A TERM PAPER ON

CONCEPTUALIZATION OF MARRIAGE AND ITS VITALITY TO THE PRESENT DAY

SOCIETY.

WRITTEN BY:

AZIBA OBEHIOYE GOD'SMERCY

MATRICULATION NUMBER:FSS/SOC/20/67314
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
AMBROSE ALLI UNIVERSITY, EKPOMA

SUBMITTED TO:

L.IKAHOKHAULE (COURSE LECTURER)

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT TO THE REQUIREMENTS

OF SOCIOLOGY OF THE FAMILY (SOC 206)
9TH NOVEMBER,2022
INTRODUCTION
Depending on the society, marriage may require religious and/or civil sanction,
although some couples may come to be considered married simply by living
together for a period of time (common law marriage). Though marriage
ceremonies, rules, and roles may differ from one society to another, marriage
is considered a cultural universal, which means that it is present as a social
institution in all cultures.

Marriage serves several functions. In most societies, it serves to socially

identify children by defining kinship ties to a mother, father, and extended
relatives. It also serves to regulate sexual behavior, to transfer, preserve, or
consolidate property, prestige, and power, and most importantly, it is the basis
for the institution of the family.

In most societies, a marriage is considered a permanent social and legal

contract and relationship between two people that is based on mutual rights
and obligations among the spouses. A marriage is often based on a romantic
relationship, though this is not always the case. But regardless, it typically
signals a sexual relationship between two people. A marriage, however, does
not simply exist between the married partners, but rather, is codified as a
social institution in legal, economic, social, and spiritual/religious ways.
Because a marriage is recognized by law and by religious institutions, and
involves economic ties between the spouses, a dissolution of marriage
(annulment or divorce) must, in turn, involve a dissolution of the marriage
relationship in all of these realms.

Typically, the institution of marriage begins with a period of courtship that

culminates in an invitation to marry. This is followed by the marriage
ceremony, during which mutual rights and responsibilities may be specifically
stated and agreed to. In many places, the state or a religious authority must
sanction a marriage in order for it to be considered valid and legal.

In many societies, including the Western world and the United States, marriage
is widely considered the basis of and foundation for family. This is why a
marriage is often greeted socially with immediate expectations that the couple
will produce children, and why children that are born outside of marriage are
sometimes branded with the stigma of illegitimacy.
BASIC CONCEPTS
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally
recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and
obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and
between them and their in-laws. It is considered a cultural universal but the
definition of marriage varies between cultures and religions, and over time.

Typically, it is 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. A marriage
ceremony is called a wedding.

Individuals may marry for several reasons, including legal, social, libidinal,
emotional, financial, spiritual, and religious purposes. Whom they marry may
be influenced by gender, 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 forced marriage are
practiced. In other areas, such practices are outlawed to preserve women's
rights or children's rights (both female and male) or as a result of international
law.

In some parts of the world, marriage has historically restricted the rights of
women, who are (or were) considered the property of the husband. Around
the world, primarily in developed democracies, there has been a general trend
towards ensuring equal rights for women within marriage (including abolishing
coverture, liberalizing divorce laws, and reforming reproductive and sexual
rights) and legally recognizing the marriages of interfaith,
interracial/interethnic/inter-caste and same-sex couples. Controversies
continue regarding the legal status of married women, leniency towards
violence within marriage, customs such as dowry and bride price, forced
marriage, marriageable age, and criminalization of premarital and extramarital
sex. Female age at marriage has proven to be a strong indicator for female
autonomy and is continuously used by economic history research.
CONCEPTUALIZATION OF MARRIAGE IN AFRICA
Marriage is the demographic event most often used to estimate the time when
regular sexual relations begin. In "natural fertility" populations, age at marriage
is often a reliable determinant of when childbearing begins and of the number
of children a woman will bear. But, although it may hold elsewhere, this
relationship is quite tenuous in sub-Saharan Africa, in both rural and urban
settings. Although we have presented evidence that suggests that the age at
marriage is rising, understanding the economic and social dynamics of entry
into marriage is essential to the study of adolescent fertility.

A key reason why age at marriage and entry into childbearing are so weakly
linked stems from problems in defining marriage in Africa. Besides the fact that
marital practices are extremely diverse, changes in ways of legitimizing unions
and the rise of de facto forms of polygyny may be rendering even more fluid an
institution that has long been recognized more as a process than as a discrete
event. These definitional conundrums make it tempting to discard marriage as
a meaningful link to entry into childbearing and to rely on variables such as age
at first sexual activity or age at first cohabitation, as various surveys have done.

Yet we cannot dismiss the fact that the principal transformation in adolescent
fertility that the new African surveys are identifying is not a change in fertility
per se, but a rise in rates of childbearing among never-married women. This
trend is our most promising entry into several issues that vitally concern young
women: the use of contraception, abortion, and the prospects for continuing
school after a pregnancy. Because many of the problems of adolescent fertility
appear to rise from condemnation of what is seen as premarital childbearing,
the question of what marriage is and when it begins cannot be laid aside.

PRE MARITAL SEX RELATIONSHIP IN MODERN DAY SOCIETY

Premarital sex is sexual activity which is practiced by people before they are
married. Premarital sex is considered a moral issue which is taboo in many
cultures and it is also considered a sin by a number of religions. Since the
Sexual Revolution of the 1960s, it has become accepted by certain liberal
movements, especially in Western countries. A 2014 Pew study on global
morality found that premarital sex was considered particularly unacceptable in
"Muslim Majority Countries", such as Malaysia, Jordan, Pakistan, and Egypt,
each having over 90% disapproval, while people in Western European
countries were the most accepting, with Spain, Germany, and France
expressing less than 10% disapproval.
BASIC TYPES OF MARRIAGE
Polygyny
Polyandry
Monogamy
Group marriage
Sorrorate
Levirate
Exogamy
Endogamy

VITALITY OF MARRIAGE TO THE PRESENT DAY SOCIETY

Marriage, the union of one man and one woman, is a personal, but not private,
relationship with great public significance. Marriage is good for the couple; it is
also provides the optimal conditions for bearing and raising children. Marriage
makes an essential contribution to the common good. Some specific benefits
are identified below:

 The institution of marriage reliably creates the social, economic and

affective conditions for effective parenting.
 Marriage generates social capital. The social bonds created through
marriage yield benefits not only for the family but for others as well,
including the larger society.
 Marriage regulates sexual behavior.
 Marriage fulfills the economic needs of marriage partners.
 Marriage perpetuates kinship groups
 Marriage provides institution for the care and enculturation of children

CONCLUSION
Marriage represents a multi-level commitment, one that involves person-to-
person, family-to-family, and couple-to-state commitments. In all societies,
marriage is viewed as a relatively permanent bond, so much so that in some
societies it is virtually irrevocable.

REFERENCES
-Oxford English Dictionary 11th Edition, "marriage"
-"Group Marriage". Encyclopedia.