Reconstructing the history of marriage strategies in Indo-European-speaking societies: monogamy and polygyny

Explanations for the emergence of monogamous marriage have focused on the cross-cultural distribution of marriage strategies, thus failing to account for their history. In this paper I reconstruct the pattern of change in marriage strategies in the history of societies speaking Indo-European languages, using cross-cultural data in the systematic and explicitly historical framework afforded by the phylogenetic comparative approach. The analysis provides evidence in support of Proto-Indo-European monogamy, and that this pattern may have extended back to Proto-Indo-Hittite. These reconstructions push the origin of monogamous marriage into prehistory, well beyond the earliest instances documented in the historical record; this, in turn, challenges notions that the cross-cultural distribution of monogamous marriage reflects features of social organization typically associated with Eurasian societies, and with "societal complexity" and "modernization" more generally. I discuss implications of these findings in the context of the archaeological and genetic evidence on prehistoric social organization.     

Kinship and mate choice in a historic eastern Blue Ridge community, Madison County, Virginia

Potential mates analysis is difficult to apply to small historic populations that lack clear boundaries or regular vital event registration. Here I analyze the actual mate pool as an alternative way to identify causes of nonrandom mating when unmarried members are unknown. Factors influencing mate choice within a historic eastern Blue Ridge community in Madison County, Virginia, are examined for four marriage cohorts: 1850-1879, 1880-1899, 1900-1919, and 1920-1939. These factors include nuclear kin avoidance, preferred age differences between mates, and preferences for more distant kin. A simulation is used to recombine members of the cohort-specific pools of married individuals to generate the probabilities of various types of kin marriages. The pedigree and vital statistics data are derived from first-time marriage licenses filled by community members in Madison County from 1794 to 1939. The numbers of marriages examined for each cohort are 88, 120, 132, and 132, respectively; the mate pools constructed from the samples are viewed from the female perspective. The results generated by simulation on the actual mate pools consist of mean kinship coefficients, numbers of marriages between "allowed" kin types, and probabilities of these values when marriage is random with respect to kinship. The results indicate significantly high levels of inbreeding in all four marriage cohorts, primarily because of high levels of first-cousin marriages in the first three cohorts and of first-cousin once-removed marriages in the 1920 cohort. The observed mating patterns are discussed in terms of the social history of the Blue Ridge community and restrictions of the data.     

Heider's "Anthropological Models of Incest Laws in the United States": A Comment

In his analysis of U.S. legal prohibitions of marriage with relatives, Heider rejects the Old Testament model as an explanation of the configuration of current state laws. Although Heider's statement is generally accurate, the statutes seem to express two basic models, an attenuated Biblical and a Western American pattern. These patterns are the inverse of each other with regard to prohibition of first-cousin marriage and marriage between affines. Historical review of statutes reveals a trend from Biblical to Western American patterns. The historical perspective suggests that confounding the two models may have weakened Heider's analysis.     

Fecundibility and social development in China: changes in the distribution of the first conception interval

Supporting evidence was generated to show that the hazard of conception in China increases with the duration of marriage in the first years of marriage, with controls for heterogeneity. The authors suggest that this positive duration dependence reflects a "honeymoon" effect for older cohorts and more rural, traditional areas and a change in social norms. Specifically, in Hebei the shape parameter was larger for older cohorts and it decreased from 1.15 in the model with Gamma mixing and from 1.09 to .95 in the mover-stayer model. This may mean that the "late honeymoon" effect has been decreasing over the past 30 years. Changes were not evident in Shanghai municipality. In the 12 models produced there was positive duration dependence in 10 of the models allowing for heterogeneity, but not all models were significant. The shortening of waiting time to first conception was concluded not to be caused by changes in the marriage age, selection biases, a decline in involuntary childlessness, data defects, or an increase in premarital conceptions. Data were obtained from the 1986 In-Depth Fertility Survey in China for Hebei and Shaanxi provinces and Shanghai municipality. Analysis was with time hazard models: the mover-stayer mixture model, where stayers are the proportion sterile in the population, and the nonparametric model. Data were stratified by place of residence and marriage date. Heterogeneity was treated as a "nuisance" parameter, which indicated unobserved biological, behavioral, and social differences between couples. The distribution of fecundability was not addressed     

Explaining Marital Patterns and Trends in Namibia: A Regression Analysis of 1992, 2000 and 2006 Demographic and Survey Data

Background

Marriage is a significant event in life-course of individuals, and creates a system that characterizes societal and economic structures. Marital patterns and dynamics over the years have changed a lot, with decreasing proportions of marriage, increased levels of divorce and co-habitation in developing countries. Although, such changes have been reported in African societies including Namibia, they have largely remained unexplained.

Objectives and Methods

In this paper, we examined trends and patterns of marital status of women of marriageable age: 15 to 49 years, in Namibia using the 1992, 2000 and 2006 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data. Trends were established for selected demographic variables. Two binary logistic regression models for ever-married versus never married, and cohabitation versus married were fitted to establish factors associated with such nuptial systems. Further a multinomial logistic regression models, adjusted for bio-demographic and socio-economic variables, were fitted separately for each year, to establish determinants of type of union (never married, married and cohabitation).

Results and Conclusions

Findings indicate a general change away from marriage, with a shift in singulate mean age at marriage. Cohabitation was prevalent among those less than 30 years of age, the odds were higher in urban areas and increased since 1992. Be as it may marriage remained a persistent nuptiality pattern, and common among the less educated and employed, but lower odds in urban areas. Results from multinomial model suggest that marital status was associated with age at marriage, total children born, region, place of residence, education level and religion. We conclude that marital patterns have undergone significant transformation over the past two decades in Namibia, with a coexistence of traditional marriage framework with co-habitation, and sizeable proportion remaining unmarried to the late 30s. A shift in the singulate mean age is becoming distinctive in the Namibian society.     

Genetic Demographic Structure of the Lugansk (Ukraine) Population: Age,Ethnicity, Education,and Occupation

Data from marriage records from registry office archives of 1960, 1985, 1990, and 2000 have been used to calculate the genetic demographic parameters of the Lugansk city population. The population is mostly Ukrainian and Russian. In the years studied, Ukrainians accounted for 49.4, 44.0, 44.6, and 48.7% of the population and Russians, for 46.3, 52.1, 50.7, and 45.6%, respectively. The total proportion of the two ethnic groups decreased from 97.3 to 94.6% for 40 years. The marriage contingency coefficient (K) with respect to ethnicity decreased from 0.16 to 0.07 in the period between 1960 and 1985 and increased from 0.10 to 0.24 between 1990 and 2000. The frequency of interethnic marriages (48.4, 50.9, 52.0, and 60.0%, respectively, in the years studied) indicate that the outbreeding component has been constantly increasing in the Lugansk population. The marriage assortativeness indices (A′) for Ukrainians were 0.2, 4.8, 2.1, and 6.0% in 1960, 1985, 1990, and 2000, respectively. For pooled minor ethnic groups, A′ values in these years were 25.6, 12.4, 18.9, and 6.6%, respectively. The marriage contingency coefficient (K) with respect to occupation increased in the period between 1960 and 1990 (0.14, 0.16, and 0.19 in 1960, 1985, and 1990, respectively), and K with respect to education decreased (0.35, 0.30, and 0.26, respectively).     

Marriage,gender and obesity in later life

A large body of literature argues that marriage promotes health and increases longevity. But do these benefits extend to maintaining a healthy body weight, as the economic theory of health investment suggests they should? They do not. Using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), I find that entry into marriage among both men and women aged 51–70 is associated with weight gain and exit from marriage with weight loss. I evaluate three additional theories with respect to the cross-sectional and longitudinal variation in the data. First, it may be that a broader set of shared risk factors (such as social obligations regarding meals) raises body mass for married couples. However, the shared risk factor model predicts that the intra-couple correlation should increase with respect to marital duration. Instead, it declines. Second, scholars have recently promoted a “crisis” model of marriage in which marital transitions, not marital status, determine differences in body mass. The crisis model is consistent with short-term effects seen for divorce, but not for the persistent weight gains associated with marriage or the persistent weight loss following widowhood. And transition models, in general, cannot explain significant cross-sectional differences across marital states in a population that is no longer experiencing many transitions, nor can it account for the prominent gender differences (in late middle-age, the heaviest group is unmarried women and the lightest are unmarried men). Third, I argue that pressures of the marriage market, in combination with gendered preferences regarding partner BMI, can account for all the longitudinal and cross-sectional patterns found in the data.     

Marriage and employment patterns amongst UK-raised Indian,Pakistani, and Bangladeshi women

Discussion over marriage migration in the UK has largely focused on the South Asian groups, identified in survey data as Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi. This paper uses qualitative interviews and national Labour Force Survey data to gain some insights into how UK-born Pakistani and Bangladeshi women view marriage and, in particular, marriage to a partner from their country of origin; the extent to which UK-born Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi women and men marry partners from overseas and the key factors that influence this; and the effect on the level of economic activity for Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi women of marriage to a UK-born/raised partner versus a partner from overseas.     

Same Sex Marriage and the Perceived Assault on Opposite Sex Marriage

Background

Marriage benefits both individuals and societies, and is a fundamental determinant of health. Until recently same sex couples have been excluded from legally recognized marriage in the United States. Recent debate around legalization of same sex marriage has highlighted for anti-same sex marriage advocates and policy makers a concern that allowing same sex couples to marry will lead to a decrease in opposite sex marriages. Our objective is to model state trends in opposite sex marriage rates by implementation of same sex marriages and other same sex unions.

Methods and Findings

Marriage data were obtained for all fifty states plus the District of Columbia from 1989 through 2009. As these marriage rates are non-stationary, a generalized error correction model was used to estimate long run and short run effects of same sex marriages and strong and weak same sex unions on rates of opposite sex marriage. We found that there were no significant long-run or short run effects of same sex marriages or of strong or weak same sex unions on rates of opposite sex marriage.

Conclusion

A deleterious effect on rates of opposite sex marriage has been argued to be a motivating factor for both the withholding and the elimination of existing rights of same sex couples to marry by policy makers–including presiding justices of current litigation over the rights of same sex couples to legally marry. Such claims do not appear credible in the face of the existing evidence, and we conclude that rates of opposite sex marriages are not affected by legalization of same sex civil unions or same sex marriages.     

Marriage as a reproductive contract: Patterns of marriage,divorce, and remarriage

Patterns of marriage, divorce, remarriage, and redivorce were examined in several representative Western cultures through survey questions and archival data to test the hypothesis that marriage and divorce can be understood as expressions of underlying gender-specific, fitness maximization strategies. Differences between males and females were found for the relationship between age and patterns of both marriage and divorce, with females being far more likely at almost all ages to initiate divorce proceedings than males. Once divorced, however, formerly married females were less likely to remarry than formerly married males. The presence of children from a prior marriage had the effect of further decreasing the likelihood of remarriage for females, but not for males. Formerly married males without children tended to remarry females who had never been married, whereas just the opposite was true for divorced males with children. Consistent with our view of marriage as a reproductive contract, the absence of children was not only conducive to divorce and remarriage, but appeared to increase the likelihood of redivorce as well.     

Divorce in the early years of marriage in England and Wales: results from a prospective study using linked records

A representative sample of over 1000 couples who married during 1979 in England and Wales was followed from the date of marriage until mid-1984 to investigate the characteristics of couples who divorce soon after marriage. Results of this 5 year study show that couples who apparently lived together before marriage had a below average chance of early divorce, whereas couples where the addresses of the partners before marriage were very close had a significantly high rate of early breakdown. The chance of early divorce was significantly above average for spouses marrying in their teens and for both husbands and wives who, at their marriage, belonged to social class 5 (work in unskilled manual occupations). Couples who married with a civil ceremony had an above average (and those marrying with a religious ceremony a below average) risk of early divorce, but such differences were found to be negligible on analyzing the results from a matched case-control study in which each "case" marriage (one which did end in early divorce) was matched with a "control" marriage (one which did not end in early divorce). There is substantial evidence that age at marriage and previous marital status of the marriage partners have a decided influence upon the propensity to divorce. 2 conclusions concerning fertility are more likely than the average married couple to have had a pre-maritally conceived child, and 2) that couples who divorce relatively quickly tend on average to have larger family sizes, even if children who were pre-martitally conceived are exluded.     

Ethnographic empathy and the social context of rights: “rescuing” Maasai girls from early marriage

Esther is one of many young Maasai girls in Kenya "rescued" from early marriage. Her story is conventionally portrayed (trans)nationally and locally as a struggle between conservative pastoral patriarchs and the individual right of young girls to an education. I offer an ethnographic contextualization of the underlying factors giving rise to practices of early marriage, among the Maasai in Enkop, highlighting the contemporary predicaments of pastoralism in the face of population growth, climactic instability, and land-tenure reform and the insecurities and challenges around formal education. Through the intimate portrayal of Esther's case, early marriage is situated not as a relic of tradition and malicious patriarchy but, rather, as a contemporary adaptation to livelihood insecurity. I illustrate how prevailing concepts of "tradition," "culture," "victimhood," and "collective rights" in human rights theory obscure important structural factors that give rise to early marriage and deflect attention from effective policy initiatives.     

Disgust,Gender, and Social Change

Among the Karo of Indonesia, the frequency of matrilateral cross-cousin (impal) marriage has declined in recent decades. We conducted a vignette experiment to assess the contributions of a handful of factors in shaping this pattern. Surprisingly, we found that cosocialization of a hypothetical woman with her impal led to increased judgments of marriage likelihood and decreased feelings of disgust in male and female respondents (n?=?154). We also found that females, more than males, judged impal marriage more likely when there were practical advantages. Finally, we found that younger men expressed more disgust in response to impal marriages than did older men, while women displayed an opposite but weaker reaction. This suggests the existence of gender-specific changes in attitudes toward the practice, indicating that a full understanding may require the application of sexual conflict theory. Our study illustrates the potential utility—and limitations—of vignette experiments for studying social change.     

The practice of consanguineous marriage in oman: prevalence, trends and determinants

The practice of consanguineous marriage has been the culturally preferred form of marriage in most Arab and the Middle Eastern countries, including Oman, but due to a paucity of population-based data in the past there is a dearth of information about its form and dynamics in Oman. Recent national-level surveys allow this gap to be filled. This paper examines the prevalence, trends and determinants of consanguineous marriages in Oman using data from the 2000 Oman National Health Survey. The results indicate a very high prevalence of consanguineous marriage in Oman, as more than half (52%) of marriages are consanguineous. First cousin unions are the most common type of consanguineous unions, constituting 39% of all marriages and 75% of all consanguineous marriages. The study observed various patterns of consanguinity, some of them common with other Arab nations, and some unique in nature. Women's age at marriage, employment, place of childhood residence and geographical region appear to be significant determinants of consanguineous marriages. Consanguineous marriage shows a strong association with marital stability, early age at marriage and early-age childbearing. There has been no appreciable change in the prevalence of consanguineous unions in Oman over the last four decades despite massive socioeconomic development and modernization. However, recent marriage cohorts show slight declining trends. The results suggest that consanguinity is likely to remain stable in the future or decline at a slow rate. Specific health education and genetic counselling should be followed in line with WHO recommendations to minimize the negative health consequences of consanguinity for child health.     

A facial attractiveness account of gender asymmetries in interracial marriage

Background

In the US and UK, more Black men are married to White women than vice versa and there are more White men married to Asian women than vice versa. Models of interracial marriage, based on the exchange of racial status for other capital, cannot explain these asymmetries. A new explanation is offered based on the relative perceived facial attractiveness of the different race-by-gender groups.

Method and Findings

This explanation was tested using a survey of perceived facial attractiveness. This found that Black males are perceived as more attractive than White or East Asian males whereas among females, it is the East Asians that are perceived as most attractive on average.

Conclusions

Incorporating these attractiveness patterns into the model of marriage decisions produces asymmetries in interracial marriage similar to those in the observed data in terms of direction and relative size. This model does not require differences in status between races nor different strategies based on gender. Predictions are also generated regarding the relative attractiveness of those engaging in interracial marriage.     

Netting in Nepal: Social Change,the Life Course,and Brideservice in Sangila

The links among family characteristics, pre-marital experiences organized outside the family, and participation in choice of spouse are now well established for historical transformations in a range of social settings. Less examined are the consequences of these changes for subsequent inter-familial relationships in societies where marriage organizes kin alliances and interfamilial labor obligations. Using survey and ethnographic data gathered in Nepal, this paper examines the implications of change in work, living experiences, and the marriage process for subsequent inter-familial relationships exemplified by crosscousin marriage and the provision of brideservice. Hypotheses are developed which consider the impact of community context on these behaviors; these are tested in logistic regression analyses for the first marriages of all 430 ever-married women in the community. Cross-cousin marriage and brideservice are shown to be related to prior familial characteristics, life-course experience, and elements of the marriage process in ways that are significantly conditioned by community history and proximity to urban centers.     

Contesting "Culture": The Perspectives of Hmong American Female Students on Early Marriage

This article complicates the meanings of early marriage among Hmong American female students. It moves beyond explanations of cultural difference in the examination and explication of the discourse and practice of early marriage among female adolescents in the Hmong community. Drawing on the perspectives and experiences of Hmong American female students, this article reveals that early marriage may be an expression of students' opposition to the structures of and experiences with school and family. The significance of this analysis is its recognition and illumination of the fluidity of cultural and social practices, and the tensions between and within ethnic groups.     

Spouse selection by health status and physical traits. Sardinia, 1856–1925

Military medical information and data from civil registers of death and marriage have been used to study the role of physical characteristics and health conditions in explaining access to marriage for the male population of Alghero, a small city located in Sardinia Island (Italy), at the turn of 19th century. Literature data about contemporary populations have already demonstrated the influence of somatic traits in the mate choice. The results presented here show that men with low height and poor health status at the age of 20 were negatively selected for marriage. This holds true also in a society where families often arranged marriages for their children. This pattern of male selection on marriage was found to be particularly marked among the richest and wealthiest SES groups. Our hypothesis is that this social group carefully selected for marriage those individuals who were apparently healthier and therefore more likely to guarantee good health status and better life conditions to offspring. In evolutionary terms, the mate choice component of sexual selection suggests that the height of prospective partners could be claimed as one of the determinants, along with other environmental causes, of the observed higher stature of men belonging to the wealthiest social strata of the Alghero population. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Marriage Timing over the Generations

Strong relationships have been hypothesized between the timing of marriage and the familial environment of the couple. Sociologists have identified various mechanisms via which the age at marriage in the parental generation might be related to the age at marriage of the children. In our paper we study this relationship for historical populations. We use a dataset consisting of several hundreds of thousands of marriages contracted in three of the 11 Dutch provinces between 1812 and 1922. We identified the generational links between the brides, grooms, their parents, and grandparents. We studied (a) whether there is a relationship between ages at marriage of (grandfathers) fathers and sons, and ages at marriage of (grandmothers) mothers and daughters and (b) whether this relationship might be explained by social class. We find evidence for a clear effect of the family on age at marriage and substantial intergenerational transmission. The impact that the family of origin has on age at entry into marriage can partly be attributed to social class. We also observed positive effects of grandparents’ age at marriage on their offspring’s age at marriage.

Height and marital outcomes in the Netherlands,birth years 1841-1900

Adult body height appears to be significantly associated with marital outcomes: taller men across contexts have been found to be more likely to be married, and more likely to be married at younger ages. We are interested in exploring both outcomes individually and simultaneously, while using an unique, individual-level dataset of Dutch men and their brothers born between 1841 and 1900. To do so, we exploit survival models and cure models. While survival models yield a single estimate for the hazard (or age at) marriage, cure models yield two: one for the likelihood of marriage, and one for the hazard of first marriage. Cure models thus account for selection into marriage, while survival models do not. We find that, in the survival analyses, being in the shortest 20 % of heights is associated with later ages of marriage, relative to being average height. However, when we account for selection into marriage with cure models, we find that height is no longer associated with age at marriage. Instead, we see that height is associated with the likelihood of being married, with being in the bottom 20 % of heights associated with a 56.1 % decreased likelihood of being married, relative to being average height. We therefore conclude that height may be a gatekeeper for access to marriage, but it appears that other factors – likely related to the ability to set up an independent household – are more important in determining the timing of marriage for our research population.