retrieved 18 October 2015 . ^ Jump up to : Hermann Heinrich Ploss , Max Bartels , Paul Bartels ( 1935 ) . Woman : An Historical Gynæcological and Anthropological Compendium . London , England : William Heinemann ( Medical Books ) Ltd. p. 129 . ISBN 978 - 1 - 4831 - 9419 - 6 . CS1 maint : Uses authors parameter ( link ) ^ Jump up to : `` Age of Consent '' . Faqs.org . Retrieved 18 October 2015 . Jump up ^ A Note on Child Marriage UNICEF ( July 2012 ) , p. 3 Jump up ^ Eskridge , William N. ( 1993 ) . `` A History of Same - Sex Marriage '' . Virginia Law Review . 79 ( 7 ) : 1453 -- 58 . doi : 10.2307 / 1073379 . Jump up ^ Neill , James ( 2009 ) . The Origins and Role of Same - sex Relations in Human Societies . McFarland . ISBN 978 - 0 - 7864 - 3513 - 5 . Jump up ^ Alderson , Kevin ; Lahey , Kathleen A. ( 2004 ) . Same - Sex Marriage : The Personal and the Political . Insomniac Press . p. 16 . ISBN 978 - 1 - 894663 - 63 - 2 . Jump up ^ ubi scelus est id , quod non proficit scire , ubi venus mutatur in alteram formam , ubi amor quaeritur nec videtur , iubemus insurgere leges , armari iura gladio ultore , ut exquisitis poenis subdantur infames , qui sunt vel qui futuri sunt rei.Ancientrome.ru `` where that crime is found , which is unfit even to know , we command the law to arise armed with an avenging sword that the infamous men who are , or shall in future be guilty of it , may undergo the most severe punishments . '' translation by Lord William Blackstone , Commentaries on the Laws of England ( Oxford : Clarendon Press , 1769 , Vol. IV , pp. 215 -- 16 . Jump up ^ Kuefler , Mathew ( 2007 ) . `` The Marriage Revolution in Late Antiquity : The Theodosian Code and Later Roman Marriage Law '' . Journal of Family History . 32 ( 4 ) : 343 -- 70 . doi : 10.1177 / 0363199007304424 . Jump up ^ Hinsch , Bret ( 1990 ) . Passions of the Cut Sleeve : The Male Homosexual Tradition in China . Reed Business Information , Inc . ISBN 0 - 520 - 07869 - 1 . Jump up ^ `` Wayback Machine '' . 1998 - 12 - 05 . Retrieved 2017 - 12 - 05 . Jump up ^ İlkkaracan , Pınar ( 2008 ) . Deconstructing sexuality in the Middle East : challenges and discourses . Ashgate Publishing , Ltd. p. 36 . ISBN 0 - 7546 - 7235 - 2 . Jump up ^ Inhorn , Marcia ( 2006 ) . `` Making Muslim Babies : IVF and Gamete Donation in Sunni versus Shi'a Islam '' . Culture , Medicine and Psychiatry . 30 ( 4 ) : 427 -- 50 . doi : 10.1007 / s11013 - 006 - 9027 - x . PMC 1705533 . PMID 17051430 . Jump up ^ Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 -- Sect 995.1 ( 1 ) : `` '' spouse '' of an individual includes : ( a ) another individual ( whether of the same sex or a different sex ) with whom the individual is in a relationship that is registered under a * State law or * Territory law prescribed for the purposes of section 22B of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 as a kind of relationship prescribed for the purposes of that section ; and ( b ) another individual who , although not legally married to the individual , lives with the individual on a genuine domestic basis in a relationship as a couple . '' Jump up ^ Cherlin , Andrew J. ( 2004 ) . `` The Deinstitutionalization of American Marriage '' ( PDF ) . Journal of Marriage and the Family . 66 ( 4 ) : 848 -- 61 . doi : 10.1111 / j. 0022 - 2445.2004. 00058. x . Jump up ^ Gargan , Edward A. ( 19 March 2001 ) . `` China 's New Brides Put Freedom First / All perks , no work in ' walking marriages ' '' . Newsday . p . A. 04 . Jump up ^ Karam , Souhail ( 21 July 2006 ) . `` Misyar offers marriage - lite in strict Saudi society '' . The Boston Globe . Reuters . Archived from the original on 18 February 2009 . Jump up ^ United Nations ( 2004 ) . World Fertility Report : 2003 . Retrieved 26 April 2006 from http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldfertility/World_Fertility_Report.htm . Jump up ^ United Nations ( 2000 ) . World Marriage Patterns 2000 . Retrieved 26 April 2006 from http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldmarriage/worldmarriagepatterns2000.pdf . Jump up ^ Stephen K. Sanderson ( 2010 ) , `` Why Rational Choice Theory and Sociobiology Are Natural Allies '' ( PDF ) , Evolution , Biology and Society , 7 ( 1 ) , retrieved 18 April 2015 Jump up ^ Lancaster , J.B. ; Altmann , J. ; Sherrod , L.R. ; Rossi , A. ( 2010 ) . Parenting Across the Life Span : Biosocial Dimensions . Aldine Transaction . ISBN 9781412844529 . Jump up ^ Jones , Ashley . `` Incest in Ancient Egypt '' ( PDF ) . Jump up ^ Strong , Anise ( 2006 ) . `` Incest Laws and Absent Taboos in Roman Egypt '' . Ancient History Bulletin . 20 . Jump up ^ Lewis , N. ( 1983 ) . Life in Egypt under Roman Rule . Clarendon Press . ISBN 0 - 19 - 814848 - 8 . Jump up ^ Frier , Bruce W. ; Bagnall , Roger S. ( 1994 ) . The Demography of Roman Egypt . Cambridge , UK : Cambridge University Press . ISBN 0 - 521 - 46123 - 5 . Jump up ^ Shaw , B.D. ( 1992 ) . `` Explaining Incest : Brother - Sister Marriage in Graeco - Roman Egypt '' . Man , New Series . 27 ( 2 ) : 267 -- 99 . doi : 10.2307 / 2804054 . JSTOR 2804054 . Jump up ^ Hopkins , Keith ( 1980 ) . `` Brother - Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt '' . Comparative Studies in Society and History . 22 ( 3 ) : 303 -- 54 . doi : 10.1017 / S0010417500009385 . Jump up ^ remijsen , sofie . `` Incest or Adoption ? Brother - Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt Revisited '' ( PDF ) . Jump up ^ Scheidel , W. `` Brother - sister marriage in Roman Egypt '' ( PDF ) . Jump up ^ Conniff , Richard ( 1 August 2003 ) . `` Richard Conniff . `` Go Ahead , Kiss Your Cousin . '' `` . Discovermagazine.com . Jump up ^ Kershaw , Sarah ( 26 November 2009 ) . `` Shaking Off the Shame '' . The New York Times . Jump up ^ See Article 809 of the Korean Civil Code and `` The first ten years of the Korean Constitutional Court '' ( PDF ) . Constitutional Court of Korea . p. 242 ( p. 256 of the PDF ) . Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 19 February 2012 . Jump up ^ Law Reform ( Marriage and Divorce ) Act 1976 Archived 7 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine . ( for Hindus only ) Jump up ^ ( in Russian ) The Family Code of the Russian Federation , Article 14 ( in Russian ) . Semkodeks.ru ( 13 May 2009 ) . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . Jump up ^ Ottenheimer , Martin ( 1996 ) . `` Chapter 3 '' . Forbidden Relatives : The American Myth of Cousin Marriage . University of Illinois . Jump up ^ `` Islamic View on Marrying Cousins '' . IslamonLine.net . Archived from the original on 16 July 2007 . Jump up ^ Srinivas , Mysore Narasimhachar ( 1980 ) . India : Social Structure . Delhi : Hindustan Publishing Corporation . p. 55 . ISBN 1412826195 . Jump up ^ Bourdieu , Pierre ( 1972 ) . Outline of a Theory of Practice . Cambridge UK : Cambridge University Press . pp. 27 -- 9 . Jump up ^ Radcliffe - Brown , A.R. , Daryll Forde ( 1950 ) . African Systems of Kinship and Marriage . London : KPI Limited . Jump up ^ Lévi - Strauss , Claude ( 1963 ) . Structural Anthropology . New York : Basic Books . Jump up ^ Ethics -- Slavery : Modern slavery . BBC . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . Jump up ^ Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery , including its causes and consequences , Gulnara Shahinian . United Nations . Human Rights Council Twenty - first session . 10 July 2012 Jump up ^ `` Child Marriage Factsheet : State of World Population 2005 '' . UNFPA . Archived from the original on 16 August 2007 . Jump up ^ Goody , Jack ( 1976 ) . Production and Reproduction : A Comparative Study of the Domestic Domain . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . p. 6 . Jump up ^ `` India 's dowry deaths '' . BBC News . 16 July 2003 . Jump up ^ Anita Pratap ( 11 September 1995 ) Women : killed by greed and oppression `` . TIME Magazine . Volume 146 , No. 11 Jump up ^ `` Nepal bans dowry , caste - based discrimination -- OneWorld South Asia '' . Southasia.oneworld.net. 27 January 2009 . Jump up ^ Tanwar , Reicha ( 2007 ) . Dowery the North Indian Perspective . Pinnacle Technology . pp. 36 -- . ISBN 978 - 1 - 61820 - 208 - 6 . Jump up ^ Goody , Jack ( 1976 ) . Production and Reproduction : A Comparative Study of the Domestic Domain . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . p. 8 . Jump up ^ `` A translation of some parts of the Civil Code of Iran '' . International-divorce.com . Jump up ^ Renacci , James B. `` Simplifying America 's Tax System . '' Simplifying America 's Tax System ( 2016 ) : 1 - 11 . Renacci.house.gov . July 2016 . Web . 26 Feb. 2017 . Jump up ^ Rosenblatt , Paul C. ( 2006 ) . Two in a Bed : The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing . State University of New York Press . ISBN 0 - 7914 - 6829 - 1 . Jump up ^ Sanday , Peggy Reeves ( 2002 ) . Women at the center : life in a modern matriarchy . Cornell University Press . ISBN 0 - 8014 - 8906 - 7 . Jump up ^ For example , Lewis Henry Morgan , Edward Tylor , or George Peter Murdock Jump up ^ as has been shown by Korotayev Jump up ^ Korotayev , A. ( 2003 ) . `` Form of marriage , sexual division of labor , and postmarital residence in cross-cultural perspective : A reconsideration '' . Journal of Anthropological Research . 59 ( 1 ) : 69 -- 89 . JSTOR 3631445 . Jump up ^ Korotayev , A. ( 2003 ) . `` Division of Labor by Gender and Postmarital Residence in Cross-Cultural Perspective : A Reconsideration '' . Cross-Cultural Research . 37 ( 4 ) : 335 -- 72 . doi : 10.1177 / 1069397103253685 . Jump up ^ Ember , Melvin ; Ember , Carol R. ( 1983 ) . Marriage , Family , and Kinship : Comparative Studies of Social Organization . New Haven : HRAF Press . ISBN 0 - 87536 - 113 - 7 . Jump up ^ Leach , Edmund ( 1968 ) . Paul Bonannan and John Middleton , ed . Marriage , Family , and Residence . The Natural History Press . ISBN 1 - 121 - 64470 - 8 . Jump up ^ Krier , James E. ; Gregory S. Alexander ; Michael H. Schill ; Jesse Dukeminier ( 2006 ) . Property . Aspen Publishers . ISBN 0 - 7355 - 5792 - 6 . Excerpt -- page 335 : ' ... at the wedding ; hence the importance of including in the marriage ceremony the words , `` With all my worldly goods I thee endow . '' ' Jump up ^ Gallagher , Maggie ( 2002 ) . `` What is Marriage For ? The Public Purposes of Marriage Law '' ( PDF ) . Louisiana law review . Jump up ^ `` Adultery '' Encyclopædia Britannica Jump up ^ Q & A : Child Marriage and Violations of Girls ' Rights Human Rights Watch . Hrw.org ( 14 June 2013 ) . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . Jump up ^ WHO Child marriages : 39,000 every day . Who.int ( 7 March 2013 ) . Retrieved on 6 April 2013 . Jump up ^ Frank W Sweet ( 1 January 2005 ) . `` The Invention of the Color Line : 1691 -- Essays on the Color Line and the One - Drop Rule '' . Backentyme Essays . Archived from the original on 9 April 2007 . Jump up ^ Karthikeyan , Hrishi ; Chin , Gabriel ( 2002 ) . `` Preserving Racial Identity : Population Patterns and the Application of Anti-Miscegenation Statutes to Asian Americans , 1910 -- 1950 '' . Asian Law Journal . 9 ( 1 ) . SSRN 283998 . Jump up ^ `` Where were Interracial Couples Illegal ? '' . LovingDay . Jump up ^ `` Courtroom History '' Lovingday.org Retrieved 28 June 2007 Jump up ^ Stein , Edward ( 2004 ) . `` Past and present proposed amendments to the United States constitution regarding marriage '' . Washington University Law Quarterly . 82 ( 3 ) . SSRN 576181 . Jump up ^ Michael Burleigh ( 7 November 1991 ) . The Racial State : Germany 1933 - 1945 . Cambridge University Press . p. 49 . ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 39802 - 2 . Jump up ^ `` Polygamy in Muslim countries '' . Waleg.com. 26 June 2005 . Jump up ^ Berstein , Nina ( 25 March 2007 ) . `` Polygamy , Practiced in Secrecy , Follows Africans to New York City '' . New York Times . Archived from the original on 20 July 2008 . Jump up ^ `` Tunisia : Notable Features : Polygamy '' . Law.emory.edu . ^ Jump up to : Hagerty , Barbara Bradley ( 27 May 2008 ) . `` Some Muslims in U.S. Quietly Engage in Polygamy '' . National Public Radio : All Things Considered . Jump up ^ Lyman , Edward Leo ( 1994 ) . `` Statehood for Utah '' . In Powell , Allan Kent . Utah History Encyclopedia . Salt Lake City , Utah : University of Utah Press . ISBN 0874804256 . OCLC 30473917 . Archived from the original on 1 November 2013 Jump up ^ `` Sri Lanka : Family Code '' . Genderindex.org . Archived from the original on 27 October 2010 . Jump up ^ See Polygamy in India Jump up ^ `` Myanmar : Family Code '' . Genderindex.org . Archived from the original on 11 March 2011 . Jump up ^ `` Turkish Civil and Penal Code Reforms from a Gender Perspective : The Success of two Nationwide Campaigns '' ( PDF ) . Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 2006 - 12 - 31 . ( 6.21 MB ) ( p. 18 ) Jump up ^ `` Common Law Marriage FAQ . '' Nolo. 31 July 2009 . Jump up ^ NYC Protest and Civil Rights March Opposing Proposition 8 , Andy Towle , Towleroad.com , 13 November 2008 . Retrieved 14 November 2008 . Jump up ^ `` Immigration to the United States : Fiscal years 1820 -- 2003 '' ( PDF ) . ( 2.03 MB ) Jump up ^ `` Sham marriage : Married on the day they met to prolong her stay '' . Retrieved 26 June 2014 . ^ Jump up to : Weadock , Briana . `` Disciplining Marriage : Gender , Power and Resistance '' . Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association , Hilton San Francisco & Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel , San Francisco , CA , , 14 August 2004 . Jump up ^ Evans , Tanya ( 2005 ) Women , Marriage and the Family , p. 64 in Barker , Hannah , & Elaine Chalus , eds. , Women 's History : Britain , 1700 -- 1850 : An Introduction , Oxon / London : Routledge , ISBN 0 - 415 - 29177 - 1 . Jump up ^ Evans , Tanya , Women , Marriage and the Family , op . cit. , in Barker , Hannah , & Elaine Chalus , eds. , Women 's History , op . cit. , p. 66 & n . 69 . Jump up ^ Wollstonecraft , Mary ( 1995 ) . Wollstonecraft : A Vindication of the Rights of Man and a Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Hints . Cambridge University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 43633 - 5 . 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Jump up ^ Barnett , Hilaire A , Introduction to Feminist Jurisprudence ( London , G.B. , U.K. : Cavendish Publishing , 1998 ( ISBN 1859412378 ) ) , p. 35 and , per p. 35 n . 35 , see chap. 3 ( author then of Queen Mary & Westfield Coll. , Univ. of London ) . ^ Jump up to : Sprecher , Susan ; Felmlee , Diane ( 1997 ) . `` The Balance of Power in Romantic Heterosexual Couples Over Time from `` His '' and `` Her '' Perspectives `` . Sex Roles. 37 ( 5 / 6 ) : 361 -- 379 . doi : 10.1023 / A : 1025601423031 . Jump up ^ Figure 9 , Frances Finnegan , Do Penance or Perish , Congrave Press , 2001 . Jump up ^ Divale , W. ( 2000 ) . Pre-Coded Variables for the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample , Volume I and II . Jamaica , NY : York College , CUNY . Distributed by World Cultures at http://worldcultures.org/SCCS1.pdf . See Variable 170 and Variable 171 . Jump up ^ Murdock , G.P. , White , D.R. ( 1969 ) . `` Standard cross-cultural sample '' . Ethnology. 8 ( 4 ) : 329 -- 69 . doi : 10.2307 / 3772907 . JSTOR 3772907 . CS1 maint : Multiple names : authors list ( link ) Jump up ^ Clements , M. ( 7 August 1994 ) . `` Sex in America today : A new national survey reveals how our attitudes are changing '' . Parade Magazine . pp. 4 -- 6 . Jump up ^ Laumann , E.O. , Gagnon , J.H. , Michael , R. T , & Michaels , S. ( 1994 ) . The social organization of sexuality : Sexual practices in the United States . Chicago : University of Chicago Press . Jump up ^ Wiederman , M.W. ( 1997 ) . `` Extramarital sex : Prevalence and correlates in a national survey '' . Journal of Sex Research . 34 ( 2 ) : 167 -- 74 . doi : 10.1080 / 00224499709551881 . Jump up ^ Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance ( 31 December 2006 ) . `` Human sexuality and gender topics : Subjects of major concern to many faith groups '' . Religioustolerance.org . Jump up ^ `` Human Rights Voices -- Pakistan , August 21 , 2008 '' . Eyeontheun.org . Archived from the original on 21 January 2013 . Jump up ^ `` Home '' . AIDSPortal . 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Jump up ^ `` Sudan must rewrite rape laws to protect victims '' . Reuters. 28 June 2007 . Jump up ^ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees . `` Refworld Women 's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa -- Yemen '' . UNHCR . Jump up ^ Ethics -- Honour crimes . BBC . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . Jump up ^ Pandey , Geeta. ( 16 June 2010 ) BBC News -- Indian community torn apart by ' honour killings ' . Bbc.co.uk . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . Jump up ^ Iran Stoning : Woman To Be Executed For Adultery . Huffingtonpost.com . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . Jump up ^ `` Somali woman stoned for adultery '' . BBC News . 18 November 2009 . Jump up ^ Tait , Robert & Hoseiny , Noushin ( 21 July 2008 ) . `` Eight women and a man face stoning in Iran for adultery '' . The Guardian . London . Jump up ^ `` Two Men Stoned to Death for Adultery in Iran '' . Foxnews.com ( 13 January 2009 ) . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . Jump up ^ `` Taliban ' kill adulterous Afghan couple ' '' . 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Jump up ^ Domestic violence is today illegal in the Western World , but this is not the case in many developing countries . In Jordan , for instance , part of article 340 of the Penal Code states that `` he who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery and kills , wounds , or injures one of them , is exempted from any penalty . Altstein , Howard & Simon , Rita James ( 2003 ) . Global perspectives on social issues : marriage and divorce . Lexington , Mass : Lexington Books . p. 11 . ISBN 0 - 7391 - 0588 - 4 . Jump up ^ IPS -- Adultery Laws Unfairly Target Women , U.N. Says Inter Press Service . Ipsnews.net ( 24 October 2012 ) . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . ^ Jump up to : DisplayNews . Ohchr.org ( 18 October 2012 ) . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . Jump up ^ Indonesia : New Aceh Law Imposes Torture Human Rights Watch . Hrw.org ( 11 October 2009 ) . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . 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Jump up ^ Bennhold , Katrin ( 5 October 2010 ) . 20 Years After Fall of Wall , Women of Former East Germany Thrive , The New York Times . Jump up ^ Trzcinski , Eileen and Holst , Elke ( April 2010 ) Gender Differences in Subjective Well - Being in and out of Management Positions , German Institute for Economic Research , Berlin . Jump up ^ Spain -- Social Values And Attitudes . Countrystudies.us . Retrieved on 6 April 2013 . Jump up ^ Statistics by Area -- Attitudes towards wife - beating -- Statistical table Archived 4 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine ... Childinfo.org . Retrieved on 6 April 2013 . Jump up ^ ( PDF ) https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20170524221920/http://www.childinfo.org/files/MICS_Afghanistan_2010-11.pdf . Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 24 May 2017 . Retrieved 8 February 2013 . Missing or empty title = ( help ) Jump up ^ http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/738-decriminalization-of-adultery-and-defenses.html Jump up ^ http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#{%22itemid%22:[%22001-170344%22 ) ) Jump up ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/06/world/asia/philippines-legal-divorce-battle/ Jump up ^ http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1828&context=faculty_scholarship Jump up ^ `` The Economics of Dowry and Brideprice '' ( PDF ) . econ.arts.ubc.ca . Jump up ^ `` Human rights groups ask NWFP Govt. to ban ' bride price ' to curb women Trafficking . -- Free Online Library '' . Thefreelibrary.com. 18 January 2010 . Jump up ^ iSite Interactive Limited ( 21 November 2011 ) . `` PNG Police blame bride price for violence in marriage '' . Islands Business . Archived from the original on 26 January 2013 . Jump up ^ `` Addressing dowry - related violence through criminalization of dowry demands '' . Endvawnow.org . Jump up ^ `` Changing Patterns of Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States '' . CDC / National Center for Health Statistics . 13 May 2009 . Retrieved 24 September 2011 . Jump up ^ The 1997 Global Study on Family Values found that only 3 % of respondents in Iceland , 8 % in France , and 9 % in Germany , thought that it was `` wrong '' to have a child outside marriage . GLOBAL STUDY OF FAMILY VALUES . An International Gallup Poll . FAMILY VALUES DIFFER SHARPLY AROUND THE WORLD . hi-ho.ne.jp Jump up ^ In many parts of the world , especially in Muslim majority countries , children born outside marriage and their mothers face severe social and legal difficulties Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA . mrt-rrt.gov.au. 21 April 2009 . Jump up ^ European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock . Conventions.coe.int . Retrieved on 5 September 2013 . Jump up ^ Council of Europe -- ETS no . 085 -- European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock . 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Department of Demography ( IFCH ) and Population Studies Center ( Nepo ) , State University of Campinas ^ Jump up to : http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tps00018 Jump up ^ https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/births.htm Jump up ^ http://www.ag.gov.au/About/ForcedAdoptionsApology/Pages/default.aspx Jump up ^ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-21872954 Jump up ^ Bawah , AA. ; Akweongo P ; Simmons R ; Phillips JF. ( 1999 ) . `` Women 's fears and men 's anxieties : the impact of family planning on gender relations in northern Ghana '' ( PDF ) . Studies in Family Planning . Population Council . 30 ( 1 ) : 54 -- 66 . doi : 10.1111 / j. 1728 - 4465.1999. 00054. x . PMID 10216896 . Jump up ^ Sing Ging Su , ( 1922 ) The Chinese Family System , BiblioBazaar , pp. 54 -- 5 . ISBN 0 - 554 - 50635 - 1 Jump up ^ Olson , Duane ( 2011 ) . Issues in Contemporary Christian Thought : A Fortress Introduction . Fortress Press . p. 150 . ISBN 9781451407310 . Retrieved 2015 - 09 - 17 . In the course of human history , over thousands of years , many human cultures arise in relative isolation from each other , and major world religions develop in these relatively independent cultures . Jump up ^ Smith , Peter ( 2000 ) . `` Marriage '' . A concise encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith . Oxford : Oneworld Publications . pp. 232 -- 33 . ISBN 1 - 85168 - 184 - 1 . ^ Jump up to : Witte Jr. , John ( 1997 ) . From Sacrament to Contract : Marriage , Religion , and Law in the Western Tradition . Westminster John Knox Press . pp. 39 -- 40 . ISBN 0 - 664 - 25543 - 4 . Jump up ^ `` Religions -- Christianity : Marriage and weddings '' . BBC . Jump up ^ Francis Schüssler Fiorenza ; John P. Galvin , eds. ( 1991 ) . Systematic Theology : Roman Catholic Perspectives. 2 . Fortress Press . p. 320 . ISBN 978 - 1 - 4514 - 0795 - 2 . Retrieved 7 October 2014 . ^ Jump up to : Monger , George P. ( 2004 ) . `` Christian Weddings '' . Marriage Customs of the World : From Henna to Honeymoons . Santa Barbara , CA : ABC CLIO . pp. 70 -- 71 . ISBN 9781576079874 . OCLC 469368346 . Jump up ^ McSheffrey , Shannon ( 2006 ) . Marriage , sex , and civic culture in late medieval London . University of Pennsylvania Press . p. 21 . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8122 - 3938 - 6 . Retrieved 16 April 2012 . ^ Jump up to : O'Malley , John W. , in The Sensuous in the Counter-Reformation Church , Eds : Marcia B. Hall , Tracy E. Cooper , 2013 , Cambridge University Press , ISBN 978 - 1 - 107 - 01323 - 0 , 32 - 36 , google books , p. 31 . Jump up ^ ( 1 ) Jump up ^ See also , Gen. 2 : 24 , Matt . 19 : 5 , Eph. 5 : 31 Jump up ^ Herbermann , Charles , ed. ( 1913 ) . `` Sacrament of Marriage '' . Catholic Encyclopedia . New York : Robert Appleton Company . ^ Jump up to : Jr. , Charles Yrigoyen ; Warrick , Susan E. ( 7 November 2013 ) . Historical Dictionary of Methodism . Scarecrow Press . p. 236 . ISBN 9780810878945 . In Methodism , the sacred service celebrates a covenenat grounded in the will of God and sustained by divine grace ... Methodism encourages the solemnization of marriages within the context of congregational worship and eucharistic celebration . access - date = requires url = ( help ) Jump up ^ `` Catechism of the Catholic Church , Second Edition , Article Seven , Paragraph 1612 '' . Vatican.va . Archived from the original on 17 February 2007 . Jump up ^ `` Catechism of the Catholic Church , Second Edition , Article Seven , Paragraph 1601 '' . Vatican.va . Archived from the original on 17 February 2007 . Jump up ^ The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church 2016 . United Methodist Publishing House . 16 December 2016 . p. 623 . ISBN 9781501833250 . For the church , the marriage covenant is gounded in the covenant between God and God 's people into which Christians enter in their baptism . access - date = requires url = ( help ) Jump up ^ McLachlan , P. Sacrament of Holy Matrimony . Catholic-pages.com Jump up ^ `` Catechism of the Catholic Church , Second Edition , Article Seven , Paragraph 1665 '' . Vatican.va . Archived from the original on 17 February 2007 . Jump up ^ Divorce and Remarriage from Augustine to Zwingli . Christianity Today . Retrieved on 6 April 2013 . Jump up ^ Matthew , 19 : 6 , New American Bible Revised Edition , ( 2 ) . Jump up ^ Code of Canon Law Annotated , edited by Ernest Caparros et alia , Canon 1056 , pages 806 - 7 ( Woodridge , Illinois : Midwest Theological Forum , 2004 ) ; see the printed work to correctly cite the translator ( s ) et alia ; emphasis added . Jump up ^ Code of Canon Law Annotated , edited by Ernest Caparros et alia , Canon 1057 , § 2 , page 807 ( Woodridge , Illinois : Midwest Theological Forum , 2004 ) ; see the printed work to correctly cite the translator ( s ) et alia ; emphasis added . Jump up ^ `` GCSE Bitesize : Marriage '' . BBC . Jump up ^ Mulhall , Daniel S. ( 18 September 2013 ) . The Ecumenical Christian Dialogues and The Catechism of the Catholic Church . Paulist Press . p. 155 . ISBN 9781616438098 . The Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century were unwilling to call marriage a sacrament because they did not regard matrimony as a necessary means of grace for salvation . Though not necessary for salvation certainly marriage is a means of grace , thus , sacramental in character . access - date = requires url = ( help ) Jump up ^ Witte , John ( 2009 ) . Selderhuis , Herman J , ed . Marriage and Family Life . The Calvin Handbook . Grand Rapids , MI : Wm . B. Eerdmans Publishing . pp. 455 -- 465 . SSRN 1014729 -- via Social Science Research Network . Jump up ^ Witte , John ( 1997 ) . From sacrament to contract : marriage , religion , and law in the Western tradition ( 1st ed . ) . Louisville , Ky. : Westminster John Knox Press . p. 257 . ISBN 0664255434 . Retrieved 14 December 2016 . Jump up ^ https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng Jump up ^ https://www.lds.org/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/lesson-5-laws-and-ordinances?lang=eng Jump up ^ https://www.lds.org/manual/the-eternal-family-teacher-manual/lesson-15-eternal-marriage?lang=eng Jump up ^ `` World Religions and Same - Sex Marriage '' , Marriage Law Project , Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America , Washington , D.C. , July 2002 revision Jump up ^ `` Affirming Congregations , The Episcopal Church and Ministries of the United Church of Canada '' . United-church.ca . Archived from the original on 31 May 2010 . Jump up ^ `` Religious Groups ' Official Positions on Same - Sex Marriage '' . pewforums.org. 1 April 2008 . Archived from the original on 9 November 2008 . Jump up ^ Shaila Dewan ( 5 July 2005 ) . `` United Church of Christ Backs Same - Sex Marriage '' . The New York Times . Jump up ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam , New Edition , Vol . VIII , p. 27 , Leiden 1995 . Jump up ^ The method of pronouncing the marriage formula Jump up ^ Marriage formula . sistani.org Jump up ^ Conditions of pronouncing Nikah . sistani.org Jump up ^ Women with whom matrimony is Haraam Jump up ^ al-islam.org Jump up ^ Mishnah Kidushin 1 : 1 Jump up ^ Talmud Kiddushin 2a Jump up ^ `` Why Marry ? '' . Chabad.org . Archived from the original on 24 December 2007 . ^ Jump up to : One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Singer , Isidore ; et al. , eds. ( 1901 -- 1906 ) . `` Marriage '' . Jewish Encyclopedia . New York : Funk & Wagnalls Company . Jump up ^ Sumner , William Graham ( 2007 ) ( 1906 ) . `` X . The Marriage Institution '' . Folkways : A Study of Mores , Manners , Customs and Morals . New York : Cosimo , Inc. p. 398 . ISBN 9781602067585 . OCLC 254079323 . The whole proceeding was a domestic and family affair , in which no priest or other outsider had any part , except as witness , and there was no religious element in it . Bergel , Eheverhält . der Juden , 19 . ^ Jump up to : This article incorporates text from the 1903 Encyclopaedia Biblica article `` MARRIAGE '' , a publication now in the public domain . Jump up ^ Genesis 29 : 9 ; Exodus 2 : 16 ; ( 3 ) , 8 : 13 Jump up ^ `` Am I a Hindu ? '' , by `` Edakkandiyil Viswanathan '' , p. 71 , published by Rupa & Co . Jump up ^ A Wiccan Bible : Exploring the Mysteries of the Craft from Birth to Summerland -- p. 124 , A.J. Drew -- 2003 ^ Jump up to : Robles , T. , Slatcher , R. , Trombello , J. , & McGinn , M. ( 2013 ) . Marital Quality and Health : A Meta - Analytic Review . Psychological bulletin . Retrieved from http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2013-09831-001/ ^ Jump up to : Kiecolt - Glaser , JK ; Newton , TL ( 2001 ) . `` Marriage and health : His and hers '' . Psychological Bulletin . 127 ( 4 ) : 472 -- 503 . doi : 10.1037 / 0033 - 2909.127. 4.472 . PMID 11439708 . Jump up ^ Thoits , P.A. ( 2011 ) . `` Mechanisms Linking Social Ties and Support to Physical and Mental Health '' . Journal of Health and Social Behavior . 52 ( 2 ) : 145 -- 61 . doi : 10.1177 / 0022146510395592 . PMID 21673143 . ^ Jump up to : Wanic , R. ; Kulik , J. ( 2011 ) . `` Toward an understanding of gender differences in the impact of marital conflict on health '' . Sex Roles. 65 ( 5 -- 6 ) : 297 -- 312 . doi : 10.1007 / s11199 - 011 - 9968 - 6 . Jump up ^ Saxbe , DE ; Repetti , RL ; Nishina , A ( 2008 ) . `` Marital satisfaction , recovery from work , and diurnal cortisol among men and women '' ( PDF ) . Health Psychology . 27 ( 1 ) : 15 -- 25 . doi : 10.1037 / 0278 - 6133.27. 1.15 . PMID 18230009 . Jump up ^ Malig , Jojo ( 6 July 2012 ) . `` Is Philippines ready for a divorce law ? '' . ABS - CBN News . Archived from the original on 7 June 2012 . Jump up ^ `` No - Fault Divorce -- The Pros and Cons Of No - Fault Divorce '' . Divorcesupport.about.com. 30 July 2010 . Jump up ^ Nearly half of marriaged doomed for divorce , The Guardian ( 27 March 2008 ) Jump up ^ Yen , Hope ( 18 May 2011 ) Census ; divorce decline but 7 year itch persists , Associated Press . Jump up ^ for the historiography see Frederik J.G. Pedersen , `` Marriage '' in Kelly Boyd , ed ( 1999 ) . Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing vol 2 . Taylor & Francis . pp. 766 -- 68 . CS1 maint : Extra text : authors list ( link ) Jump up ^ Hobhouse , Leonard Trelawny ( 1906 ) Morals in evolution : a study in comparative ethics , New York , H. Holt and Co , p. 180 . ^ Jump up to : William Robertson Smith , Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia , ( 1885 ) , 167 Jump up ^ Judges 4 : 7 Jump up ^ Genesis 24 : 26 Jump up ^ Genesis 31 : 33 -- 34 Jump up ^ Exodus 21 : 10 Jump up ^ Exodus 21 : 11 Jump up ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Singer , Isidore ; et al. , eds. ( 1901 -- 1906 ) . `` Husband and Wife '' . Jewish Encyclopedia . New York : Funk & Wagnalls Company . ^ Jump up to : This article incorporates text from the 1903 Encyclopaedia Biblica article `` Jealousy , Ordeal of '' , a publication now in the public domain . Jump up ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Singer , Isidore ; et al. , eds. ( 1901 -- 1906 ) . `` Adultery '' . Jewish Encyclopedia . New York : Funk & Wagnalls Company . 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Jump up ^ Levin , Eve . 1995 . Sex and Society in the World of the Orthodox Slavs , 900 - 1700 . Cornell University Press . pp 96 - 98 Jump up ^ Levin , 1995 ; Pgs 137 , 142 Jump up ^ Levin , 1995 ; Pgs 225 - 227 Jump up ^ Stone , Linda . ( 2010 ) . Kinship and Gender . Boulder , Colorado : Westview Press , pp. 231 -- 36 , ISBN 0813344026 . Jump up ^ Schofield , Phillipp R. ( 2003 ) . Peasant and community in Medieval England , 1200 -- 1500 . Medieval culture and society . New York : Palgrave - Macmillan . p 98 , ISBN 0333647106 . ^ Jump up to : Laslett , Peter . ( 1965 ) . The World We Have Lost . New York , New York : Charles Scribner 's Sons . p. 82 , ISBN 0415315271 . Jump up ^ Coontz , Stephanie. ( 2005 ) . Marriage , a History : From Obedience to Intimacy , or How Love Conquered Marriage . New York , New York : Viking Press , Penguin Group Inc . pp. 125 -- 29 , ISBN 014303667X . Jump up ^ Kertzer , David I and Marzio Barbagli. ( 2001 ) . The history of the European family . New Haven : Yale University Press . p xxii , ISBN 0300090900 . Jump up ^ Lehmberg , Stanford E. and Samantha A. Meigs. ( 2008 ) . The Peoples of the British Isles : A New History : From Prehistoric Times to 1688 . Lyceum Books . p. 117 , ISBN 1933478012 . Jump up ^ De Moor , Tine ; Van Zanden , Jan Luiten ( 2010 ) . `` Girl power : The European marriage pattern and labour markets in the North Sea region in the late medieval and early modern period '' . The Economic History Review . 63 : 1 -- 33 ( 17 ) . doi : 10.1111 / j. 1468 - 0289.2009. 00483. x . Jump up ^ Bullough , Vern L. `` Adolescence , Sexuality , and the Criminal Law : Multidisciplinary Perspectives '' . p. 37 . ISBN 978 - 1 - 317 - 95499 - 6 . Retrieved 18 October 2015 . Jump up ^ Herbermann , Charles , ed. ( 1913 ) . `` History of Marriage '' . Catholic Encyclopedia . New York : Robert Appleton Company . Jump up ^ West 's Encyclopedia of American Law , 2nd Edition . Thomson Gale , 2005 . ISBN 0 - 7876 - 6367 - 0 Jump up ^ Leneman , Leah ( 1999 ) . `` The Scottish Case That Led to Hardwicke 's Marriage Act '' . Law and History Review . Archived from the original on 25 May 2012 . Jump up ^ Gillis , John R. ( 1985 ) . For Better , for Worse : British Marriages , 1600 to the Present . Oxford University Press . p. 92 . ISBN 0 - 19 - 503614 - X . Jump up ^ `` Marriage LII / Legal Information Institute '' . Topics.law.cornell.edu. 19 August 2010 . Archived from the original on 25 March 2011 . Jump up ^ Westermarck , Edward Alexander ( 1903 ) . The History of Human Marriage ( reprint ed . ) . Macmillan and Co. , Ltd. , London . ISBN 1 - 4021 - 8548 - 0 . Jump up ^ `` Danwei '' . Retrieved 7 October 2014 . Jump up ^ Spencer , Richard ( 21 August 2003 ) . `` China relaxes laws on love and marriage '' . The Daily Telegraph . London . External links Find more aboutMarriageat Wikipedia 's sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Wikimedia Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource For Better , for Worse : British Marriages , 1600 to the Present John Gillis. 1985 . Oxford University Press . ISBN 0 - 19 - 503614 - X The Council of Trent on Marriage by the Catholic Church `` Legal Regulation of Marital Relations : An Historical and Comparative Approach -- Gautier 19 ( 1 ) : 47 -- International Journal of Law , Policy and the Family '' . `` Marriage -- Its Various Forms and the Role of the State '' on BBC Radio 4 's In Our Time featuring Janet Soskice , Frederik Pedersen and Christina Hardyment Radical Principles and the Legal Institution of Marriage : Domestic Relations Law and Social Democracy in Sweden -- Bradley 4 ( 2 ) : 154 -- International Journal of Law , Policy and the Family Recordings & Photos from a College Historical Society debate on the role of marriage , featuring Senator David Norris and Senator Ronan Mullen . Chris Knight . `` Early Human Kinship Was Matrilineal . '' In N.J. Allen , H. Callan , R. Dunbar and W. James ( eds . ) , Early Human Kinship . Oxford : Blackwell , pp. 61 -- 82 . The Delights of Wisdom Concerning Marriage ( `` Conjugial '' ) Love , After Which Follows the Pleasures of Insanity Concerning Scortatory Love. by Emanuel Swedenborg ( Swedenborg Society 1953 ) <Th_colspan="2"> Family <Td_colspan="2"> History Household Nuclear family Extended family Conjugal family Immediate family Matrifocal family Blended family Dysfunctional family Polyfidelitous families First - degree relatives Parent Father Mother Child Daughter Son Sibling Brother Sister Second - degree relatives Grandparent Grandchild Aunt Uncle Nephew and niece Third - degree relatives Great - grandparent Great - grandchild Grand - nephew and grand - niece Cousin Family - in - law Spouse Wife Husband Parents - in - law Siblings - in - law Stepfamily Stepfather Stepmother Stepchild Stepsibling Kinship Adoption Affinity Consanguinity Disownment Divorce Estrangement Fictive kinship Marriage Nurture kinship Lineage Bilateral descent Common ancestor Family name Family tree Genealogy Heirloom Heredity Inheritance Matrilineality Patrilineality Pedigree chart Progenitor Relationships Agape ( parental love ) Eros ( marital love ) Filial piety Philia ( friendly love ) Storge ( familial love ) Holidays Mother 's Day U.S. Father 's Day Father - Daughter Day Siblings Day National Grandparents Day Parents ' Day Wedding anniversary Related Sociology of the family Museum of Motherhood <Th_colspan="2"> Family rights Elements Fetal rights Children 's rights Matrimonial rights Mothers ' rights Youth rights Reproductive rights Rights movements Children 's Fathers ' Parents ' See also Family law Parental responsibility Parental liability <Th_colspan="2"> Weddings Pre-wedding Engagement Wedding planner Bridal registry Bridal shower Engagement party Wedding invitation Chinese pre-wedding customs Bachelor party Bachelorette party Stag and doe party Marriage licence Rehearsal dinner Locations Wedding chapel Gretna Green Las Vegas Clothing Black tie Boutonnière Contemporary Western wedding dress Garter Hwarot Morning dress Optional Tuxedo Wedding dress White tie Objects Chuppah Las arras Lebes Gamikos Wedding cord Wedding favors Wedding mandap Wedding ring cushion Wishing well Participants Bride child bride Bridegroom child bridegroom Bridesmaid Bridesman Flower girl Groomsman Page boy Officiant Traditions Ahesta Bero Banns of marriage Bedding ceremony Bridal Chorus First dance Hesitation step `` Indian '' Wedding Blessing Jumping the broom Lych Gate Money dance Music Polterabend Pounded rice ritual Pyebaek Trash the dress Unity candle Walima Wedding March Wedding photography Wedding reception Wedding videography Food and drink Wedding breakfast Wedding cake Wedding cake topper Cookie table Groom 's cake Hochzeitssuppe Icingtons Jordan almonds Korovai Loving cup Place card Religion and culture Anand Karaj ( Sikh ) Arab Ayie Ayyavazhi Bengali Bengali Hindu Brunei Malay Chinese Hajong Hindu Islamic Iyer Jewish Mormon Oriya Persian Poruwa ceremony Punjabi Quaker Rajput Saint Thomas Christian Shinto Vőfély ( Hungary ) Zoroastrian By country Vőfély ( Hungary ) Iceland Pakistan Philippines Russia South Asia Sri Lanka Ukraine United States United Kingdom : England and Wales , Scotland , history Vietnam Honeymoon Honeymoon registry Consummation Other Elopement Equal marriage Marriage Marriage vows Posthumous marriage Royal intermarriage Royal weddings Shotgun wedding Knobstick wedding Wedding anniversary Wedding crashing Wedding customs by country Wedding vow renewal ceremony Wife selling Womanless wedding World Marriage Day LCCN : sh85081416 GND : 4013630 - 9 BNF : cb11932417s ( data ) HDS : 7975 NDL : 00566567 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marriage&oldid=814534250 '' Categories : Marriage Demography Family Gender Kinship and descent Mating Philosophy of love Social institutions Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links CS1 maint : Uses authors parameter Articles with Russian - language external links Articles with inconsistent citation formats CS1 maint : Multiple names : authors list Pages containing links to subscription - only content Pages with citations lacking titles Pages with citations having bare URLs Articles incorporating a citation from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference Pages using citations with accessdate and no URL All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from June 2016 Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia without a Wikisource reference Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1903 Encyclopaedia Biblica CS1 maint : Extra text : authors list Tagged pages containing blacklisted links Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages Wikipedia indefinitely move - 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