However, marriage is far from a necessary solution to the sharing problem. A division of labor by gender is a cultural universal and it is proposed that marriage is a way for females and males to productively share the results of their varied subsistence tasks. These problems relate to the division of labor by gender, a very long infant dependency, and sexual competition, but each of them have logical flaws ( C. There are a variety of theories about what particular problems make marriage adaptive. Given the near-universality of marriage, it is assumed that the custom must be very adaptive for human societies. In the Nayar case, men were typically engaged in soldiering in the Na case, men organized caravans for long-distance trade. And, in both cases, males were frequently absent. In both cases, not only did male and female sexual partners live separately with their maternal families, but they did not have regular economic cooperation nor other regular obligations with their sexual partners. A more recent example is the Mosuo or Na of Yunnan in southwest China. One exception from the past is the Nayar of the 19th century. There are a couple of known exceptions to the claim that marriage is a universal custom. Universality of Marriage The Na of Yunnan are a rare case of a culture that does not have marriage as we know it in most other cultures. As discussed in the sexuality module, homosexual behavior, even if common, often coexists with heterosexual marriage practices. In this module, we concentrate on marriage and family customs involving at least one man and one woman because although homosexual behavior is not rare, same-sex marriage is rare cross-culturally. And families vary in size and composition from a single-parent unit to very large multi-generation families and households. Indeed, there is tremendous variability in almost every aspect of marriage, from the rules surrounding whom one can and cannot marry, how marriage is arranged, how couples get married, how many people can be married at a time, how long marriages last, and what conditions allow a marriage to be dissolved. Ember, Ember, and Peregrine 2019).īut, while marriage and families may be virtually universal, this does not mean that marriage and family customs are the same across cultures. Marriage is commonly defined as a socially approved sexual and economic union, presumed to be more or less permanent, and entails rights and obligations between the married couple and any children they might have ( C. Almost all societies also have the custom of marriage, so a marriage partner is usually part of the basic family unit. Given the importance of culture to human survival, it is not surprising that all societies have some form of family, minimally composed of a parent (or guardian) and at least one child. Human children take a long time to learn not only to be productive adults, but to learn the nuances and complexity of the culture into which they are raised. Marriage and Familyįamilies are essential for human development.
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