Marriage

Marriage is a union between individual people. It is like a contract. Sometimes people also call this matrimony. The fact of being married is called wedlock.
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In polygamy, a man may be married to many women; in polyandry a woman may be married to many men. In Senegal , for example, nearly 47 percent of marriages are multiple. Marriage is also about sexual intercourse ; being unable to have sex, being unwilling to have sex, or having sex outside the marriage may be a reason to undo the marriage. Often there is also a spiritual part of marriage. In addition to the civil act wanted by the state there is sometimes a religious one.

A Christian marriage ceremony usually happens in a church.

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There are certain restrictions on who can marry or be married; those closely related, like brothers and sisters usually cannot marry. This is usually to prevent genetic problems for the children. Those marrying also have to be of a certain age to be able to marry. If that age is not specified it is usually the age of consent. In Hinduism marriage is considered to be holy and is seen as a union of the goddess "Laxmi" and the god "Narayan".

Some countries and religious communities also permit the union of two partners of the same sex.


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They sat across from each other talking and laughing. They talked very closely and were smiling the entire time.


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    5. They seemed so happy and in love. Justin was holding Hailey's hand across the table and kissing it. He kept leaning in and saying sweet things to her. She seemed to love it. Fans were coming up to them on the street and they were posing for photos and very friendly. After getting coffee, they went shopping at Selfridges, where they were spotted kissing on the escalator and "all throughout the store. This trip to London comes just days after the couple sparked marriage speculation.


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      8. People broke the story on Friday, citing two sources, that Bieber and Baldwin married at the courthouse on Thursday, with one source close to the couple telling the outlet, "They went ahead and did it without listening to anyone. Baldwin has taken to social media to deny the speculation, tweeting that she's "not married yet.

      For this reason, maintaining one's virginity prior to marriage is considered a key component of successful marriage preparation. Programs such as the Christian "True Love Waits" encourage young people to make sexual abstinence part of their marriage preparation by signing this pledge:. With the erosion of marriage in the twentieth century, support for couples preparing for marriage, and continued support during the marriage, is no longer available naturally through their family and community.

      Instead, couples wishing to build a healthy marriage may participate in programs sponsored by their local church, or by professional marriage counselors. Key issues that marriage counselors address include sexual relations , relationships with in-laws particularly between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, finances, and parenting styles in raising their children.

      Conflicts also occur when one or both of the spouses have personal problems, such as drug abuse or alcoholism. Successful marriages take commitment and investment on the part of both spouses. To be successful, marriage partners need to have reached a level of individual maturity, such that they have clarified their own life goals and developed their talents and character sufficiently to be able to pursue them, and to have experienced harmonious relationships with others, such as their parents, extended family members, siblings, and peers.

      Without this type of foundation, even the most passionate feelings of love are not enough to build a healthy marriage. Just as sexual purity is considered by many an important part of marriage preparation, fidelity between husband and wife is important in building and maintaining a healthy marriage. Adultery has been condemned by many religions, criminalized by many societies, and has led to the downfall of many great historical figures as well as the breakdown of numerous marriages.

      Healthy marriages are based on trust and commitment; "cheating" on one's spouse violates this relationship in an unforgettable fashion. The purpose of marriage is, ultimately, not just for the sake of the man and woman who participate in the union, it is the road to the next generation, children, and the continuation of one's lineage. The conjugal relationship of husband and wife is the emotional and physical foundation for building a family , in which children, produced through the love of man and woman, are nurtured and protected until they reach maturity, and embark on their own lives, which also involve the continuation of the lineage.

      The family, formed through the marriage of man and woman and resulting in children, is a universal institution in human life:. Civilized society is built upon the family: Children naturally inherit not only their physical characteristics as well as physical and material wealth, they also receive their social heritage from their biological parents. The family, therefore, is the social structure most effective in passing on traditions, beliefs , and values from one generation to the next.

      On the other hand, children of divorce, single-parent families, and step-families are considerably more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems—they sometimes fail to graduate high school , abuse drugs and alcohol , engage in sexual activity as teenagers, suffer unwanted pregnancies, are involved in violence and crime , avoid marriage and child-bearing, get divorced, and commit suicide at higher rates than those raised by two married parents.

      Good marriages and the resulting families have been, and continue to be, essential to the social fabric of human society. Without marriage there is no stability in the family, and without stable families the next generation is at grave risk in all aspects of life. In the latter decades of the twentieth century many traditional assumptions about the nature, purpose, and definition of marriage and family were challenged. These challenges ran parallel to dramatic increases in divorce from 6 percent to over 40 percent of first marriages , cohabitation without marriage, a growing unmarried population, and children born outside of marriage from 5 percent to over 33 percent of births , as well as an increase in adultery 8 percent to over 40 percent.

      Cohabitation is on the rise worldwide. It has been argued that marriage may be an unnecessary legal fiction—the proverbial "piece of paper"—and that living together is just as viable an option for men and women who wish to have a sexual relationship. Studies show, however, that marriage differs considerably from cohabitation. People who live together before they marry are much more likely to divorce later on than people who did not live together before their marriage. In some countries, like Sweden , the divorce rate for women who cohabited before marriage is 80 percent higher than for women who did not cohabit before marriage Bennett, Blanc, and Bloom These findings have been repeated in other countries.

      What is more, cohabitation does not bring the same benefits to children's well-being as marriage does. In England , one study showed that children who lived with cohabiting rather than married parents are twenty times more likely to become victims of child abuse Whelan Children of cohabiting couples also experience more poverty and disruption in their future relationships.

      Feminists have argued that marriage was part of patriarchy and designed to oppress and abuse women. Some social scientists agreed, seeing traditional marriages and the families formed under them as dysfunctional almost by definition. Divorce was seen as a step toward liberation. There is, no doubt, much truth to the criticism that marriage was part of the general oppression of women.

      'Inhumane' blockade

      In many areas of the world, when a woman was in her early teens her father arranged a marriage for her in return for a bride price , sometimes to a man twice her age who was a stranger to her. Her older husband then became her guardian and she could be cut off almost completely from her family.

      The woman had little or no say in the marriage negotiations, which might even have occurred without her knowledge. Some traditions allowed a woman who failed to bear a son to be given back to her father. This reflected the importance of bearing children and extending the family to succeeding generations. Often both parties have expected to be virgins before their marriage, but in many cultures women were more strictly held to this standard.

      One old tradition in Europe, which survived into the twentieth century in rural Greece , was for this to be proven by hanging the bloody bed sheet from the wedding night from the side of the house. Similarly, sexual fidelity is very often expected in marriage, but sometimes the expectations and penalties for women have been harsher than those for men. In some traditions marriage could be a traumatic, unpleasant turn of events for a girl. On the other hand, marriage has often served to assure the woman of her husband's continued support and enabled her to focus more attention on the raising of her children.

      This security has typically been greater when and where divorce has been more difficult to obtain. Although in some cultures marriage has led to the abuse of women, in fact, modern women and their children are more likely to be abused in a cohabitation situation or by members of a stepfamily they have become part of after a divorce. The data pouring in, even through some former advocates of "no-fault" divorce like Judith Wallerstein, strongly show that children's well-being depends heavily upon the long-term, committed involvement of their biological parents with one another and with them.

      Dr Myles Munroe: The true reason for marriage

      There is a growing consensus among social scientists that society cannot exist without a substantial mass of intact marriages and families built on the traditional model—that is, mutually monogamous marriage between one man and one woman who then care for and raise their children together. Some people have chafed under the constraints of monogamy and advocated "open marriages" or "swinging" as an alternative to traditional marriage.

      They have agreements with their spouses that permit other intimate relationships or sexual partners without considering this the abrogation of the marriage. However, as psychologist Carl Rogers noted and James Q. Wilson also stressed, dealing with such arrangements without jealousy, emotional pain, and severe misunderstandings is highly problematic for most people. Gay rights advocacy groups have disagreed with the notion that marriage should be exclusively between a man and a woman. Due to their lobbying efforts, same-sex marriages are now legal in some countries such as Belgium , the Netherlands , Spain , and Canada.

      Same-sex unions have been recorded in the history of a number of cultures , but marriages or socially-accepted unions between same-sex partners were rare or nonexistent in other cultures. Same-sex marriage remains infrequent worldwide. Also, various localities recognize domestic partnerships, which offer parity of spousal rights, to different degrees, with marriage. These developments have created a political backlash, most notably in Great Britain , where the Church of England has officially banned gay marriage, and in the United States , where several states have specifically outlawed same-sex marriage, often by popular referenda.

      At the United States federal level, the Defense of Marriage Act DOMA of created a federal definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, as well as allowing states to refuse to recognize a same-sex marriage recognized by another state.

      Hailey Baldwin and Justin Bieber Pack on the PDA in London Amid Marriage Speculation

      Sociologist David Courtwright maintains that violence and crime are directly related to men remaining single. He suggests that marriage channels male aggressiveness into positive social roles—such as supporting and rearing a family —and validates masculinity in a way that negates the need for "honor killings" and other violent behavior. Married men have more reason for self-control.

      They avoid fights, consume less alcohol and drugs , and stay steadily employed. They are stakeholders in a community they want to be stable for their wives and children. Indeed, Courtwright relates the most violent eras and locations in United States history to a prevalence of single males. He cites the examples of the Gold Rush in the wild West, where a dearth of females in the early years meant skyrocketing homicide rates, and the modern urban ghetto where marriage is not a norm and where many single young men behave in dangerous, destructive, and self-destructive ways Courtwright Waite, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago , maintains that married people are emotionally, psychologically , and physically healthier than their divorced, bereaved, or single counterparts.

      When illness of any sort does occur, married people recover more quickly and thoroughly than those without a supportive partner. Married couples in cross-cultural studies are also better off financially than their divorced, bereaved, or single counterparts. Social scientists in the United States have increasingly found that married-to-one-another parents provide for their biological children's well-being in ways that no other social structure has yet to attain.

      Marriage has been found to contribute to social stability in other countries as well. Studies in England and Germany have shown that rising divorce rates led young men into increased criminality , drug abuse and general disorder. Crime rates in general have been shown to be directly related to the state of marriage in a community: Anthropologist Margaret Mead once quipped, "The problem in any society is what to do with the men.

      Marriage - New World Encyclopedia

      Although the institution of marriage came under attack in the latter part of the twentieth century, a successful alternative has not been found. In fact, the very reasons given to reject marriage, such as to end the abuse of women and children and to give freedom to achieve personal happiness, seem to have backfired.

      Married couples have been shown to enjoy greater personal happiness, better health, longer lives, and to suffer less abuse than those in cohabiting or uncommitted relationships. Children raised in families by their biological, married parents show higher levels of achievement in all areas of life and are at less risk for physical, psychological, and social problems than children of divorced or single-parent families.

      Marital customs and laws

      As Auguste Comte wrote, the family is the most fundamental social unit, the prototype of all other human associations. It is out of marriages that families and communities arise. Marriage is the place to experience sexual love between man and woman, give birth to new life, and establish one's lineage for the future.

      As energy is invested in the maintenance of marriages, families, and the communities they both require and build, society is propelled forward in civil, nurturing, and benevolent ways. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards.