SOC 211 Lecture 5

Meaning and Types of Marriage

Introduction

The beginning of a legitimate family is marked by a socially and culturally acceptable legally
consummated union called marriage. The marriage institution is a common phenomenon present
in every society; however there are difficulties defining the concept marriage. This difficulty
largely arises from the variations of marriage arrangements that have been witnessed in different
societies (Okodudu 2010). In view of this, Farley (1994) defined marriage as a socially approved
arrangement, usually between a male and a female that involves an economic and sexual
relationship. Beattie (1980), defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman such that
the children to the woman are the recognized legitimate offspring of both partners. Smith and
Preston (1982) on their part conceptualized marriage to be an enduring socially approved sexual
and economic relationship between at least two persons. A more acceptable definition of
marriage was by Murdock (1949 cited in Ingiabuna, Olumati, & Sele, 2003) who defined
marriage as the socially approved union of a sexual cohabiting pair called husband and wife
through which the offsprings derive their legitimacy. From the foregoing, it is deducible that the
conventional definition of marriage is that it is a union between a man and a woman such that
children born to the woman are recognized as legitimate offspring of both parents.
However, it should be noted that the idea of marriage has changed in recent times. In much of the
Western European countries, marriage has been conceptualized as a union between two
consenting adults irrespective of their sexes with or without approval from their parents or
family; hence same sex marriages are being contracted today without the possibility of having
children, except that it is a relationship between two consenting adults that has been recognised
by law. However, in Nigeria, marriage remains a union of two consenting adults (male and
female) but largely with the express support and approval of the immediate families of the
individuals involved in the relationship. Marriage also confers upon a man various rights over a
woman. These rights are in two classes: rights to a woman’s sexual and domestic services, which
is called right in uxorem and rights to a woman as a mother i.e. rights over her offspring which is
called rights in genetricem.

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Ingiabuna, Olumati and Sele (2003) stated that in most of Nigerian societies, marriage must meet
the following basic prerequisites for it to be a valid marriage:
1. Involvement of the parents of couples – sexual regulation and rules of incest;
2. Transfer of Bride wealth or Progency transfer – symbol of marriage contract; and
3. . Religious factor – obtaining supernatural blessings from the church, mosque or shrines
etc.
Types of Marriage
There are different types of marriage and these forms of marriage are based on the number of
partners involved, structure of the home, customary beliefs of the society. The various types of
marriage are discussed below:
1. Monogamy: This is a form of marriage between one man and a woman. This implies
that a man can have only one wife at a time. Should any reason arise for the man to
marry another wife, the first marriage must be dissolved through divorce or death of a
spouse. A man whose wife dies could marry another one in what is called serial
monogamy.
2. Polygamy: This is a form of marriage in which a person has more than one mate. It is a
plural marriage which involves one man having many wives or one woman having many
husbands. Polygamy has two sub-divisions:
i. Polygyny: This has to do a man having more than one wife. Most traditional
Nigerian societies practice this kind of marriage.
ii. Polyandry: This involves a woman having more than one husband. This practice
was dominant in parts of India and Tibet; Lele of central Africa. However,
Atemie (1994, 1999) reported that this practice is also common among the Irigwe
in Plateau State of Nigeria. Polyandrous marriages involving siblings is referred
to as Fraternal’ or ‘Adelphic’ polyandry. On the other hand, there is another
variant called matriarchal polyandry’ where the woman stays at her house and
her various husbands come to live with her in turns (Goldthorpe, 1981).
3. Group Marriage: As the name suggests, in this type of marriage all men share marital
relations with a group of women. This implies that a group of men and women are
married to one another. They all share reciprocal obligations, as it is required in all
marriages jointly. No one particular man owns a wife and vice versa. Schultz and

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 Lavenda (1995 (as cited in Ingiabuna, 2012) posits that group marriages are often
encouraged by fraternities or what they refer to as „solidarities‟ or special groupings.
The philosophy may be not to discriminate but to share everything in common including
belongings, aspirations, and sex and marriage partners. Charles (2008) notes that the
Oneida community of the 1960s in New York is often cited as one of such extreme
fraternities that practiced group marriage, and who frowned at individual or single
marriage partnership. To them single marriage thrives in selfishness and possessiveness,
which were seen as sinful.
4. Levirate Marriage: This is a type of marriage where a widow is expected to marry her
late husband’s brother. The brother is then expected to extend all support to her as if she
was his in the first place. There are different reasons for this kind of marriage
arrangement:
i. The first is if the man had no child before dying, the younger brother can now
raise children for him by marrying the widow. The children from such a union
belong to the dead brother. In other words, the dead brother is the Pater or Social
Father, while the living brother (the wife’s new husband) is the Genitor or the
Biological Father.
ii. Another important reason for this marriage arrangement is to forestall the
situation where the woman could possibly move out with or without children to
another family through remarriage. This kind of marriage is found among the
Nuer of Southern Sudan and the Zulu of South Africa (Charles 2008), and also
among the Ogonis and Igbos of Nigeria.
5. Widow Inheritance: In widow inheritance, the brother, son or close relative of the
deceased husband inherits the wife for the same reasons as highlighted in levirate
marriage. In this case however, the widow is often requested to name the next-of-kin
among the late husband’s kinsmen whom she would want to live with as her husband.
Nevertheless, children gotten from such a union belong to the new husband and not the
dead husband. Among the Ijos and the Urhobos of the Niger Delta, this kind of marriage
is called Duere and Aye-uku respectively. This marriage type is also common among the
Ibos, and Fulanis of Nigeria and some African and Asian societies.

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6. Ghost Marriage: This is a marriage arrangement whereby in other to perpetuate the
name of a dead male member of a family, a living brother gets married to a woman on
behalf of the dead brother who died a bachelor hence never had an opportunity to get
married or raise a family. In this case the wife is socially married to the dead man whom
she probably never knew and the children born belongs to the dead man who is the Pater
(Social Father), while the living brother happens to be the Genitor (Biological Father).
This kind of marriage existed among the Nuer of Sudan.
7. Woman-to-Woman Marriage: In this kind of marriage, a wealthy barren woman
acquires a wife by performing all traditional rites and pay appropriate bride wealth. The
woman becomes the husband while the lady being married becomes the wife. The female
husband determines the manner of allocation of her sexual favours by screening and
approving her sexual partners. Children born belong to the woman-husband who is the
Pater (social father) while the man she arranged to raise children with the woman-wife is
the Genitor (Biological father). This kind of marriage is sometimes practiced among the
Efiks and Kalabaris of the Niger Delta. Ibibio women also practice this kind of marriage
to secure their place in the husband’s house among co-wives.
8. Gift or Charity Marriage: In this kind of marriage, parents give out one of their young
daughters as a gift to their friends or patrons without any consideration as a
demonstration of friendship, honour and total loyalty. In some African societies, the
chiefs or kings enjoyed this honour and prerogative among subjects. Among the Hausa
people, a girl might be given away to her father’s friends or chiefs if she abuses her
virginity. Similarly, among the Kanuri of Nigeria, a charity marriage could be contracted
between a virgin girl and a Mallam in appreciation to a religious functionary who
performed religious role to benefit the family members in areas like; medicine, prayers,
divination. This practice has also been reported by Otite and Ogionwo (2005) to have
been found among the Urhobos.
9. Child-to-Child Marriage: In this kind of marriage, parents of betrothed children make
perfect the marriage pact as soon as the boy was of school age between 5-7 years. The
children are formally married by their parents and allowed to grow under the watch for
eyes of the parents. This practice was found to have existed among the Oron people of
Akwa Ibom State.

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10. Pawn Marriage: This is a situation where a man who cannot readily pay his creditor
may give out his daughter as payment for debt owned. This type of marriage is practiced
among the Ijos, where there was the practice of pawning girls maturing into puberty; she
is espoused to the pawnbroker or his closest kin. In this situation there would be no
payment of bride wealth and acceptance by the creditor reliefs the debtor of his debts.
However Ingiabuna (2004) stated that among the Ijos, a father could not pawn away his
daughter without the approval of the girl’s maternal uncle, except in cases of high bridal
transfer (Opu-ekiye) marriage systems.
11. Wife Capture/Elopement: This is a situation when a young suitor captures or elopes
with a girl he intends to marry. Ingiabuna and Obara (2009), stated that among the Ijos, a
suitor may capture a daughter if the parents of the girl refuse him marriage to the girl.
The suitor however, comes back later to properly marry the girl. Similarly, as observed
by Ewuruigwe (1994), among the Ezamgbo (Igbo), a man may capture a maiden on her
way from or to the town market for her last marriage rites to her new home. If the
usurper succeeds, he fires a gun shot into the air as he reaches home with the captive
wife. This act makes her a legitimate wife to the usurper and no new bridal payments are
made. Still, among the pre-colonial Tiv of Benue, a form of elopement has been reported
where a suitor may successfully elope with a man’s daughter if the man refuses the suitor
to marry his daughter.
12. Cross Cousin/Parallel Cousin Marriage: Cross and parallel cousin marriage are types
of preferential and prescribed marriages. In preferential marriage, the societal law
stipulates that a partner or close relative ought to marry another close relative in a
particular generation or relationship, though it is not compulsory. On the other hand,
marriage partners could be rigidly fixed by the culture for a man to take his spouse from
among relatives in a given society. This is called prescribed marriage. In cross cousin
marriage, the marriage is simply between children of siblings of opposite sex. Therefore
this type of marriage could involve children of brothers and those of their sisters, vice
versa. When a man marries a daughter of his mother’s brother he is said to have marked
his matrilateral cross cousin. If he is married to a daughter of his father’s sister, he is
having patrilateral cross cousin. In either of these marriages, the partners in marriage do
not share the same patrilineage and they do not share inheritance.

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 On the other hand, parallel cousin marriage involves children of siblings of same sex.
That is a man marries his father’s brother’s daughter. All partners in this case belong to
the same patrilineage or matrilineage as the case may be. According to Charles (2005)
cross and parallel cousin marriages have been found to have existed among the Fulani
and Kanuri in Nigeria.
13. Sororate and Sororal Polygyny: Sororate marriage is culturally opposite to levirate
marriage. According to Gluckman (1975), in sororate, the sister of the dead wife is
culturally required to marry the late sister’s husband, (serial monogamy). While in
sororate polygyny, one husband is free to choose many sisters in marriage, as in the case
in the Bible when Jacob married Leah and Racheal. This marriage system is also found
among the Zulus of Southern Africa. This they do because they assume that the jealousy
which generally engulfs plural wife marriage is neutralized by sisters who share same
parents and presumably common aspirations.
Functions of the Marriage
Marriage is an institutionalized relationship within the family system. It fulfills many functions
attributed to the family in general. Family functions include basic personality formation, status
ascriptions, socialization, tension management, and replacement of members, economic
cooperation, reproduction, stabilization of adults, and the like. Many of these functions, while
not requiring marriage for their fulfillment, are enhanced by the marital system”. In fact,
evidence suggests marriage to be of great significance for the well-being of the individual.
Researchers have shown that compared to the unmarried, married persons are generally happier,
healthier, less depressed and disturbed and less prone to premature deaths. Marriage, rather than
becoming less important or unimportant, may be increasingly indispensable.
The functions of marriage differ as the structure of marriage differs. ‘For example, where
marriage is specially an extension of the kin and extended family system, then procreation,
passing on the family name and continuation of property become a basic function. Thus, to not
have a child or more specifically, to not have a male child, is sufficient reason to replace the
present wife or add a new wife. Where marriage is based on “free choice,” i.e. parents and
kinsmen play no role in selecting the partner, individualistic forces are accorded greater
significance. Thus, in the United States, marriage has many functions and involves many positive

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as well as negative personal factors. The major functions of the family are discussed under these
sub-headings:
 Biological functions;
 Economic functions; and
 Social functions
1. Biological Functions
Marriage regulates and socially validates sexual relations between males and females. It is the
means to satisfy sexual desire of human beings for reproductive process. So the institution of
marriage fulfils the biological function of human beings. Some of the biological functions are:
i. Procreation: Marriage is the only legal and socially approved union where procreation is
sanction by society. Although procreation occurs through other means, and are
sometimes allowed or ignored by the society such as through co-habitation, fornication,
but marriage is the only biological means approved through which the family system
comes to be.
ii. Sex regulation: The act of sexual relationship that brings about procreation is only
approved through marriage. When sexual union takes place outside marriage, it is
frowned at by society and totally disapproved of in some religious society. So marriage
provide the platform through sexual intercourse or relationship is regulated and honoured.
iii. Perpetuation of the lineage: Rules of inclusiveness and exclusiveness in a family,
through which member of such lineage is identified comes to be through marriage. This
is because it is through the process of marriage in whatever form it takes that the family
unit is constituted. It is through the family tree that the lineage is perpetuated either from
the patrilineal or matrilineal family descent.
2. Economic Functions
Marriage of men and women create family in which men and women share their labours to
satisfy the economic needs of the family members. Both male and female remain engaged in
economic activities through the institution of marriage for the economic upliftment of the family.
This defines the economic functions which are discussed below:
i. Fulfillments of basic needs: The establishment of the home which comes about through
marriage confers some measure of responsibilities on the couple which has to do with the
provision of basic needs such as shelter, nutrition, clothing, education, portable water for

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 the family that promotes the well being of the members of the individual family unit in
the society.
ii. Establishes joint fund: The marriage institution brings together a man and a woman of
different socio-economic background. The couple in some families operate a joint
account from where the needs of the home are taken care of while others maintain
different accounts but pull resources together to run the home with responsibilities split
between the couple.
iii. Increase man power: The institution of marriage increases manpower. This function is
mostly tied to the traditional society where members of the family participated in the
trade or business of the home which was mainly agriculture. As new members are born
into the home, manpower is increased and this boosts the economic activity of the home.
iv. Give economic security to women: Marriage provide the woman some measure of
economic security to the woman which makes her protected and feel secured
economically. It provides the woman with a home, additional income and financial
standing in the society. Her needs are provided for by her husband as she is sheltered
from the stormy and harsh conditions of life.
3. Social Functions
Through marriage new kinsmen are acquired because spouses relative are added to one’s own
group of kin. The institution of marriage also enables the society to assign to the parents roles
and duties they perform for their children which are:
i. Children socialization: This is one of the basic functions of marriage performed through
the family. The family is regarded as the primary agent of socialization, and once it is
constituted through marriage, it socializes its offspring by providing the basic properties
of their culture such as non-material properties such as norms and values of the society.
ii. Provide legal parents to children: It is through marriage that children are legally
approved and sanctioned in the society. This confers on them the right to family
relationship between them and their parents. This is because in some societies, children
born outside of marriage are denied legal parenthood especially a father. This is common
among the Ibos of the south-south area of Nigeria. In some instances, children born out of
wedlock are regarded as bastard because of the lack of a socially approved union that
brought about their birth.

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iii. Provide social security to women: Women are respected and treated in dignity more
when they are married. The status of a woman changes when she is married. She is
provided an identity that guarantees her some measure of protection and security against
harm because of the name she carries and the change f social status. She is protected
against the harsh and terrible cruel treatment that women are subjected to under the
patriarchal society that exploits and molest women through rape, sexual
assault/harassment, etc.