http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/interactives/marriage-market/

Exists in all societies Meaningful micro-level

relationship

Important macro-level social institution

Founding fathers established marriage:

• As free-choice

• Heterosexual union

• Husbands in charge of the household

• Separation of church and state• States regulate marriages

The legal union of a couple as

spouses. 

Basic elements of a marriage are:  (1) the parties' legal ability to marry

each other,  (2) mutual consent of the parties, and  (3) a marriage contract as required by

law.

Our legal doctrines and concepts developed from English common law

Marriage was a contract based upon a voluntary private agreement by a man and a woman to become husband and wife.

Marriage was viewed as the basis of the family unit and

vital to the preservation of morals and civilization.

Provide a safe house,

Pay for necessities such as food and clothing, and

Live in the house.

Maintaining a home, Living in the home, Having sexual relations with

her husband, and Rearing the couple's children.

The underlying concept that marriage as a legal contract still remains,

but due to changes in society the legal obligations are not

the same.

All but one state requires that a couple be 18 in order to marry without parental permission.

Nebraska sets the age at 19.

Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Oklahoma:

Allow pregnant teens or teens who have already had a child to get married without parental consent.

Only a few states require a blood test or a blood test and physical examination before marriage•To show whether one party is infected with a venereal disease.•Connecticut •District of Columbia•Indiana•Montana

Alabama Colorado District of Columbia Georgia (if created before

1/1/97) Idaho (if created before

1/1/96) Iowa Kansas Montana New Hampshire (for

inheritance purposes only) New Mexico

Ohio (if created before 10/10/91)

Oklahoma (possibly only if created before 11/1/98. Oklahoma’s laws and court decisions may be in conflict)

Pennsylvania (if created before 1/1/05)

Rhode Island South Carolina Texas Utah

If you live in one of these states and you “hold yourself out to be married”

By telling the community you are

married

Calling each other husband and wife

Using the same last name

Filing joint income tax returns, etc.

http://www.cousincouples.com/?page=states

http://www.governing.com/gov-data/same-sex-marriage-civil-unions-doma-laws-by-state.html

http://www.freedomtomarry.org/states/

American marriage took its shape from the long history of coverture—

the rules governing the subordination of wives to husbands within the marriage—

but also from the immense mobility of American society in the 19th century.

In 19th-century America generally assumed that the choice to marry was free choice of the individual.

A man and wife were supposed to cherish and love one another then, as now

We assume today that couples negotiate the terms of their marriages privately

In 19th century terms of the relationship were fixed externally—by

Culture Law Religion

Today people know divorce is possible.

19th century; people left each other all the time,

but they could not assume that they were entitled to a divorce.

19th century sexual behavior was legitimate only in the context of marriage.› Social institution (macro)

Today we assume that sexuality belongs to the individual. (micro)

Wives were legally subordinate to their husbands in all kinds of ways.

Husbands owned exclusive rights--over their wives as sexual beings

Rape, by definition, was coerced sex with a woman not one’s wife.

The “rights of parents,” meant fathers not mothers.

Mothers had no inherent right to the custody of their children.

Americans have always asserted that marriage is politically crucial--that society rests on the marital couple.

Yet, from the middle of the 19th century on, there has been a constant sense that marriage is in crisis.

View that the institution of marriage is increasingly being threatened by hedonistic pursuits of personal happiness

At the expense of long-term commitment

The view that overall, marriage is no weaker than in the past,

Families need more institutional supports› Economic› Education› Politics

Homogamous Marriage: Spouses share social characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, education, age, and social class

Heterogamous Marriage: Spouses do not share certain social characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, education, age, and social class

Interracial Marriage: From different racial groups

Interethnic Marriage: From different countries or different cultural, religious, or ethnic backgrounds

Laws forbidding interracial marriage

Ruled unconstitutional in 1967 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia

› 1998, South Carolina› 2000, Alabama

Nonmarital Sex Cohabitation Nonmarital Childbearing Shared Breadwinning Division of Household Labor

Because patterns of love and marriage are cultural creations,

Should expect them to change from century to century.

At the beginning of the 21st century,some trends can be foreseen for the Western world:

The belief in romantic love will continue

At least for the young and inexperienced

• More couples will decide to live together• Without getting officially or

legally married

• Free to create their own relationship contracts• Explicit or implicit• Written or unwritten

Renewable marriages will become more common.

Term-relationships› Agree to last for a certain

duration› After which they will either

expire or renew

Marriage is increasingly optional

› Cohabitation

› Child-bearing outside of marriage

› Less pressure to marry***