Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is recognized by the state, religious authority, or both. Marriage customs and rules have varied over time and between cultures but generally involve legal obligations between partners and the creation of a family unit. Key functions of marriage and family include socializing children, economic cooperation, and providing companionship, status, and reproduction. Cultural influences shape factors like number of partners, choice of partners, marriage rituals, residence patterns, and authority structures within families.

1. MARRIAGE
Sacred Heart College
3rd form Social Studies

2. What is marriage?
Marriage (or wedlock) is
a social union or legal
contract between
people that creates
kinship.

3. Marriage (contract)
• It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually
intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways
 It depends on the culture or subculture in which it is found.
• Such a union, often formalized via a wedding ceremony, may
also be called matrimony.
• Creates normative or legal obligations between the
individuals involved.
• Recognized by the state, a religious authority, or both.

4. History of Marriage
• Marriage pre-dates recorded history.
• Rules of marriage have changed over time.
Depends on culture or demography
• Reasons for marriage include:
Man’s need for paternity of children,
Exclusive right over a woman and legitimacy of
relationship.
In almost all societies, access to women is
institutionalized.

5. HONOR,
DUTY, PUR
POSE, VALUE
S?

6. Institutionalization of Female
• Females tend to have very traditionally defined
roles:
Cooking
Cleaning
Rearing of children/Home-maker
• Submissiveness to your spouse.
Patriarchal households : (Example: go ask your dad...)
• Pre-marriage expectations
Innocence and Purity
Family (dad) consent to the marriage.

8. Why people marry?
People marry for many reasons:
a) Legal
b) Social
c) Libidinal
d) Emotional
e) Economic
f) Spiritual
g) Religious

9. BEFORE MARRIAGE,
a couple should spend
time getting to know
each other’s
likes, dislikes, views
and goals in order to
minimize the
possibility of conflict
in the future.

10. Before getting married a couple
should:
a. Accumulate money for marriage
expenses and housing.
b. Get to know each other’s family.
c. Identify a secure place of residence.
d. Make a family plan.
e. Ensure that they have the means
and attitude to support a family.

12. The Marriage Creed
Maturity
Be willing to give and not receive
Amicable
Be truthful, be a friend and remove doubt
Respectful
Listen to words and gestures
Refuge
Be there in times of distress
Individuality
Allow to be oneself
Approval
Commend efforts and do not criticize
Generosity
Time and talent giving build strength
Eliminate
Eliminate troubles; be loyalty and committed

13. Influence of Culture on Marriage
• Number of partners
• Monogamy: marriage to one person
• Polygamy: custom of having more than
one spouse at a time.
• Polyandry: custom of having more than
one husband at a time.
• Polygyny: custom of having more than
one wife at a time.

14. Influence of Culture on Marriage - CONTD
• Choice of partners
• Endogamy: partner must be chosen from inside one’s
own tribe.
• Exogamy: partner must be chosen from outside one’s
own tribe.
• Rituals/traditions/customs
• Dressing: customary marriage attire
• Time: how long the marriage process will
last.
• Role of religion in marriage process
• Role of male and female
• Role of parents: Arranged marriage?

15. Influence of Culture on Marriage - CONTD
• Residence
• Neolocal: live on your own after marriage (Nuclear
family).
• Patrilocal: live with or near relatives of the groom
( extended family).
• Matrilocal: live with or near relatives of the bride.
• Authority
• Matriarchal: mother is the head of the household.
• Patriarchal: father is the head of the household.
• Equalitarian: equal sharing of authority.

16. Influence of Culture on Marriage - CONTD
• Lineage
• Patrilineal: privileges and duties of
descent follow male line.
• Matrilineal: privileges and duties
of descent follow female line.
• Bilineal: privileges and duties of
descent follow both line.

17. Influence of Culture on Marriage - CONTD
• Marriage age: consent
• Reason for marriage:
Love
Convenience
security
• Dowry: some cultures require a dowry
(Muslim, Indian, African)
• Divorce: can the marriage be terminated or
annulled?

18. Type of Families
• Nuclear family: is made up of the
mom, dad, and children living under one
roof.
• Extended family: extends beyond
mom, dad, and children.
• Reorganized family: brings into
relationship a child or children from
previous relationship.
• Single-parent family: one parent living
with his/her child or children.

19. Type of Unions
• Legal union: formal marriage between
persons over the age of 18; or, with parental
consent
• Common-law union (consensual union): man
and woman live under same roof without
undergoing a legal marriage ceremony
• Visiting relationship: a woman lives without a
permanent spouse. Male visits her by
intervals. Children born are termed
illegitimate

20. Functions of the
Family

21. Difference Between a family and a household
Family Household
• A unit of parents and • A social unit living
children. A group of together belonging
individuals who are to the same house
intimately related, living and family;
under one domestic;
roof, supporting and as, household
maintaining each other furniture; household
socially, economically affairs. All the people
and emotionally. living in a house.

22. Functions of the family
• Socialization of children (video)
• Economic cooperation and division of labor
• Care supervision, monitoring, and interaction (video)
• Legitimizing sexual relation
• Reproduction
• Provision of status: Social-family attributes
 Ascribed status; birth order
 Achieved status: based on individual’s effort
• Affection, emotional support and companionship
• Cultural: pass on
traditions, tools, customs, habits, ideas

23. Healthy families
1. Clearly identified hierarchy
2. Well-defined parental roles
3. Flexibility & adaptability - Can respond to situational & maturational
crises
4. Consistent, clear rules & expectations
5. Consistent affection
6. Consistent limit-setting
7. Open communication, bi-directional
8. Increased degree of support nurturance and acceptance of family members

24. Unhealthy families
1. Rigidity - lack of flexibility
2. Lack of individuality
3. Extreme detachment
4. Scape-goating - family member (often child) who is the object of displaced conflict/criticism
5. Triangulation - Detouring conflict between 2 people by involving a third person, thereby
stabilizing the relationship between the original pair
6. Faulty problem solving skills
7. Conflict avoidance
8. Inconsistent application of affection/discipline
9. Low levels of support/nurturance/acceptance
10. Increased degree of expressed hostility towards each other/other family members

25. DIMENSIONS OF PARENTAL BEHAVIOUR:
• All families organize themselves along the
dimensions of affection and control which will
result in specific child-rearing
techniques/approaches/behaviors.
• The family will demonstrate a unique pattern of:
– affection
– Involvement
– supervision/control
These will influence both the development and
behavior of the child.

26. DIMENSIONS OF PARENTAL BEHAHVIOR:
CONTROL
Parental control is conceptualized as:
The degree to which parents exert control and power
over the child,
The level of direct involvement in the activities of the
child.
It is defined in terms of:
The degree of supervision/monitoring of the child's
activities,
The quality, nature, consistency of discipline,
The parent's need to control the child.

27. Affection
• AFFECTION is defined as the amount
of love, nurturance, support, and
positive value demonstrated towards
the child. The degree of affection
demonstrated towards the child may
range from love-to-indifference-to
hostility.

28. Involvement
• INVOLVEMENT is defined as the degree
and frequency of interaction between
parent and child, the frequency and
quality of communication between
parent and child, interest in the activities
of the child, and the quality of interaction
between the parent and child.

29. Issues of Family life in Belize
• In-laws
• Finance
• Pre-marital sex
• The generation gap
• Extramarital relations
• Child rearing practices
• Courtship and marriage
• Arranged and shot-gun marriages; abortion

30. INDIAN BRIDE

31. WESTERN BRIDE

32. ISRAELI BRIDE

33. AFRICAN BRIDE

34. JAPANESE BRIDE

35. EGYPTIAN BRIDE