View source for Marriage

{{short description|Culturally recognised union between people}}
{{hatnote|For other uses, see [[Marriage (disambiguation)]], [[Matrimony (disambiguation)]], and [[Wedlock (disambiguation)]].}}
{{redirect-multi|2|Married|Matrimony}}
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{{very long|date=January 2025|words=17,000}}
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[[File:Marriage symbol.svg|thumb|The symbol for marriage, often used in genealogy]]

{{Anthropology of kinship|expanded=concepts}}
{{Close relationships|expanded=types}}

'''Marriage''', also called '''matrimony''' or '''wedlock''', is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called [[spouse]]s. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and between them and their [[Affinity (law)|in-laws]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Haviland |first1=William A. |title=Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge |last2=Prins |first2=Harald E.L. |author-link2=Harald Prins |last3=McBride |first3=Bunny |author-link3=Bunny McBride |last4=Walrath |first4=Dana |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-495-81178-7 |edition=13th |page=209 |chapter=Chapter 9: Sex, Marriage, and Family}} "A nonethnocentric definition of marriage is a culturally sanctioned union between two or more people that establishes certain rights and obligations between the people, between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws."</ref> It is nearly a [[cultural universal]],<ref>{{Citation |title=Marriage and Family |vauthors=[[Carol R. Ember|Ember CR]], Gonzalez B, McCloskey D |date=16 July 2021 |website=Explaining Human Culture |page=5 |type=Topical summary |url=https://hraf.yale.edu/ehc/assets/summaries/pdfs/marriage-and-family.pdf |access-date=17 March 2024 |veditors=Ember CR |location=New Haven, Ct. |publisher=Human Relations Area Files}}</ref> but the definition of marriage varies between [[culture]]s and [[religion]]s, and over time. Typically, it is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged or sanctioned. In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be [[Premarital sex|compulsory before pursuing sexual activity]]. A marriage ceremony is called a [[wedding]], while a private marriage is sometimes called an [[elopement]].

Around the world, there has been a general trend towards ensuring [[Women's rights|equal rights for women]] and ending discrimination and harassment against couples who are [[Interethnic marriage|interethnic]], [[Interracial marriage|interracial]], [[Interfaith marriage|interfaith]], [[Interdenominational marriage|interdenominational]], [[Social class|interclass]], [[Inter-caste marriage|intercommunity]], [[Transnational marriage|transnational]], and [[Same-sex marriage|same-sex]] as well as immigrant couples, couples with an immigrant spouse, and other minority couples. Debates persist regarding the legal status of married women, leniency towards violence within marriage, customs such as [[dowry]] and [[bride price]], [[marriageable age]], and criminalization of premarital and [[extramarital sex]]. Individuals may marry for several reasons, including legal, social, [[Libido|libidinal]], emotional, financial, spiritual, cultural, economic, political, religious, sexual, and romantic purposes. In some areas of the world, [[arranged marriage]], [[forced marriage]], [[polygyny|polygyny marriage]], [[polyandry|polyandry marriage]], [[group marriage]], [[coverture|coverture marriage]], [[child marriage]], [[cousin marriage]], [[List of coupled siblings|sibling marriage]], [[teenage marriage]], [[avunculate marriage]], [[Incest|incestuous marriage]], and [[Human–animal marriage|bestiality marriage]] are practiced and legally permissible, while others areas outlaw them to protect [[human rights]].<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.congress.gov/111/cprt/SPRT62930/CPRT-111SPRT62930.pdf |title=Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2008 |author=[[United States Department of State]] |date=December 2010 |volume=1 |page=1353<!--retained from original citation--> |access-date=17 March 2024}}<!-- There is no summary statement such as that included in this article; rather, marriage practices for every country is described.  Therefore, the preceding sentence appears to be a synthesis from information in this source. --></ref>{{Synthesis inline|date=March 2024|reason=see comment added to citation}} Female age at marriage has proven to be a strong indicator for female [[autonomy]] and is continuously used by [[economic history]] research.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Baten |first1=Joerg |last2=de Pleijt |first2=Alexandra M. |date=2018 |title=Girl power Generates Superstars in Long-term Development: Female Autonomy and Human Capital Formation in Early Modern Europe |journal=CEPR Working Paper |volume=13348}}</ref>

Marriage can be recognized by a state, an organization, a religious authority, a tribal group, a local community, or peers. It is often viewed as a [[legal contract]]. A religious marriage ceremony is performed by a religious institution to recognize and create the rights and obligations intrinsic to matrimony in that religion. Religious marriage is known variously as ''[[sacrament]]al marriage'' in [[Christianity]] (especially [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]]), ''[[nikah]]'' in [[Islam]], ''[[nissuin]]'' in [[Judaism]], and various other names in other faith traditions, each with their own constraints as to what constitutes, and who can enter into, a valid religious marriage.

==Etymology==
The word ''marriage'' appeared around 1300 and is borrowed from [[Old French]] {{lang|fro|mariage}} (12th century), ultimately tracing to the [[Latin]] {{lang|la|maritātus}} 'married', [[past participle]] of {{lang|la|maritāre}} 'to marry'.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harper |first=Douglas R. |author-link=Douglas Harper (lexicographer) |date=13 October 2021 |title=marriage (n.) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/marriage |access-date=17 March 2024 |website=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]]}}</ref> The adjective ''{{Lang|la|marītus, -a, -um}}'' 'matrimonial, nuptial' could also be used, through [[nominalization]], in the masculine form as a noun for 'husband' and in the feminine form for 'wife'.<ref name="OED_marriage">Oxford English Dictionary 11th Edition, "marriage"</ref> The related word ''matrimony'' is borrowed from the Old French word ''{{Lang|ang|matremoine}}'', which appears around 1300 CE and is in turn ultimately a [[Loanword#Romance languages|learned borrowing]] from Latin ''{{Lang|la|mātrimōnium}}'', which is derived from ''{{Lang|la|māter}}'' '[[mother]]' with the suffix {{Lang|la|-mōnium}} for an action, state, or condition.<ref name="Etymology">{{cite web |title=matrimony (n.) |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=matrimony |publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary}}</ref>

==Definitions==
[[Anthropologist]]s have proposed several competing definitions of marriage in an attempt to encompass the wide variety of marital practices observed across cultures.<ref name = "Bell" /> Even within [[Western culture]], "definitions of marriage have careened from one extreme to another and everywhere in between" (as Evan Gerstmann has put it).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gerstmann |first=Evan |url=http://archive.org/details/samesexmarriagec0000gers |title=Same-sex marriage and the Constitution |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge [England]; New York : Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-81100-2 |page=22 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

===Relation recognized by custom or law===
In ''[[The History of Human Marriage]]'' (1891), [[Edvard Westermarck]] defined marriage as "a more or less durable connection between male and female lasting beyond the mere act of propagation till after the birth of the offspring."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Westermarck |first=Edward |author-link=Edvard Westermarck |url=https://archive.org/details/b2998130x_0001/ |title=History of Human Marriage |date=26 October 2017<!-- scan date --> |publisher=The Allerton Book Company |isbn=978-0-7661-4618-1 |edition=5th |volume=1 |location=New York |publication-date=1922 |page=71 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> In ''The Future of Marriage in Western Civilization'' (1936), he rejected his earlier definition, instead provisionally defining marriage as "a relation of one or more men to one or more women that is recognized by custom or law".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Westermarck |first=Edward |author-link=Edvard Westermarck |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.219197/ |title=The Future of Marriage in Western Civilisation |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |year=1936 |isbn=978-0-8369-5304-6 |page=3 |language=en |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

===Legitimacy of offspring===
The anthropological handbook ''Notes and Queries'' (1951) defined marriage as "a union between a man and a woman such that children born to the woman are the recognized legitimate offspring of both partners."<ref name="Notes">{{cite book|title=Notes and Queries on Anthropology|publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute|year=1951|page= 110}}</ref> In recognition of a practice by the [[Nuer people]] of Sudan allowing women to act as a husband in certain circumstances (the [[Ghost marriage (Sudanese)|ghost marriage]]), [[Kathleen Gough]] suggested modifying this to "a woman and one or more other persons."<ref name="Gough">{{Cite journal|last=Gough|first=E. Kathleen|title=The Nayars and the Definition of Marriage|journal=Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland|year=1959|pages=23–34|volume=89|issue=1|doi=10.2307/2844434|jstor=2844434 | issn=0307-3114 }} Nuer female-female marriage is done to keep property within a family that has no sons. It is not a form of lesbianism.</ref>

In an analysis of marriage among the [[Nair|Nayar]], a [[polyandrous]] society in India, Gough found that the group lacked a husband role in the conventional sense. The husband role, unitary in the west, was instead divided between a non-resident "social father" of the woman's children, and her lovers, who were the actual procreators. None of these men had legal rights to the woman's child. This forced Gough to disregard sexual access as a key element of marriage and to define it in terms of legitimacy of offspring alone.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gough|first=Kathleen|title=Marriage, Family and Residence|year=1968|publisher=Natural History Press|location=New York|page=68|editor=Paul Bohannan & John Middleton|chapter=The Nayars and the Definition of Marriage}}</ref>

Economic anthropologist [[Duran Bell]] has criticized the legitimacy-based definition on the basis that some societies do not require marriage for legitimacy. He argued that a legitimacy-based definition of marriage is circular in societies where illegitimacy has no other legal or social implications for a child other than the mother being unmarried.<ref name = "Bell" />

===Collection of rights===
[[Edmund Leach]] criticized Gough's definition for being too restrictive in terms of recognized legitimate offspring and suggested that marriage be viewed in terms of the different types of rights it serves to establish. In a 1955 article in ''[[Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute|Man]]'', Leach argued that no one definition of marriage applied to all cultures. He offered a list of ten rights associated with marriage, including sexual monopoly and rights with respect to children, with specific rights differing across cultures. Those rights, according to Leach, included:
# "To establish a legal father of a woman's children.
# To establish a legal mother of a man's children.
# To give the husband a monopoly in the wife's sexuality.
# To give the wife a monopoly in the husband's sexuality.
# To give the husband partial or monopolistic rights to the wife's domestic and other labor services.
# To give the wife partial or monopolistic rights to the husband's domestic and other labor services.
# To give the husband partial or total control over property belonging or potentially accruing to the wife.
# To give the wife partial or total control over property belonging or potentially accruing to the husband.
# To establish a joint fund of property – a partnership – for the benefit of the children of the marriage.
# To establish a socially significant 'relationship of affinity' between the husband and his wife's brothers."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Leach|first=Edmund|title=Polyandry, Inheritance and the Definition of Marriage|journal=Man|date=Dec 1955|volume=55|issue=12|page=183|doi=10.2307/2795331|jstor=2795331}}</ref>

===Right of sexual access===
In a 1997 article in ''[[Current Anthropology]]'', [[Duran Bell]] describes marriage as "a relationship between one or more men (male or female) in severalty to one or more women that provides those men with a demand-right of sexual access within a domestic group and identifies women who bear the obligation of yielding to the demands of those specific men." In referring to "men in severalty", Bell is referring to corporate kin groups such as lineages which, in having paid bride price, retain a right in a woman's offspring even if her husband (a lineage member) deceases ([[Levirate marriage]]). In referring to "men (male or female)", Bell is referring to women within the lineage who may stand in as the "social fathers" of the wife's children born of other lovers. (See Nuer "[[Ghost marriage (Sudanese)|ghost marriage]]".)<ref name="Bell">{{cite journal |last=Bell |first=Duran |author-link=Duran Bell |year=1997 |title=Defining Marriage and Legitimacy |url=http://www.economics.uci.edu/~dbell/marriageandlegit.pdf |journal=[[Current Anthropology]] |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=237–54 |doi=10.1086/204606 |jstor=2744491 |s2cid=144637145 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170524221837/http://www.economics.uci.edu/~dbell/marriageandlegit.pdf |archive-date=24 May 2017 |access-date=6 April 2013}}</ref>

==Types==
{{Main|Types of marriages}}

===Monogamy===
[[File:Marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi.png|thumb|right|alt=The marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid|Ancient [[Sumer]]ian depiction of the marriage of [[Inanna]] and [[Dumuzid the Shepherd|Dumuzid]]<ref>{{cite web|last=Lung|first=Tang|title=Marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi|url=http://www.worldhistory.org/image/2636/|website=World History Encyclopedia|date=2014}}</ref>]]
{{Main|Monogamy}}

Monogamy is a form of marriage in which an individual has only one spouse during their lifetime or at any one time (serial monogamy).

Anthropologist [[Jack Goody]]'s comparative study of marriage around the world utilizing the [[Human Relations Area Files|Ethnographic Atlas]] found a strong correlation between intensive plough agriculture, dowry and monogamy. This pattern was found in a broad swath of Eurasian societies from Japan to Ireland. The majority of Sub-Saharan African societies that practice extensive hoe agriculture, in contrast, show a correlation between "[[bride price]]" and polygamy.<ref name="Goody 1976 7">{{cite book|last=Goody|first=Jack|title=Production and Reproduction: A Comparative Study of the Domestic Domain|year=1976|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|page=7}}</ref> A further study drawing on the Ethnographic Atlas showed a statistical correlation between increasing size of the society, the belief in "high gods" to support human morality, and monogamy.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Roes|first=Frans L.|title=The Size of Societies, Monogamy, and Belief in High Gods Supporting Human Morality|journal=Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen|year=1992|volume=37|issue=1|pages=53–58}}</ref>

In the countries which do not permit polygamy, a person who marries in one of those countries a person while still being lawfully married to another commits the crime of [[bigamy]]. In all cases, the second marriage is considered legally null and void. Besides the second and subsequent marriages being void, the bigamist is also liable to other penalties, which also vary between jurisdictions.

====Serial monogamy====
Governments that support monogamy may allow easy divorce. In a number of Western countries, divorce rates approach 50%. Those who remarry do so usually no more than three times.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-11-14|title=The Demographics of Remarriage|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2014/11/14/chapter-2-the-demographics-of-remarriage/|access-date=2021-06-28|website=Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project|language=en-US}}</ref> Divorce and remarriage can thus result in "serial monogamy", i.e. having multiple marriages but only one legal spouse at a time. This can be interpreted as a form of plural mating, as are those societies dominated by female-headed families in the [[Caribbean]], [[Mauritius]] and [[Brazil]] where there is frequent rotation of unmarried partners. In all, these account for 16 to 24% of the "monogamous" category.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fox|first=Robin|title=Reproduction & Succession: Studies in Anthropology, Law and Society|year=1997|publisher=Transaction Publishers|location=New Brunswick, NJ|page=34}}</ref>

[[File:Hindu wedding couple.jpg|thumb|[[Hindu wedding|Indian Hindu wedding]] with the bride and groom in traditional dress.]]

Serial monogamy creates a new kind of relative, the "ex-". The "ex-wife", for example, may remain an active part of her "ex-husband's" or "ex-wife's" life, as they may be tied together by transfers of resources (alimony, child support), or shared child custody.

===Polygamy===
{{Main|Polygamy}}
[[File:Kwong Sue Duk with his three wives and fourteen children, Cairns, 1904 (9623512597).jpg|thumb|Chinese immigrant with his three wives and fourteen children, [[Cairns]], 1904]]
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two spouses.<ref name="Zeitzen">{{cite book |last=Zeitzen |first=Miriam Koktvedgaard |title=Polygamy: a cross-cultural analysis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WIzHjpTJgdQC&pg=PA3 |publisher=Berg |page=3 |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-84520-220-0}}</ref> When a man is married to more than one wife at a time, the relationship is called [[polygyny]], and there is no marriage bond between the wives; and when a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, it is called [[polyandry]], and there is no marriage bond between the husbands. If a marriage includes multiple husbands or wives, it can be called [[group marriage]].<ref name=Zeitzen/>

A molecular genetic study of global human genetic diversity argued that sexual polygyny was typical of human reproductive patterns until the shift to sedentary farming communities approximately 10,000 to 5,000 years ago in Europe and Asia, and more recently in Africa and the Americas.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Dupanloup I, Pereira L, Bertorelle G, Calafell F, Prata MJ, Amorim A, Barbujani G | year = 2003 | title = A recent shift from polygyny to monogamy in humans is suggested by the analysis of worldwide Y-chromosome diversity | journal = J Mol Evol | volume = 57 | issue = 1| pages = 85–97 | doi = 10.1007/s00239-003-2458-x | pmid = 12962309 | bibcode = 2003JMolE..57...85D | citeseerx = 10.1.1.454.1662 | s2cid = 2673314 }}</ref> As noted above, Anthropologist [[Jack Goody]]'s comparative study of marriage around the world utilizing the [[Human Relations Area Files|Ethnographic Atlas]] found that the majority of Sub-Saharan African societies that practice extensive hoe agriculture show a correlation between "[[Bride price]]" and polygamy.<ref name="Goody 1976 7"/> A survey of other cross-cultural samples has confirmed that the absence of the plough was the only predictor of polygamy, although other factors such as high male mortality in warfare (in non-state societies) and pathogen stress (in state societies) had some impact.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ember|first=Carol R.|title=What we know and what we don't know about variation in social organization: Melvin Ember's approach to the study of kinship|journal=Cross-Cultural Research|year=2011|volume=45|issue=1|pages=27–30|doi=10.1177/1069397110383947|s2cid=143952998}}</ref>

Marriages are classified according to the number of legal spouses an individual has. The suffix "-gamy" refers specifically to the number of spouses, as in [[Bigamy|bi-gamy]] (two spouses, generally illegal in most nations), and poly-gamy (more than one spouse).

Societies show variable acceptance of polygamy as a cultural ideal and practice. According to the [[Human Relations Area Files|Ethnographic Atlas]], of 1,231 societies noted, 186 were monogamous; 453 had occasional polygyny; 588 had more frequent polygyny, and 4 had polyandry.<ref name="Atlas">[http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/worldcul/Codebook4EthnoAtlas.pdf ''Ethnographic Atlas Codebook''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118232413/http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/worldcul/Codebook4EthnoAtlas.pdf |date=18 November 2012 }} derived from George P. Murdock's ''Ethnographic Atlas'' recording the marital composition of 1231 societies from 1960 to 1980</ref> However, as Miriam Zeitzen writes, social tolerance for polygamy is different from the practice of polygamy, since it requires wealth to establish multiple households for multiple wives. The actual practice of polygamy in a tolerant society may actually be low, with the majority of aspirant polygamists practicing monogamous marriage. Tracking the occurrence of polygamy is further complicated in jurisdictions where it has been banned, but continues to be practiced (''de facto polygamy'').<ref name="Zeitzen 2008 5">{{cite book|last=Zeitzen|first=Miriam Koktvedgaard|title=Polygamy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis|url=https://archive.org/details/polygamycrosscul00zeit|url-access=limited|year=2008|publisher=Berg|location=Oxford|page=[https://archive.org/details/polygamycrosscul00zeit/page/n11 5]|isbn=978-1-84788-617-0}}</ref>

Zeitzen also notes that Western perceptions of African society and marriage patterns are biased by "contradictory concerns of nostalgia for traditional African culture versus critique of polygamy as oppressive to women or detrimental to development."<ref name="Zeitzen 2008 5"/> Polygamy has been condemned as being a form of human rights abuse, with concerns arising over domestic abuse, forced marriage, and neglect. The vast majority of countries do not permit polygamy.

====Polygyny====
{{Main|Polygyny}}
{{See also|Concubinage}}
Polygyny usually grants wives equal status, although the husband may have personal preferences. One type of de facto polygyny is [[concubinage]], where only one woman gets a wife's rights and status, while other women remain legal house mistresses.

Although a society may be classified as polygynous, not all marriages in it necessarily are; monogamous marriages may in fact predominate. It is to this flexibility that Anthropologist [[Robin Fox]] attributes its success as a social support system: <blockquote>This has often meant – given the imbalance in the sex ratios, the higher male infant mortality, the shorter life span of males, the loss of males in wartime, etc. – that often women were left without financial support from husbands. To correct this condition, females had to be killed at birth, remain single, become prostitutes, or be siphoned off into celibate religious orders. Polygynous systems have the advantage that they can promise, as did the Mormons, a home and family for every woman.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fox|first=Robin|title=Reproduction & Succession: Studies in Anthropology, Law, and Society|year=1997|publisher=Transaction Publishers|location=New Brunswick, NJ|page=48}}</ref></blockquote>

Nonetheless, polygyny is a gender issue which offers men asymmetrical benefits. In some cases, there is a large age discrepancy (as much as a generation) between a man and his youngest wife, compounding the power differential between the two. Tensions not only exist ''between'' genders, but also ''within'' genders; senior and junior men compete for wives, and senior and junior wives in the same household may experience radically different life conditions, and internal hierarchy. Several studies have suggested that the wive's relationship with other women, including co-wives and husband's female kin, are more critical relationships than that with her husband for her productive, reproductive and personal achievement.<ref>{{cite book|last=Zeitzen|first=Miriam Koktvedgaard|title=Polygamy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis|url=https://archive.org/details/polygamycrosscul00zeit|url-access=limited|year=2008|publisher=Berg|location=Oxford|pages=[https://archive.org/details/polygamycrosscul00zeit/page/n131 125]–27}}</ref> In some societies, the co-wives are relatives, usually sisters, a practice called ''sororal polygyny''; the pre-existing relationship between the co-wives is thought to decrease potential tensions within the marriage.<ref name="Zeitzen 2008 9">{{cite book|last=Zeitzen|first=Miriam Koktvedgaard|title=Polygamy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis|url=https://archive.org/details/polygamycrosscul00zeit|url-access=limited|year=2008|publisher=Berg|location=Oxford|page=[https://archive.org/details/polygamycrosscul00zeit/page/n15 9]}}</ref>

Fox argues that "the major difference between polygyny and monogamy could be stated thus: while plural mating occurs in both systems, under polygyny several unions may be recognized as being legal marriages while under monogamy only one of the unions is so recognized. Often, however, it is difficult to draw a hard and fast line between the two."<ref>{{cite book|last=Fox|first=Robin|title=Reproduction & Succession: Studies in Anthropology, Law and Society|year=1997|publisher=Transaction Publishers|location=New Brunswick, NJ|page=21}}</ref>

As polygamy in Africa is increasingly subject to legal limitations, a variant form of ''de facto'' (as opposed to legal or ''de jure'') polygyny is being practiced in urban centers. Although it does not involve multiple (now illegal) formal marriages, the domestic and personal arrangements follow old polygynous patterns. The de facto form of polygyny is found in other parts of the world as well (including some Mormon sects and Muslim families in the United States).<ref>{{cite book|last=Zeitzen|first=Miriam Koktvedgaard|title=Polygamy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis|url=https://archive.org/details/polygamycrosscul00zeit|url-access=limited|year=2008|publisher=Berg|location=Oxford|pages=[https://archive.org/details/polygamycrosscul00zeit/page/n23 17], 89–107}}</ref>
In some societies such as the [[Lobedu people|Lovedu]] of South Africa, or the [[Nuer people|Nuer]] of the Sudan, aristocratic women may become female 'husbands.' In the Lovedu case, this female husband may take a number of polygamous wives. This is not a lesbian relationship, but a means of legitimately expanding a royal lineage by attaching these wives' children to it. The relationships are considered polygynous, not polyandrous, because the female husband is in fact assuming masculine gendered political roles.<ref name="Zeitzen 2008 9"/>

Religious groups have differing views on the legitimacy of [[polygyny]]. It is allowed in [[Islam]] and [[Confucianism]]. [[Judaism]] and [[Christianity]] have mentioned practices involving polygyny in the past, however, outright religious acceptance of such practices was not addressed until its rejection in later passages. They do explicitly prohibit polygyny today.

====Polyandry====
{{Main|Polyandry|Polyandry in Tibet|Polyandry in India}}

[[Polyandry]] is notably more rare than polygyny, though less rare than the figure commonly cited in the ''Ethnographic Atlas'' (1980) which listed only those polyandrous societies found in the Himalayan Mountains. More recent studies have found 53 societies outside the 28 found in the Himalayans which practice polyandry.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Starkweather|first1=Katherine|last2=Hames|first2=Raymond|title=A survey of non-classical polyandry|journal=Human Nature|date=June 2012|volume=23|issue=2|pages=149–72|doi=10.1007/s12110-012-9144-x|pmid=22688804|s2cid=2008559|url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article%3D1049%26context%3Danthropologyfacpub|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923033542/http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1049&context=anthropologyfacpub|archive-date=23 September 2017|url-access=subscription}}</ref> It is most common in egalitarian societies marked by high male mortality or male absenteeism. It is associated with ''partible paternity'', the cultural belief that a child can have more than one father.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Starkweather|first1=Katherine|last2=Hames|first2=Raymond|title=A survey of non-classical polyandry|journal=Human Nature|date=June 2012|volume=23|issue=2|pages=149–72|doi=10.1007/s12110-012-9144-x|pmid=22688804|s2cid=2008559|url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1049&context=anthropologyfacpub|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The explanation for polyandry in the Himalayan Mountains is related to the scarcity of land; the marriage of all brothers in a family to the same wife (''fraternal polyandry'') allows family land to remain intact and undivided. If every brother married separately and had children, family land would be split into unsustainable small plots. In Europe, this was prevented through the social practice of impartible inheritance (the dis-inheriting of most siblings, some of whom went on to become celibate monks and priests).<ref>{{cite book|last=Levine|first=Nancy|title=The Dynamics of polyandry: kinship, domesticity, and population on the Tibetan border|year=1998|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago}}</ref>

====Plural marriage====
[[Group marriage]] (also known as ''multi-lateral marriage'') is a form of [[polyamory]] in which more than two persons form a [[family]] unit, with all the members of the group marriage being considered to be married to all the other members of the group marriage, and all members of the marriage share [[parent]]al responsibility for any children arising from the marriage.<ref name="murdock-1949-definition">Murdock, 1949, p. 24. "''group marriage'' or a marital union embracing at once several men and several women."</ref> No country legally condones group marriages, neither under the law nor as a common law marriage, but historically it has been practiced by some cultures of Polynesia, Asia, Papua New Guinea and the Americas – as well as in some [[Intentional community|intentional communities]] and alternative subcultures such as the [[Oneida Community|Oneida Perfectionists]] in up-state New York. Of the 250 societies reported by the American anthropologist [[George Murdock]] in 1949, only the [[Kaingang]] of Brazil had any group marriages at all.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/247131/group-marriage|title=Group Marriage|journal=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=9 October 2023 }}</ref>

===Child marriage===
{{Main|Child marriage}}
A child marriage is a marriage where one or both spouses are under the age of 18.<ref name="Child Marriage">[http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58008.html Child Marriage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907061839/https://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58008.html |date=7 September 2018 }} UNICEF (2011)</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/06/14/q-child-marriage-and-violations-girls-rights|title=Q & A: Child Marriage and Violations of Girls' Rights – Human Rights Watch|date=14 June 2013|access-date=7 October 2014}}</ref> It is related to child [[Engagement#Betrothal|betrothal]] and [[teenage pregnancy]].

Child marriage was common throughout history, even up until the 1900s in the United States, where in 1880, in the state of [[Delaware]], the age of consent for marriage was 7 years old.<ref name="gmu-aoc">{{cite web |url=https://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/24.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100607132514/https://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/teaching-modules/230?section=primarysources&source=24 |archive-date=2010-06-07 |url-status=live |title=Age of Consent Laws (Table) |last=Robertson |first=Stephen |website=Children & Youth in History |access-date=February 3, 2023}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Still, in 2017, over half of the 50 United States have no explicit minimum age to marry and several states set the age as low as 14.<ref name="tahirih">{{cite web |title=Understanding State Statutes on Minimum Marriage Age and Exceptions Laws |url=http://www.tahirih.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/FINAL-State-Marriage-Age-Requirements-Statutory-Compilation-PDF.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161215001447/http://www.tahirih.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/FINAL-State-Marriage-Age-Requirements-Statutory-Compilation-PDF.pdf  |archive-date=15 December 2016 |website=Tahirih Justice Center |access-date=27 May 2017}}</ref> Today it is condemned by international human rights organizations.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/ihavearightto/four_b/casestudy_art16.shtml |title=I have a right to |publisher= BBC World Service |access-date=7 October 2014}}</ref><ref name="who.int">{{cite web |url=https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2013/child_marriage_20130307/en/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130314073138/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2013/child_marriage_20130307/en/  |archive-date=14 March 2013 |title= Child marriages: 39,000 every day |publisher=WHO |access-date=7 October 2014}}</ref> Child marriages are often arranged between the families of the future bride and groom, sometimes as soon as the girl is born.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> However, in the late 1800s in England and the United States, [[Feminism|feminist]] activists began calling for raised age of consent laws, which was eventually handled in the 1920s, having been raised to 16–18.<ref name="encyclopedia-aoc">{{cite web |last1=Bullough |first1=Vern L. |title=Age of Consent |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/age_of_consent.aspx |website=Encyclopedia |publisher=Gale Group |access-date=18 October 2015}}</ref>

Child marriages can also occur in the context of [[bride kidnapping]].<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/>

While child marriage is observed for both boys and girls, the overwhelming majority of child spouses are girls.<ref>[http://www.unicef.org/policyanalysis/files/Note_on_Child_Marriage.pdf A Note on Child Marriage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819082235/https://www.unicef.org/policyanalysis/files/Note_on_Child_Marriage.pdf |date=19 August 2018 }} UNICEF (July 2012), p. 3</ref> In many cases, only one marriage-partner is a child, usually the female, due to the importance placed upon female [[virginity]].<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> Causes of child marriage include [[poverty]], [[bride price]], [[dowry]], laws that allow child marriages, [[Religion|religious]] and [[Peer pressure|social pressures]], regional customs, fear of remaining unmarried, and perceived inability of women to work for money.

Today, child marriages are widespread in parts of the world; being most common in [[South Asia]] and [[sub-Saharan Africa]], with more than half of the girls in some countries in those regions being married before 18.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> The incidence of child marriage has been falling in most parts of the world. In developed countries, child marriage is outlawed or restricted.

Girls who marry before 18 are at greater risk of becoming victims of [[domestic violence]], than those who marry later, especially when they are married to a much older man.<ref name="who.int"/>

===Same-sex and third-gender marriages===
{{Main|Same-sex marriage|History of same-sex unions}}
[[File:Terryandmarkwedding.jpg|thumb|A same-sex couple exchanging wedding vows in a [[Unitarian Universalism|Unitarian Universalist]] Fellowship]]
Several kinds of same-sex marriages have been documented in Indigenous and lineage-based cultures. In the Americas, [[We'wha]] ([[Zuni people|Zuni]]), was a ''[[lhamana]]'' (male individuals who, at least some of the time, dress and live in the roles usually filled by women in that culture); a respected artist, We'wha served as an emissary of the Zuni to Washington, where he met President [[Grover Cleveland]].<ref name="Stevenson37">Matilda Coxe Stevenson, The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies, (BiblioBazaar, 2010) p.&nbsp;37 Quote: "the most intelligent person in the pueblo. Strong character made his word law among both men and women with whom he associated. Though his wrath was dreaded by men as well as women, he was loved by all children, to whom he was ever kind."</ref> We'wha had at least one husband who was generally recognized as such.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Eskridge|first=William N.|title=A History of Same-Sex Marriage|journal=Virginia Law Review|year=1993|volume=79|pages=1453–58|doi=10.2307/1073379|issue=7|jstor=1073379|url=http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/1504}}</ref>

While it is a relatively new practice to grant same-sex couples the same form of legal marital recognition as commonly granted to mixed-sex couples, there is some history of recorded same-sex unions around the world.<ref name="same_sex_marriage_a09">{{Cite book|last1=Alderson|first1=Kevin|last2=Lahey|first2=Kathleen A.|title=Same-Sex Marriage: The Personal and the Political|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hR0_CoNj6GAC&pg=RA1-PA16|year = 2004|publisher = Insomniac Press |isbn=978-1-894663-63-2|page=16}}</ref> [[Homosexuality in ancient Greece|Ancient Greek same-sex relationships]] were like modern companionate marriages, unlike their different-sex marriages in which the spouses had few emotional ties, and the husband had freedom to engage in outside sexual liaisons. The [[Codex Theodosianus]] (''C. Th.'' 9.7.3) issued in 438 [[Common Era|CE]] imposed severe penalties or death on same-sex relationships,<ref>''ubi scelus est id, quod non proficit scire, ubi venus mutatur in alteram formam, ubi amor quaeritur nec videtur, iubemus insurgere leges, armari iura gladio ultore, ut exquisitis poenis subdantur infames, qui sunt vel qui futuri sunt rei.''[http://ancientrome.ru/ius/library/codex/theod/liber09.htm#7 Ancientrome.ru] "where that crime is found, which is unfit even to know, we command the law to arise armed with an avenging sword that the infamous men who are, or shall in future be guilty of it, may undergo the most severe punishments." translation by Lord [[William Blackstone]], ''[[Commentaries on the Laws of England]]'' Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1769, Vol. IV, pp. 215–16.</ref> but the exact intent of the law and its relation to social practice is unclear, as only a few examples of same-sex relationships in that culture exist.<ref>{{cite journal|last = Kuefler |first=Mathew|year=2007|title=The Marriage Revolution in Late Antiquity: The Theodosian Code and Later Roman Marriage Law|journal = [[Journal of Family History]]|volume=32|pages=343–70|doi=10.1177/0363199007304424|issue=4|s2cid=143807895}}</ref> Same-sex unions were celebrated in some regions of China, such as [[Fujian]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hinsch|first1=Bret|title=Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China|year=1990|publisher=[[Reed Elsevier|Reed Business Information, Inc.]]|isbn=978-0-520-07869-7}}</ref> Possibly the earliest documented same-sex wedding in [[Latin Church|Latin Christendom]] occurred in [[Rome|Rome, Italy]], at the [[San Giovanni a Porta Latina]] basilica in 1581.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bway.net/~halsall/lgbh/lgbh-montaigne.txt|date=1998-12-05|access-date=2017-12-05 |title=Gay Marriage in Montaigne |website=bway.net |url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981205014731/http://www.bway.net/~halsall/lgbh/lgbh-montaigne.txt|archive-date=5 December 1998}}</ref>

===Temporary marriages===
Several cultures have practised temporary and conditional marriages. Examples include the [[Celts|Celtic]] practice of [[handfasting]] and fixed-term marriages in the Muslim community. Pre-Islamic Arabs practiced a form of temporary marriage that carries on today in the practice of [[Nikah mut'ah]], a fixed-term marriage contract. The Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]] sanctioned a temporary marriage – [[Nikah mut'ah|sigheh]] in [[Iran]] and muta'a in [[Iraq]] – which can provide a legitimizing cover for sex workers.<ref>{{Cite book
  | last = İlkkaracan
  | first = Pınar
  | title = Deconstructing sexuality in the Middle East: challenges and discourses
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pnGwP9-FhxYC&pg=PA36
  | publisher =Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
  | year = 2008
  | page = 36
  | isbn = 978-0-7546-7235-7}}
</ref> The same forms of temporary marriage have been used in Egypt, Lebanon and Iran to make the donation of a human ova legal for [[in vitro fertilisation]]; a woman cannot, however, use this kind of marriage to obtain a sperm donation.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Inhorn|first=Marcia|title=Making Muslim Babies: IVF and Gamete Donation in Sunni versus Shi'a Islam|journal=Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry|year=2006|volume=30|issue=4|pages=427–50|doi=10.1007/s11013-006-9027-x|pmid=17051430|pmc=1705533}}</ref> [[Nikah mut'ah#Western views|Muslim controversies related to Nikah Mut'ah]] have resulted in the practice being confined mostly to [[Shia Islam|Shi'ite]] communities. The matrilineal [[Mosuo]] of China practice what they call "walking marriage".

===Cohabitation===
{{See also|Cohabitation|Common-law marriage}}
In some jurisdictions [[cohabitation]], in certain circumstances, may constitute a [[common-law marriage]], an [[Unregistered cohabitation|unregistered partnership]], or otherwise provide the unmarried partners with various rights and responsibilities; and in some countries, the laws recognize cohabitation in lieu of institutional marriage for taxation and social security benefits. This is the case, for example, in Australia.<ref>[http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/itaa1997240/s995.1.html Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 – Sect 995.1(1)]: ""spouse" of an individual includes: (a) another individual (whether of the same sex or a different sex) with whom the individual is in a relationship that is registered under a * State law or * Territory law prescribed for the purposes of section 22B of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 as a kind of relationship prescribed for the purposes of that section; and (b) another individual who, although not legally married to the individual, lives with the individual on a genuine domestic basis in a relationship as a couple."</ref> Cohabitation may be an option pursued as a form of resistance to traditional institutionalized marriage. However, in this context, some nations reserve the right to define the relationship as marital, or otherwise to regulate the relation, even if the relation has not been registered with the state or a religious institution.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cherlin|first=Andrew J.|title=The Deinstitutionalization of American Marriage|journal=Journal of Marriage and the Family|year=2004|volume=66|issue=4|pages=848–61|doi=10.1111/j.0022-2445.2004.00058.x|url=https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/09cv2292/evidence/DIX0049.pdf|access-date=25 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201000346/https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/09cv2292/evidence/DIX0049.pdf|archive-date=1 February 2017|citeseerx=10.1.1.614.8920}}</ref>

Conversely, institutionalized marriages may not involve cohabitation. In some cases, couples living together do not wish to be recognized as married. This may occur because pension or alimony rights are adversely affected; because of taxation considerations; because of immigration issues, or for other reasons. Such marriages have also been increasingly common in [[Beijing]]. Guo Jianmei, director of the center for women's studies at Beijing University, told a [[Newsday]] correspondent, "Walking marriages reflect sweeping changes in Chinese society." A "walking marriage" refers to a type of temporary marriage formed by the [[Mosuo]] of China, in which male partners live elsewhere and make nightly visits.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gargan|first=Edward A.|title=China's New Brides Put Freedom First/All perks, no work in 'walking marriages'|page=A.04|work=[[Newsday]]|date=19 March 2001}}</ref> A similar arrangement in [[Saudi Arabia]], called [[Nikah Misyar|misyar marriage]], also involves the husband and wife living separately but meeting regularly.<ref>{{cite news|last=Karam|first=Souhail|title=Misyar offers marriage-lite in strict Saudi society|agency= Reuters| date = 21 July 2006|url=http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/07/21/misyar_offers_marriage_lite_in_strict_saudi_society/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218200946/http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/07/21/misyar_offers_marriage_lite_in_strict_saudi_society/|archive-date=18 February 2009|work=The Boston Globe}}</ref>

==Partner selection==
[[File:18281018 Wife Wanted - Royal Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet and Plymouth Journal.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5| In an 1828 "Wife Wanted" advertisement, an Englishman claiming a "great taste for building" pledges to apply a prospective wife's [[dowry]]-like £1000+ to build property that will be "settled on her for life".<ref name=CornwallGazette_18281018>{{cite news |title=A Wife Wanted |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-royal-cornwall-gazette-falmouth-pac/171748936/ |newspaper=Royal Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet and Plymouth Journal |date=18 October 1828 |page=3 }}</ref>]]
[[File:Louis_Magrath_King_and_Rinchen_Lhamo_wedding_photo.jpg|alt=|thumb|The wedding of [[Rinchen Lhamo]], a [[Tibetan people|Tibetan]] woman, and [[Louis Magrath King|Louis King]], an [[English people|Englishman]]]]
There is wide cross-cultural variation in the social rules governing the selection of a partner for marriage. There is variation in the degree to which partner selection is an individual decision by the partners or a collective decision by the partners' kin groups, and there is variation in the rules regulating which partners are valid choices.

The United Nations World Fertility Report of 2003 reports that 89% of all people get married before age forty-nine.<ref name="UnitedNations, 2004">{{cite web |publisher=United Nations |date=2004 |title=World Fertility Report: 2003 |access-date=26 April 2006 |url=http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldfertility/World_Fertility_Report.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040729061605/http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldfertility/World_Fertility_Report.htm |archive-date=2004-07-29 }}{{cbignore}}</ref> The percent of women and men who marry before age forty-nine drops to nearly 50% in some nations and reaches near 100% in other nations.<ref name="UnitedNations, 2000">{{cite web |publisher=United Nations |date=2000 |title=World Marriage Patterns 2000 |access-date=26 April 2006 |url=http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldmarriage/worldmarriagepatterns2000.pdf. }}</ref>

In other cultures with less strict rules governing the groups from which a partner can be chosen the selection of a marriage partner may involve either the couple going through a selection process of [[courtship]] or the marriage may be [[arranged marriage|arranged]] by the couple's parents or an outside party, a [[matchmaking|matchmaker]].

===Age difference===
{{Main|Age disparity in sexual relationships}}
{{See also|Social stigma}}
Some people want to marry a person that is older or younger than they. This may impact marital stability<ref>{{Cite journal|title=How Does the Age Gap Between Partners Affect Their Survival?|first=SVEN|last=DREFAHL|date=7 May 2010|journal=Demography|volume=47|issue=2|pages=313–326|doi=10.1353/dem.0.0106|pmid=20608099|pmc=3000022}}</ref> and partners with more than a 10-year gap in age tend to experience social disapproval<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://phys.org/news/2018-04-mind-gap-age-difference-relationships.html|title=Mind the gap – does age difference in relationships matter?|website=phys.org}}</ref> In addition, older women (older than 35) have increased health risks when getting pregnant.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/parenting/pregnancy/baby-after-40.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200415195031/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/parenting/pregnancy/baby-after-40.html |archive-date=2020-04-15 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The Truth About Pregnancy Over 40|first=Reyhan|last=Harmanci|newspaper=The New York Times|date=15 April 2020}}</ref>

===Social status and wealth===
Some people want to marry a person with higher or lower status than them. Others want to marry people who have similar status. In many societies, women marry men who are of higher social status.<ref>{{citation |title=Why Rational Choice Theory and Sociobiology Are Natural Allies |author=Stephen K. Sanderson |url=http://www.asanet.org/sectionevol/documents/news-fall10.pdf |journal=Evolution, Biology and Society |volume=7 |issue=1 |year=2010 |access-date=18 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418164755/http://www.asanet.org/sectionevol/documents/news-fall10.pdf |archive-date=18 April 2015  }}</ref> There are marriages where each party has sought a partner of similar status. There are other marriages in which the man is older than the woman.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Lancaster, J.B. |author2=Altmann, J. |author3=Sherrod, L.R. |author4=Rossi, A. |year=2010 |title=Parenting Across the Life Span: Biosocial Dimensions |publisher=Aldine Transaction  |isbn=978-1-4128-4452-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PtJMNIrKpaYC}}</ref>

Some persons also wish to engage in transactional relationship for money rather than love (thus a type of marriage of convenience). Such people are sometimes referred to as [[gold digger]]s. [[Matrimonial regime|Separate property systems]] can however be used to prevent property of being passed on to partners after divorce or death.

Higher income men are more likely to marry and less likely to divorce. High income women are more likely to divorce.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hopcroft |first1=Rosemary L. |title=High income men have high value as long-term mates in the U.S. (abstract) |journal=[[Evolution and Human Behavior]] |date=April 2021 |volume=42 |issue=3 |doi=10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.03.004 |s2cid=233667442 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513821000222?dgcid=rss_sd_all |access-date=2021-03-26|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Incest taboo, exogamy and endogamy===
{{Further|Prohibited degree of kinship|Cousin marriage|Affinity (Catholic canon law)|Avunculate marriage}}

Societies have often placed restrictions on marriage to relatives, though the degree of prohibited relationship varies widely. Marriages between parents and children, or between full siblings, with few exceptions,<ref>{{cite journal | last = Strong | first = Anise | title = Incest Laws and Absent Taboos in Roman Egypt | journal = Ancient History Bulletin | volume = 20 | year = 2006 | url = https://www.academia.edu/205164}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Lewis | first = N. | title = Life in Egypt under Roman Rule | isbn = 978-0-19-814848-7 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press|Clarendon Press]] | year = 1983 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/lifeinegyptunder0000lewi }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Frier |first1=Bruce W. |last2=Bagnall |first2=Roger S. |author2-link=Roger S. Bagnall |title=The Demography of Roman Egypt |publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-521-46123-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Shaw | first = B.D. | title = Explaining Incest: Brother-Sister Marriage in Graeco-Roman Egypt | journal = Man |series=New Series | volume = 27 | issue = 2 | year = 1992 | pages = 267–99 | jstor=2804054 | doi=10.2307/2804054}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Hopkins | first = Keith |author-link=Keith Hopkins | year = 1980 | title = Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt | journal = Comparative Studies in Society and History | volume = 22 | pages=303–54 | doi = 10.1017/S0010417500009385 | issue = 3| s2cid = 143698328 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last = remijsen | first = sofie | title = Incest or Adoption? Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt Revisited | url = https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/208733/2/Journal+of+Roman+Studies+2008+Remijsen.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Scheidel | first = W. | title = Brother-sister marriage in Roman Egypt | journal = Journal of Biosocial Science | year = 1997 | volume = 29 | issue = 3 | pages = 361–71 | doi = 10.1017/s0021932097003611 | pmid = 9881142 | s2cid = 23732024 | url = http://humweb.ucsc.edu/jklynn/AncientWomen/ScheidelBrotherSisterMarriages.pdf | access-date = 4 July 2013 | archive-date = 2 November 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131102012940/http://humweb.ucsc.edu/jklynn/AncientWomen/ScheidelBrotherSisterMarriages.pdf  }}</ref> have been considered [[incest]] and forbidden. However, [[cousin marriage|marriages between more distant relatives]] have been much more common, with one estimate being that 80% of all marriages in history have been between second cousins or closer.<ref>{{cite web|last=Conniff |first=Richard |url=http://discovermagazine.com/2003/aug/featkiss |title=Richard Conniff. "Go Ahead, Kiss Your Cousin." |publisher=Discovermagazine.com |date=1 August 2003 }}</ref> This proportion has fallen dramatically, but still, more than 10% of all marriages are believed to be between people who are second cousins or more closely related.<ref>{{cite news |first = Sarah |last = Kershaw |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/garden/26cousins.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 |title = Shaking Off the Shame |date = 26 November 2009 | work=The New York Times}}</ref> In the United States, such marriages are now highly stigmatized, and laws ban most or all first-cousin marriage in 30 states. Specifics vary: in South Korea, historically it was illegal to marry someone with the same last name and same ancestral line.<ref>See [[Article 809 of the Korean Civil Code]] and {{Cite web|url=http://www.ccourt.go.kr/home/english/download/decision_10years.pdf |title=The first ten years of the Korean Constitutional Court |publisher=Constitutional Court of Korea |page=242 (p. 256 of the PDF)  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219184747/http://www.ccourt.go.kr/home/english/download/decision_10years.pdf |archive-date=19 February 2012 }}</ref>

An [[Avunculate marriage]] is a marriage that occurs between an uncle and his niece or between an aunt and her nephew. Such marriages are illegal in most countries due to incest restrictions. However, a small number of countries have legalized it, including [[Argentina]], [[Australia]], [[Austria]], [[Malaysia]],<ref>[http://www.agc.gov.my/Akta/Vol.%204/Act%20164.pdf Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307174301/http://www.agc.gov.my/Akta/Vol.%204/Act%20164.pdf |date=7 March 2012 }} (for Hindus only)</ref> and [[Russia]].<ref>{{in lang|ru}} [[s:ru:Семейный кодекс РФ/Глава 3#Статья 14|The Family Code of the Russian Federation, Article 14 (in Russian)]]. Semkodeks.ru (13 May 2009). Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref>
[[File:Mahrams Chart.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Family chart showing relatives who, in Islamic Sharia law, would be considered ''mahrim'' (or ''maharem''): unmarriageable kin with whom [[sexual intercourse]] would be considered [[incest]]uous]]

In various societies, the choice of partner is often limited to suitable persons from specific social groups. In some societies the rule is that a partner is selected from an individual's own social group – [[endogamy]], this is often the case in class- and caste-based societies. But in other societies a partner must be chosen from a different group than one's own – [[exogamy]], this may be the case in societies practicing [[totem]]ic religion where society is divided into several exogamous totemic clans, such as most [[Aboriginal Australians|Aboriginal Australian]] societies. In other societies a person is expected to marry their [[Parallel and cross cousins|cross-cousin]], a woman must marry her father's sister's son and a man must marry his mother's brother's daughter – this is often the case if either a society has a rule of tracing kinship exclusively through patrilineal or matrilineal descent groups as among the [[Akan people]] of West Africa. Another kind of marriage selection is the [[levirate marriage]] in which widows are obligated to marry their husband's brother, mostly found in societies where kinship is based on endogamous clan groups.

Religion has commonly weighed in on the matter of which relatives, if any, are allowed to marry. Relations may be by [[consanguinity]] or [[Affinity (law)|affinity]], meaning by blood or by marriage. On the marriage of cousins, [[Catholicism|Catholic]] policy has evolved from initial acceptance, through a long period of general prohibition, to the contemporary requirement for a dispensation.<ref>
{{cite book |title=Forbidden Relatives: The American Myth of Cousin Marriage |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/forbiddenrelativ00otte |chapter-url-access=registration |last=Ottenheimer |first=Martin |year=1996 |publisher=University of Illinois |chapter=Chapter 3}}</ref> [[Islam]] has always allowed it, while [[Hindu texts]] vary widely.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.islamonline.net/?p=5223 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070716082845/http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar%2FFatwaE%2FFatwaE&cid=1119503544772 |archive-date=16 July 2007 |title=Islamic View on Marrying Cousins |publisher=IslamonLine.net  |access-date=4 June 2017 }}</ref><ref name="indiasocialstructure">{{cite book |title=India: Social Structure |page = 55 |first=Mysore Narasimhachar |last=Srinivas |year=1980 |publisher=Hindustan Publishing Corporation |location=Delhi |isbn=978-1-4128-2619-8}}</ref>

===Prescriptive marriage===
{{Main|Arranged marriage}}
[[File:Lodewijk XIV-Marriage.jpg|thumb|left|An arranged marriage between [[Louis XIV of France]] and [[Maria Theresa of Spain]]]]

In a wide array of lineage-based societies with a [[Kinship|classificatory kinship system]], potential spouses are sought from a specific class of relative as determined by a prescriptive marriage rule. This rule may be expressed by anthropologists using a "descriptive" kinship term, such as a "man's mother's brother's daughter" (also known as a "cross-cousin"). Such descriptive rules mask the participant's perspective: a man should marry a woman from his mother's lineage. Within the society's kinship terminology, such relatives are usually indicated by a specific term which sets them apart as potentially marriageable. [[Pierre Bourdieu]] notes, however, that very few marriages ever follow the rule, and that when they do so, it is for "practical kinship" reasons such as the preservation of family property, rather than the "official kinship" ideology.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bourdieu|first=Pierre|title=Outline of a Theory of Practice|year=1972|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge |pages=27–29}}</ref>

[[File:Minangkabau wedding 2.jpg|thumb|right|Indonesian wedding]]

Insofar as regular marriages following prescriptive rules occur, lineages are linked together in fixed relationships; these ties between lineages may form political alliances in kinship dominated societies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Radcliffe-Brown, A.R.|first=Daryll Forde|title=African Systems of Kinship and Marriage|year=1950|publisher=KPI Limited|location=London}}</ref> French [[Structural functionalism|structural]] anthropologist [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] developed [[alliance theory]] to account for the "elementary" kinship structures created by the limited number of prescriptive marriage rules possible.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lévi-Strauss|first=Claude|title=Structural Anthropology|url=https://archive.org/details/structuralanthro00lv|url-access=registration|year=1963|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-465-08230-8}}</ref>

A pragmatic (or 'arranged') marriage is made easier by formal procedures of family or group politics. A responsible authority sets up or encourages the marriage; they may, indeed, engage a professional [[matchmaking|matchmaker]] to find a suitable spouse for an unmarried person. The authority figure could be parents, family, a religious official, or a group consensus.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Orange County Register|url=https://www.ocregister.com/2021/07/03/south-l-a-man-faces-federal-charges-related-to-fireworks-explosion-that-injured-17/|access-date=2021-07-04|website=Orange County Register|date=4 July 2021|language=en-US}}</ref>

===Forced marriage===
{{Main|Forced marriage}}
[[File:Oskar Shmerling. Free love (Forced marriage). Molla Nasreddin.jpg|thumb|right|Criticism about the [[Azerbaijani people|Azeri]] society tradition from domestic violence to the social and political participation of women in the community]]
A forced marriage is a marriage in which one or both of the parties is married against their will. Forced marriages continue to be practiced in parts of the world, especially in [[South Asia]] and [[Africa]]. The line between forced marriage and consensual marriage may become blurred, because the social norms of these cultures dictate that one should never oppose the desire of one's parents/relatives in regard to the choice of a spouse; in such cultures, it is not necessary for violence, threats, intimidation etc. to occur, the person simply "consents" to the marriage even if they do not want it, out of the implied social pressure and duty. The customs of [[bride price]] and [[dowry]], that exist in parts of the world, can lead to [[bride buying]] and selling people into marriage.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/modern_1.shtml#section_2 Ethics – Slavery: Modern slavery]. BBC. Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref><ref>[http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session21/A-HRC-21-41_en.pdf Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, Gulnara Shahinian]. United Nations. Human Rights Council Twenty-first session. 10 July 2012</ref>

In some societies, ranging from [[Central Asia]] to the [[Caucasus]] to Africa, the custom of [[bride kidnapping]] still exists, in which a woman is captured by a man and his friends. Sometimes this covers an [[elopement]], but sometimes it depends on [[sexual violence]]. In previous times, ''[[raptio]]'' was a larger-scale version of this, with groups of women captured by groups of men, sometimes in war; the most famous example is [[The Rape of the Sabine Women]], which provided the first citizens of Rome with their wives.

Other marriage partners are more or less imposed on an individual. For example, [[widow inheritance]] provides a widow with another man from her late husband's brothers.

In rural areas of India, [[child marriage]] is practiced, with parents often arranging the wedding, sometimes even before the child is born.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/presskit/factsheets/facts_child_marriage.htm |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20070816221639/http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/presskit/factsheets/facts_child_marriage.htm  |archive-date=16 August 2007 |title=Child Marriage Factsheet: State of World Population 2005 |publisher=UNFPA }}</ref> This practice was made illegal under the [[Child Marriage Restraint Act]] of 1929.

==Economic considerations==
{{see also|Economics of marriage|Family economics}}
The financial aspects of marriage vary between cultures and have changed over time.

In some cultures, dowries and bride wealth continue to be required today. In both cases, the financial arrangements are usually made between the groom (or his family) and the bride's family; with the bride often not being involved in the negotiations, and often not having a choice in whether to participate in the marriage.

In [[Early modern Britain]], the social status of the couple was supposed to be equal. After the marriage, all the property (called "fortune") and expected inheritances of the wife belonged to the husband.

===Dowry===
A [[dowry]] is <blockquote>a process whereby parental property is distributed to a daughter at her marriage (i.e. ''inter vivos'') rather than at the holder's death (''mortis causa'')… A dowry establishes some variety of conjugal fund, the nature of which may vary widely. This fund ensures her support (or endowment) in widowhood and eventually goes to provide for her sons and daughters.<ref>{{cite book|last=Goody|first=Jack|title=Production and Reproduction: A Comparative Study of the Domestic Domain|year=1976|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|page=6}}</ref></blockquote>

In some cultures, especially in countries such as [[Turkey]], [[India]], [[Bangladesh]], [[Pakistan]], [[Sri Lanka]], [[Morocco]], [[Nepal]], dowries continue to be expected. In India, thousands of dowry-related deaths have taken place on yearly basis,<ref>"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/3071963.stm India's dowry deaths]". BBC News. 16 July 2003.</ref><ref>[[Anita Pratap]] (11 September 1995) [https://web.archive.org/web/20040311150501/http://www.time.com/time/international/1995/950911/women.india.html Women: killed by greed and oppression]". Time Magazine. Volume 146, No. 11</ref> to counter this problem, several jurisdictions have enacted laws restricting or banning dowry (see [[Dowry system in India#Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961|Dowry law in India]]). In Nepal, dowry was made illegal in 2009.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://southasia.oneworld.net/todaysheadlines/nepal-bans-dowry-caste-based-discrimination#.UGH0Nq4Zh0I |title=Nepal bans dowry, caste-based discrimination – OneWorld South Asia |publisher=Southasia.oneworld.net |date=27 January 2009 |access-date=26 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120720040917/http://southasia.oneworld.net/todaysheadlines/nepal-bans-dowry-caste-based-discrimination#.UGH0Nq4Zh0I |archive-date=20 July 2012  }}</ref> Some authors believe that the giving and receiving of dowry reflects the status and even the effort to climb high in social hierarchy.<ref>{{cite book|author= Tanwar, Reicha|title=Dowery the North Indian Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NS_TOHRTWpgC&pg=PT36|year= 2007|publisher=Pinnacle Technology|isbn=978-1-61820-208-6|pages=36–}}</ref>

===Dower===
{{Main|Dower}}
Direct Dowry contrasts with [[Bride price|bride wealth]], which is paid by the groom or his family to the bride's parents, and with indirect dowry (or [[dower]]), which is property given to the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage and which remains under her ownership and control.<ref>{{cite book|last=Goody|first=Jack|title=Production and Reproduction: A Comparative Study of the Domestic Domain|year=1976|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|page=8}}</ref>

In the Jewish tradition, the rabbis in ancient times insisted on the marriage couple entering into a [[prenuptial agreement]], called a ''[[ketubah]]''. Besides other things, the ''ketubah'' provided for an amount to be paid by the husband in the event of a [[get (divorce document)|divorce]] or his estate in the event of his death. This amount was a replacement of the biblical [[dower]] or [[bride price]], which was payable at the time of the marriage by the groom to the father of the bride, because many young prospective husbands could not raise the bride price at the time when they would normally be expected to marry. It is the predecessor to the wife's present-day entitlement to [[alimony|maintenance]] in the event of the breakup of marriage, and family maintenance in the event of the husband not providing adequately for the wife in his [[Will and testament|will]]. Another function performed by the ''ketubah'' amount was to provide a disincentive for the husband contemplating divorcing his wife.

[[Dower|Morning gifts]], which might also be arranged by the bride's father rather than the bride, are given to the bride herself; the name derives from the Germanic tribal custom of giving them the morning after the wedding night. She might have control of this morning gift during the lifetime of her husband, but is entitled to it when widowed. If the amount of her inheritance is settled by law rather than agreement, it may be called [[dower]]. Depending on legal systems and the exact arrangement, she may not be entitled to dispose of it after her death, and may lose the property if she remarries. Morning gifts were preserved for centuries in [[morganatic marriage]], a union where the wife's inferior social status was held to prohibit her children from inheriting a noble's titles or estates. In this case, the morning gift would support the wife and children. Another legal provision for widowhood was [[jointure]], in which property, often land, would be held in joint tenancy, so that it would automatically go to the widow on her husband's death.

Islamic tradition has similar practices. A '[[mahr]]', either immediate or deferred, is the woman's portion of the groom's wealth (divorce) or estate (death). These amounts are usually set on the basis of the groom's own and family wealth and incomes, but in some parts these are set very high so as to provide a disincentive for the groom exercising the divorce, or the husband's family 'inheriting' a large portion of the estate, especially if there are no male offspring from the marriage. In some countries, including Iran, the mahr or alimony can amount to more than a man can ever hope to earn, sometimes up to US$1,000,000 (4000 official Iranian gold coins). If the husband cannot pay the mahr, either in case of a divorce or on demand, according to the current laws in Iran, he will have to pay it by installments. Failure to pay the [[mahr]] might even lead to imprisonment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.international-divorce.com/iran_divorce.htm |title=A translation of some parts of the Civil Code of Iran |publisher=International-divorce.com }}</ref>

===Bridewealth===
{{Main|Bride price}}
[[File:Thai Bride Price 2008.jpg|thumb|Traditional, formal presentation of the bridewealth (also known as "sin sot") at an engagement ceremony in [[Thailand]]]]
Bridewealth is a common practice in parts of [[Southeast Asia]] ([[Thailand]], [[Cambodia]]), parts of [[Central Asia]], and in much of [[sub-Saharan Africa]]. It is also known as brideprice although this has fallen in disfavor as it implies the purchase of the bride. Bridewealth is the amount of [[money]] or [[property]] or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom. In [[Anthropology|anthropological]] literature, bride price has often been explained as payment made to compensate the bride's family for the loss of her labor and fertility. In some cases, bridewealth is a means by which the groom's family's ties to the children of the union are recognized.

===Taxation===
In some countries a married person or couple benefits from various taxation advantages not available to a single person. For example, spouses may be allowed to average their combined [[income tax|incomes]]. This is advantageous to a married couple with disparate incomes. To compensate for this, countries may provide a higher [[tax bracket]] for the averaged income of a married couple. While income averaging might still benefit a married couple with a stay-at-home spouse, such averaging would cause a married couple with roughly equal personal incomes to pay more total tax than they would as two single persons. In the United States, this is called the [[marriage penalty]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=What are marriage penalties and bonuses?|url=https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-are-marriage-penalties-and-bonuses|access-date=2021-06-28|website=Tax Policy Center|language=en}}</ref>

When the rates applied by the tax code are not based income averaging, but rather on the ''sum'' of individuals' incomes, higher rates will usually apply to each individual in a two-earner households in a [[progressive tax]] systems. This is most often the case with high-income taxpayers and is another situation called a marriage penalty.<ref>Renacci, James B. "Simplifying America's Tax System." ''Simplifying America's Tax System'' (2016): 1–11. ''Renacci.house.gov''. July 2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.</ref>

Conversely, when progressive tax is levied on the individual with no consideration for the partnership, dual-income couples fare much better than single-income couples with similar household incomes. The effect can be increased when the welfare system treats the same income as a shared income thereby denying welfare access to the non-earning spouse. Such systems apply in Australia and Canada, for example.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hanegbi |first=Rami |date=2023-12-15 |title=INCOME SPLITTING IN AUSTRALIA: TIME FOR A PRINCIPLED APPROACH? |url=https://dro.deakin.edu.au/articles/journal_contribution/INCOME_SPLITTING_IN_AUSTRALIA_TIME_FOR_A_PRINCIPLED_APPROACH_/24123492/1 |journal=Adelaide Law Review |language=en |publisher=University of Adelaide |volume=44 |issue=2}}</ref>

==Post-marital residence==
In many Western cultures, marriage usually leads to the formation of a new household comprising the married couple, with the married couple living together in the same home, often sharing the same bed, but in some other cultures this is not the tradition.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rosenblatt|first=Paul C.|title=Two in a Bed: The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing|year=2006|publisher=State University of New York Press|url=http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=61306|isbn=978-0-7914-6829-6|access-date=13 January 2007|archive-date=3 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703024457/http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=61306}}</ref> Among the [[Minangkabau people|Minangkabau]] of [[West Sumatra]], residency after marriage is [[Matrilocal residence|matrilocal]], with the husband moving into the household of his wife's mother.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sanday|first=Peggy Reeves|title=Women at the center: life in a modern matriarchy|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8014-8906-8}}</ref> Residency after marriage can also be [[Patrilocal residence|patrilocal]] or [[Avunculate#Avunculocal societies|avunculocal]]. In these cases, married couples may not form an independent household, but remain part of an extended family household.

Early theories explaining the determinants of postmarital residence<ref>For example, [[Lewis Henry Morgan]], [[Edward Tylor]], or [[George Peter Murdock]]</ref> connected it with the sexual division of labor. However, to date, [[cross-cultural]] tests of this [[hypothesis]] using worldwide samples have failed to find any significant relationship between these two variables. However, [[Andrey Korotayev|Korotayev]]'s tests show that the female contribution to subsistence does correlate significantly with matrilocal residence in general. However, this correlation is masked by a general polygyny factor.

Although, in different-sex marriages, an increase in the female contribution to subsistence tends to lead to matrilocal residence, it also tends simultaneously to lead to general non-sororal [[polygyny]] which effectively destroys [[Matrilocal residence|matrilocality]]. If this polygyny factor is controlled (e.g., through a multiple [[Regression analysis|regression]] model), division of labor turns out to be a significant predictor of postmarital residence. Thus, Murdock's hypotheses regarding the relationships between the sexual division of labor and postmarital residence were basically correct, though<ref>as has been shown by [[Andrey Korotayev|Korotayev]]</ref> the actual relationships between those two groups of variables are more complicated than he expected.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Korotayev |first=A. |title=Form of marriage, sexual division of labor, and postmarital residence in cross-cultural perspective: A reconsideration |journal=Journal of Anthropological Research |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51985620 |year=2003 |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=69–89 |jstor=3631445 |doi=10.1086/jar.59.1.3631445 |s2cid=147513567 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Korotayev |first=A. |title=Division of Labor by Gender and Postmarital Residence in Cross-Cultural Perspective: A Reconsideration |journal=Cross-Cultural Research |year=2003 |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=335–72 |doi=10.1177/1069397103253685 |s2cid=145694651 }}</ref>

There has been a trend toward the [[neolocal residence]] in western societies.<ref>{{cite book |title=Marriage, Family, and Kinship: Comparative Studies of Social Organization |first1=Melvin |last1=Ember |first2=Carol R. |last2=Ember |location=New Haven |publisher=[[HRAF]] Press |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-87536-113-0 }}</ref>

==Law==
{{Family law}}
{{Main|Marriage law}}

Marriage laws refer to the legal requirements which determine the validity of a marriage, which vary considerably between countries. Article 16 of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] declares that:
{{Blockquote
|text=1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. 
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
|multiline=yes
|source=[https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16]
}}

===Rights and obligations===
{{See also|Family rights|Matrimonial regime|Prenuptial agreement}}

A marriage bestows rights and obligations on the married parties, and sometimes on [[kinship|relatives]] as well, being the sole mechanism for the creation of [[affinity (law)|affinal ties]] (in-laws). These may include, depending on jurisdiction:
* Giving one spouse or his/her family control over the other spouse's sexual services, labor, and property.
* Giving one spouse responsibility for the other's debts.
* Giving one spouse visitation rights when the other is incarcerated or hospitalized.
* Giving one spouse control over the other's affairs when the other is incapacitated.
* Establishing the second [[legal guardian]] of a parent's child.
* Establishing a [[community property|joint fund of property]] for the benefit of children.
* Establishing a relationship between the families of the spouses.

These rights and obligations vary considerably between societies, and between groups within society.<ref>{{cite book|last = Leach| first =Edmund|editor=Paul Bonannan and John Middleton|title=Marriage, Family, and Residence|publisher=The Natural History Press| year =1968|isbn=978-1-121-64470-0}}</ref> These might include arranged marriages, family obligations, the legal establishment of a [[nuclear family]] unit, the legal protection of children and public declaration of [[Promise|commitment]].<ref>{{cite book|first=James E.|last=Krier|author2=Gregory S. Alexander|author3=Michael H. Schill|author4=Jesse Dukeminier|title=Property|publisher=Aspen Publishers|year=2006|isbn=978-0-7355-5792-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/property0000unse}} Excerpt – p. 335: "...at the wedding; hence the importance of including in the marriage ceremony the words, 'With all my worldly goods I thee endow.'"</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marriagedebate.com/pdf/What%20is%20Marriage%20For.pdf|title=What is Marriage For? The Public Purposes of Marriage Law|last=Gallagher|first=Maggie|year=2002|publisher=Louisiana law review}}</ref>

===Property regime===
In many countries today, each marriage partner has the choice of keeping his or her property [[community property|separate]] or combining properties. In the latter case, called [[community property]], when the marriage ends by divorce each owns half. In lieu of a [[Will and testament|will]] or [[trust law|trust]], property owned by the deceased generally is inherited by the surviving spouse.

In some legal systems, the partners in a marriage are "jointly liable" for the debts of the marriage. This has a basis in a traditional legal notion called the "Doctrine of Necessities" whereby, in a heterosexual marriage, a husband was responsible to provide necessary things for his wife. Where this is the case, one partner may be sued to collect a debt for which they did not expressly contract. Critics of this practice note that debt collection agencies can abuse this by claiming an unreasonably wide range of debts to be expenses of the marriage. The cost of defense and the burden of proof is then placed on the non-contracting party to prove that the expense is not a debt of the family. The respective maintenance obligations, both during and eventually after a marriage, are regulated in most [[jurisdiction]]s; [[alimony]] is one such method.

===Restrictions===
Marriage is an institution that is historically filled with restrictions. From age, to race, to social status, to [[consanguinity]], to gender, restrictions are placed on marriage by society for reasons of benefiting the children, passing on healthy genes, maintaining cultural values, or because of [[prejudice]] and [[fear]]. Almost all cultures that recognize marriage also recognize [[adultery]] as a violation of the terms of marriage.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica adultery">[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/6618/adultery "Adultery"] ''Encyclopædia Britannica''</ref>

====Age====
Most jurisdictions set a [[marriageable age|minimum age for marriage]]; that is, a person must attain a certain age to be legally allowed to marry. This age may depend on circumstances, for instance exceptions from the general rule may be permitted if the parents of a young person express their consent and/or if a court decides that said marriage is in the best interest of the young person (often this applies in cases where a girl is pregnant). Although most age restrictions are in place in order to prevent children from being forced into marriages, especially to much older partners – marriages which can have negative education and health related consequences, and lead to [[child sexual abuse]] and other forms of violence<ref>[https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/06/14/q-child-marriage-and-violations-girls-rights Q & A: Child Marriage and Violations of Girls' Rights {{!}} Human Rights Watch]. Hrw.org (14 June 2013). Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref> – such [[child marriage]]s remain common in parts of the world. According to the UN, child marriages are most common in rural [[sub-Saharan Africa]] and [[South Asia]]. The ten countries with the highest rates of child marriage are: [[Niger]] (75%), Chad, Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Guinea, Mozambique, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, and Malawi.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130314073138/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2013/child_marriage_20130307/en/ WHO {{!}} Child marriages: 39,000 every day]. Who.int (7 March 2013). Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref>

====Kinship====
{{Main|Cousin marriage}}
{{See also|Coefficient of relationship}}
To prohibit incest and eugenic reasons, marriage laws have set restrictions for relatives to marry. Direct blood relatives are usually prohibited to marry, while for branch line relatives, laws are wary.<ref>{{Cite web|title=State Variations on American Marriage Prohibitions|url=https://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/marriage/usa-ncst.html|access-date=2021-07-10|website=www.umanitoba.ca}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hafen|first=Bruce C.|date=1983|title=The Constitutional Status of Marriage, Kinship, and Sexual Privacy: Balancing the Individual and Social Interests|journal=Michigan Law Review|volume=81|issue=3|pages=463–574|doi=10.2307/1288509|jstor=1288509|issn=0026-2234|url=https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4662&context=mlr |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Kinship relations through marriage is also called "affinity", relationships that arise in one's group of origin, can also be called one's descent group. Some cultures in kinship relationships may be considered to extend out to those who they have economic or political relationships with; or other forms of social connections. Within some cultures they may lead you back to gods<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Campagno|first=Marcelo|date=2014-08-18|title=Patronage and Other Logics of Social Organization in Ancient Egypt during the IIIrd Millennium bce|journal=Journal of Egyptian History|volume=7|issue=1|pages=1–33|doi=10.1163/18741665-12340012|hdl=11336/33193 |issn=1874-1657|hdl-access=free}}</ref> or animal ancestors (totems). This can be conceived of on a more or less literal basis.

====Race====
[[File:US miscegenation.svg|thumb|upright=1.8|U.S States, by the date of repeal of anti-miscegenation laws:
{{legend|#d3d3d3|No laws passed}}
{{legend|#5b9e39|Repealed before 1887}}
{{legend|#f3ee66|Repealed between 1948 and 1967}}
{{legend|#cc2f2f|Overturned on 12 June 1967}}]]
{{Main|Interracial marriage}}
Laws banning "race-mixing" were enforced in certain North American jurisdictions from 1691<ref name="Frank W Sweet">{{Cite journal
 |url=http://www.backintyme.com/essay050101.htm
 |title=The Invention of the Color Line: 1691—Essays on the Color Line and the One-Drop Rule
 |author=Frank W Sweet
 |publisher=Backentyme Essays
 |date=1 January 2005
 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070409160923/http://backintyme.com/essay050101.htm
 |archive-date=9 April 2007
}}</ref> until 1967, in [[Nazi Germany]] (the [[Nuremberg Laws]]) from 1935 until 1945, and in South Africa during most part of the [[apartheid]] era (1949–1985). All these laws primarily banned marriage between persons of different racially or ethnically defined groups, which was termed "amalgamation" or "miscegenation" in the U.S. The laws in Nazi Germany and many of the U.S. states, as well as South Africa, also banned sexual relations between such individuals.

In the United States, laws in some but not all of the states prohibited the marriage of whites and blacks, and in many states also the intermarriage of whites with [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] or [[Asian Americans|Asians]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Karthikeyan|first=Hrishi |author2=Chin, Gabriel|year=2002|title=Preserving Racial Identity: Population Patterns and the Application of Anti-Miscegenation Statutes to Asian Americans, 1910–1950|journal=Asian Law Journal|volume=9|issue=1|ssrn=283998}}</ref> In the U.S., such laws were known as [[anti-miscegenation laws]]. From 1913 until 1948, 30 out of the then 48 states enforced such laws.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lovingday.org/map.htm|title=Where were Interracial Couples Illegal?|website=LovingDay|access-date=5 August 2013|archive-date=31 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231145639/http://www.lovingday.org/map.htm}}</ref> Although an "Anti-Miscegenation Amendment" to the [[United States Constitution]] was proposed in 1871, in 1912–1913, and in 1928,<ref>[http://lovingday.org/courtroom.htm "Courtroom History"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231035205/http://www.lovingday.org/courtroom.htm |date=31 December 2007 }} Lovingday.org Retrieved 28 June 2007</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Stein|first=Edward|year=2004|title=Past and present proposed amendments to the United States constitution regarding marriage|journal=Washington University Law Quarterly|volume=82|issue=3|ssrn=576181}}</ref> no nationwide law against racially mixed marriages was ever enacted. In 1967, the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] unanimously ruled in ''[[Loving v. Virginia]]'' that anti-miscegenation laws are [[Constitutionality|unconstitutional]]. With this ruling, these laws were no longer in effect in the remaining 16 states that still had them.

The Nazi ban on interracial marriage and interracial sex was enacted in September 1935 as part of the [[Nuremberg Laws]], the ''Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre'' (The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour). The Nuremberg Laws classified [[Judaism|Jews]] as a race and forbade marriage and extramarital sexual relations at first with people of Jewish descent, but was later ended to the "Gypsies, Negroes or their bastard offspring" and people of "German or related blood".<ref name="Burleigh1991">{{cite book | author = Michael Burleigh | title = The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945 | url = https://archive.org/details/racialstate00mich | url-access = registration | date = 7 November 1991 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-39802-2 | page = [https://archive.org/details/racialstate00mich/page/49 49]}}</ref> Such relations were marked as ''[[Rassenschande]]'' ({{lit|race-disgrace}}) and could be punished by imprisonment (usually followed by deportation to a concentration camp) and even by death.

In South Africa, the [[Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949]] prohibited marriage between persons of different races, and the [[Immorality Act]] of 1950 made [[Miscegenation|sexual relations with a person of a different race]] a [[crime]].

====Sex====
[[File:World marriage-equality laws.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.8|
{{legend|#002255|Marriage open to same-sex couples (rings: individual cases)}}
{{legend|#71C837|Legislation or binding domestic court ruling establishing same-sex marriage, but marriage is not yet provided for}}
{{legend|#9900CC|Same-sex marriage recognized when performed in certain other jurisdictions, and accorded greater rights than local same-sex unions (if any)}}
{{legend|#0066FF|Civil unions or domestic partnerships}}
{{legend|#9FCFFF|Limited legal recognition (registered cohabitation)}}
{{legend striped|#99CCFF|#DCDCDC|Local certification without legal force|up=yes}}
{{legend|#CCAAFF|Limited recognition of marriage performed in certain other jurisdictions (residency rights for spouses)}}
{{legend|#C6E9AF|Country subject to an international court ruling to recognize same-sex marriage}}
{{legend|#CCCCCC|Same-sex unions not legally recognized}}]]
{{Main|Same-sex marriage}}
Same-sex marriage is legally performed and recognized in countries such as [[Same-sex marriage in Andorra|Andorra]], [[Argentina]], [[Same-sex marriage in Australia|Australia]], [[Same-sex marriage in Austria|Austria]], [[Same-sex marriage in Belgium|Belgium]], [[Same-sex marriage in Brazil|Brazil]], [[Same-sex marriage in Canada|Canada]], [[Same-sex marriage in Chile|Chile]], [[Same-sex marriage in Colombia|Colombia]], [[Same-sex marriage in Costa Rica|Costa Rica]], [[Same-sex marriage in Cuba|Cuba]], [[Same-sex marriage in Denmark|Denmark]], [[Same-sex marriage in Ecuador|Ecuador]], [[Same-sex marriage in Estonia|Estonia]], [[Same-sex marriage in Finland|Finland]], [[Same-sex marriage in France|France]], [[Same-sex marriage in Germany|Germany]], [[Same-sex marriage in Greece|Greece]], [[Same-sex marriage in Iceland|Iceland]], [[Same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland|Ireland]], [[Same-sex marriage in Luxembourg|Luxembourg]], [[Same-sex marriage in Malta|Malta]], [[Same-sex marriage in Mexico|Mexico]], the [[Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands|Netherlands]],{{efn|name=netherlands|text=Same-sex marriage is performed and recognized by law in [[Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands|the Netherlands proper]], including [[Same-sex marriage in Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba|Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba]]. Marriages entered into there have minimal recognition in [[Same-sex marriage in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten|Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten]].}} [[Same-sex marriage in New Zealand|New Zealand]],{{efn|name=nz|text=Same-sex marriage is performed and recognized by law in [[New Zealand|New Zealand proper]], but not in [[LGBT rights in Tokelau|Tokelau]], the [[LGBT rights in the Cook Islands|Cook Islands]] or [[LGBT rights in Niue|Niue]], which together make up the [[Realm of New Zealand]].}} [[Same-sex marriage in Norway|Norway]], [[Same-sex marriage in Portugal|Portugal]], [[Same-sex marriage in Slovenia|Slovenia]], [[Same-sex marriage in South Africa|South Africa]], [[Same-sex marriage in Spain|Spain]], [[Same-sex marriage in Sweden|Sweden]], [[Same-sex marriage in Switzerland|Switzerland]], [[Same-sex marriage in Taiwan|Taiwan]], the [[Same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom|United Kingdom]],{{efn|name=uk|text= Except the British Overseas Territories of [[LGBT rights in Anguilla|Anguilla]], the [[LGBT rights in the British Virgin Islands|British Virgin Islands]], the [[LGBT rights in the Cayman Islands|Cayman Islands]], [[LGBT rights in Montserrat|Montserrat]] and the [[LGBT rights in the Turks and Caicos Islands|Turks and Caicos Islands]].|group=}} the [[Same-sex marriage in the United States|United States]],{{efn|name=usa|text=Same-sex marriage is performed and recognized by law in all [[Same-sex marriage law in the United States by state|fifty states]] and the [[Same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia|District of Columbia]], all territories except [[LGBT rights in American Samoa|American Samoa]], and in [[Same-sex marriage in tribal nations in the United States|some tribal nations]].}} and [[Same-sex marriage in Uruguay|Uruguay]]. [[Recognition of same-sex unions in Israel|Israel]] recognizes same-sex marriages entered into abroad as full marriages.

The introduction of same-sex marriage has varied by jurisdiction, being variously accomplished through legislative change to [[marriage law]], a court ruling based on constitutional guarantees of equality, or by direct popular vote (via [[ballot initiative]] or [[referendum]]). The recognition of same-sex marriage is considered to be a [[human rights|human right]] and a [[civil rights|civil right]] as well as a political, social, and religious issue.<ref>{{multiref2 | {{cite web|title=Inter-American Human Rights Court backs same-sex marriage|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42633891|publisher=[[BBC]]|date=January 10, 2018|access-date=April 6, 2018}} | {{cite web|title=Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___ (2015)|url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/576/14-556/opinion3.html|publisher=[[Justia]]|date=June 26, 2015|access-date=April 6, 2018}} |  {{cite news|last=Smith|first=Susan K.|title=Marriage a Civil Right, not Sacred Rite|url=http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/susan_k_smith/2009/07/marriage_a_civil_right_not_sacred_rite.html|access-date=20 September 2012|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=30 July 2009|archive-date=3 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003083717/http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/susan_k_smith/2009/07/marriage_a_civil_right_not_sacred_rite.html}} | {{cite web|title=Decision in Perry v. Schwarzenegger|url=https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/09cv2292/files/09cv2292-ORDER.pdf|access-date=6 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130316191210/https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/09cv2292/files/09cv2292-ORDER.pdf|archive-date=16 March 2013}} }}</ref> The most prominent supporters of same-sex marriage are human rights and civil rights organizations as well as the medical and scientific communities, while the most prominent opponents are religious groups. Various faith communities around the world support same-sex marriage, while many religious groups oppose it. [[Same-sex marriage#Public opinion|Polls consistently show]] continually rising support for the recognition of same-sex marriage in all developed democracies and in some developing democracies.<ref>{{multiref2 | {{cite web|url=http://news.gallup.com/poll/234866/two-three-americans-support-sex-marriage.aspx|title=Two in Three Americans Support Same-Sex Marriage|website=[[Gallup (company)|Gallup]]|date=May 23, 2018}} | {{cite web|title=For several years a majority of Australians have supported marriage equality|url=http://www.australianmarriageequality.org/who-supports-equality/a-majority-of-australians-support-marriage-equality/|publisher=Australian Marriage Equality Incorporated|access-date=22 May 2015}} | {{cite web|title=Support for Same-Sex Marriage in Latin America|url=http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/insights/I0844.enrevised.pdf|publisher=[[Vanderbilt University]]|access-date=25 September 2012}} }}</ref>

The establishment of recognition in law for the marriages of same-sex couples is one of the most prominent objectives of the [[LGBT rights]] movement.

====Number of spouses====
[[File:Legality of polygamy.svg|thumb|400px
 | <div style="margin:0 0.5em;">
{{legend|#56b4e9|Polygamy is legal}}
{{legend|#009e73|Polygamy is legal only for Muslims}}
{{legend|#0072b2|Polygamy is legal in some regions (Indonesia)}}
{{legend|#d55e00|Polygamy is illegal, but practice is not criminalised}}
{{legend|#000000|Polygamy is illegal and practice criminalised}}
{{legend|#e0e0e0|Legal status unknown}} </div>
{{Bulleted list |style=margin:0.5em 0.5em 0.25em;border-top:1px solid#aaa;font-size:94%; |item_style=line-height:1.3em;
| In India, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore polygamy is only legal for [[Muslim]]s.
| In Nigeria and South Africa, polygamous marriages under customary law and for Muslims are legally recognized.
| In Mauritius, polygamous unions have no legal recognition. Muslim men may, however, "marry" up to four women, but they do not have the legal status of&nbsp;wives.
}}]]{{Main|Legality of polygamy}}

Polygyny is widely practiced in mostly [[Muslim]] and African countries.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.waleg.com/archives/001129.html |title=Polygamy in Muslim countries |publisher=Waleg.com |date=26 June 2005 |access-date=4 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130901020418/http://www.waleg.com/archives/001129.html |archive-date=1 September 2013  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.wehaitians.com/polygamy%20practiced%20in%20secrecy%20follows%20africans%20to%20new%20york%20city.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720144224/http://www.wehaitians.com/polygamy%20practiced%20in%20secrecy%20follows%20africans%20to%20new%20york%20city.html |archive-date=20 July 2008 |title=Polygamy, Practiced in Secrecy, Follows Africans to New York City |newspaper=The New York Times|date= 25 March 2007|author=Berstein, Nina}}</ref> In the Middle Eastern region, Israel, Turkey and [[Polygamy in Tunisia|Tunisia]] are notable exceptions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.law.emory.edu/ifl/legal/tunisia.htm |title=Tunisia: Notable Features: Polygamy |publisher=Law.emory.edu }}</ref>

In most other jurisdictions, polygamy is illegal. For example, In the United States, polygamy is illegal in all [[List of states and territories of the United States|50 states]].<ref name="quietly">{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90857818|title=Some Muslims in U.S. Quietly Engage in Polygamy|publisher=[[National Public Radio]]: [[All Things Considered]]|date=27 May 2008|author=Hagerty, Barbara Bradley }}</ref>

In the late-19th century, citizens of the self-governing territory of what is present-day [[Utah]] were forced by the United States federal government to abandon the practice of [[polygamy]] through the vigorous enforcement of several [[Act of Congress|Acts of Congress]], and eventually complied. [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] formally abolished the practice in 1890, in a document labeled '[[1890 Manifesto|The Manifesto]]' (see [[Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century]]).<ref>{{Cite book|first=Edward Leo |last=Lyman |contribution=Statehood for Utah |url=http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/s/STATEHOOD.html |editor-last=Powell |editor-first=Allan Kent |year=1994 |title=Utah History Encyclopedia |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |publisher=[[University of Utah Press]] |isbn=978-0-87480-425-6 |oclc=30473917   |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101131036/http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/s/STATEHOOD.html |archive-date=1 November 2013 }}</ref> Among [[Islam in the United States|American Muslims]], a small minority of around 50,000 to 100,000 people are estimated to live in families with a husband maintaining an illegal polygamous relationship.<ref name=quietly/>

Several countries such as India and Sri Lanka,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://genderindex.org/country/sri-lanka |title=Sri Lanka: Family Code |publisher=Genderindex.org  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101027130820/http://genderindex.org/country/sri-lanka |archive-date=27 October 2010 }}</ref> permit only their Islamic citizens to practice polygamy. Some Indians have converted to [[Islam]] in order to bypass such legal restrictions.<ref>See [[Polygyny in India|Polygamy in India]]</ref> Predominantly Christian nations usually do not allow [[Polygamy|polygamous unions]], with a handful of exceptions being the [[Polygamy in the Republic of the Congo|Republic of the Congo]], Uganda, and [[Polygamy in Zambia|Zambia]].

===State recognition===
When a marriage is performed and carried out by a government institution in accordance with the [[marriage law]]s of the jurisdiction, without religious content, it is a [[civil marriage]]. Civil marriage recognizes and creates the rights and obligations intrinsic to matrimony in the eyes of the state. Some countries do not recognize locally performed religious marriage on its own, and require a separate civil marriage for official purposes. Conversely, civil marriage does not exist in some countries governed by a [[Theocracy|religious legal system]], such as [[Saudi Arabia]], where marriages contracted abroad might not be recognized if they were contracted contrary to Saudi interpretations of [[Sharia|Islamic religious law]]. In countries governed by a [[Millet system|mixed secular-religious legal system]], such as [[Lebanon]] and [[Israel]], locally performed civil marriage does not exist within the country, which prevents interfaith and various other marriages that contradict religious laws from being entered into in the country; however, civil marriages performed abroad may be recognized by the state even if they conflict with religious laws.  For example, in the case of recognition of [[marriage in Israel]], this includes recognition of not only interfaith civil marriages performed abroad, but also overseas same-sex civil marriages.

In various jurisdictions, a civil marriage may take place as part of the religious marriage ceremony, although they are theoretically distinct. Some jurisdictions allow civil marriages in circumstances which are notably not allowed by particular religions, such as [[same-sex marriage]]s or [[civil union]]s. Churches may have less strict limits than the civil jurisdictions.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} It is possible for two people to be recognized as married by a religious or other institution, but not by the state, and hence without the legal rights and obligations of marriage; or to have a civil marriage deemed invalid and sinful by a religion. Similarly, a couple may remain married in religious eyes after a civil divorce.

Most sovereign states and other jurisdictions limit legally recognized marriage to [[heterosexuality|opposite-sex]] couples and a diminishing number of these permit [[polygyny|polygyny marriage]], [[polyandry|polyandry marriage]], [[group marriage]], [[coverture|coverture marriage]], [[arranged marriage]]s, [[forced marriage]]s, [[child marriage]]s, [[cousin marriage]]s, [[sibling marriage]]s, [[teenage marriage]]s, [[avunculate marriage]]s, [[incest|incestuous marriage]]s, and [[Human-animal marriage|bestiality marriage]]s. In modern times, a growing number of countries, primarily developed democracies, have lifted bans on, and have established legal recognition for, [[women’s rights|equal rights for women]] and the marriages of [[interethnic marriage|interethnic]], [[interracial marriage|interracial]], [[interfaith marriage|interfaith]], [[interdenominational marriage|interdenominational]], [[Social class|interclass]], [[inter-caste marriage|intercommunity]], [[transnational marriage|transnational]], and [[same-sex marriage|same-sex]] couples as well as immigrant couples, couples with an immigrant spouse, and other minority couples. In some areas, child marriages and polygamy may occur in spite of national laws against the practice.

====Marriage license, civil ceremony and registration====
{{Main|Wedding}}
[[File:Shinto married couple.jpg|thumb|upright|Couple married in a [[Shinto]] ceremony in [[Takayama, Gifu]] prefecture]]
[[File:Assyrian wedding, Mechelen.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|A newly married [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] couple]]
A marriage is usually formalized at a wedding or marriage ceremony. The ceremony may be officiated either by a religious official, by a government official or by a state approved celebrant. In various European and Latin American countries, any religious ceremony must be held separately from the required civil ceremony. Some countries – such as [[Belgium]], [[Bulgaria]], [[France]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Romania]] and [[Turkey]]<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.wwhr.org/images/CivilandPenalCodeReforms.pdf|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061231021938/http://www.wwhr.org/images/CivilandPenalCodeReforms.pdf  |archive-date= 2006-12-31  |title=Turkish Civil and Penal Code Reforms from a Gender Perspective: The Success of two Nationwide Campaigns }}&nbsp;{{small|(6.21 MB)}} (p. 18)</ref> – require that a civil ceremony take place before any religious one. In some countries – notably the [[United States]], [[Canada]], the [[United Kingdom]], [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]], [[Norway]], and [[Spain]] – both ceremonies can be held together; the officiant at the religious and civil ceremony also serving as agent of the state to perform the civil ceremony. To avoid any implication that the state is "recognizing" a religious marriage (which is prohibited in some countries) – the "civil" ceremony is said to be taking place at the same time as the religious ceremony. Often this involves simply signing a register during the religious ceremony. If the civil element of the religious ceremony is omitted, the marriage ceremony is not recognized as a marriage by government under the law.

Some countries, such as Australia, permit marriages to be held in private and at any location; others, including [[England and Wales]], require that the civil ceremony be conducted in a place open to the public and specially sanctioned by law for the purpose. In England, the place of marriage formerly had to be a church or [[Register office (United Kingdom)|register office]], but this was extended to any public venue with the necessary licence. An exception can be made in the case of marriage by special emergency license (UK: licence), which is normally granted only when one of the parties is terminally ill. Rules about where and when persons can marry vary from place to place. Some regulations require one of the parties to reside within the jurisdiction of the register office (formerly parish).

Each religious authority has rules for the manner in which marriages are to be conducted by their officials and members. Where religious marriages are recognised by the state, the officiator must also conform with the law of the jurisdiction.

====Common-law marriage====
{{See also|Common-law marriage}}

In a small number of jurisdictions marriage relationships may be created by the operation of the law alone.<ref name="Nolo" /> Unlike the typical [[ceremonial marriage]] with legal contract, wedding ceremony, and other details, a [[common-law marriage]] may be called "marriage by habit and repute (cohabitation)." A de facto common-law marriage without a license or ceremony is legally binding in some jurisdictions but has no legal consequence in others.<ref name="Nolo">"Common Law Marriage FAQ." ''Nolo.'' 31 July 2009.</ref>

====Civil unions====
{{Main|Civil union}}
[[File:New York City Proposition 8 Protest outside LDS temple 20.jpg|thumb|left|Various advocates of same-sex marriage, such as this protester at a demonstration in New York City against [[California Proposition 8 (2008)|California Proposition 8]], consider [[civil unions]] an inferior alternative to legal recognition of same-sex marriage.<ref name="Towleroad">[http://www.towleroad.com/2008/11/we-did-it.html NYC Protest and Civil Rights March Opposing Proposition 8], [[Andy Towle]], Towleroad.com, 13 November 2008. Retrieved 14 November 2008.</ref>]]

A ''civil union'', also referred to as a ''civil partnership'', is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with [[Same-sex marriage in Denmark|Denmark]] in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in several countries in order to provide [[homosexuality|same-sex couples]] [[rights]], benefits, and [[Moral responsibility|responsibilities]] similar (in some countries, identical) to opposite-sex civil marriage. In some [[jurisdiction]]s, such as [[Same-sex marriage in Brazil|Brazil]], [[Civil union in New Zealand|New Zealand]], [[Same-sex marriage in Uruguay|Uruguay]], [[Recognition of same-sex unions in Ecuador|Ecuador]], [[Civil solidarity pact|France]] and the U.S. states of [[Same-sex marriage in Hawaii|Hawaii]] and [[Same-sex marriage in Illinois|Illinois]], civil unions are also open to opposite-sex couples.

===="Marriage of convenience"====
Sometimes people marry to take advantage of a certain situation, sometimes called a [[marriage of convenience]] or a sham marriage. In 2003, over 180,000 immigrants were admitted to the U.S. as spouses of [[Citizenship of the United States|U.S. citizens]];<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/yearbook/2003/2003IMMtables.pdf |title=Immigration to the United States: Fiscal years 1820–2003 }}&nbsp;{{small|(2.03&nbsp;MB)}}</ref> more were admitted as fiancés of US citizens for the purpose of being married within 90 days. These marriages had a diverse range of motives, including [[green card marriage|obtaining permanent residency]], securing an inheritance that has a marriage clause, or to enroll in health insurance, among many others. While all marriages have a complex combination of conveniences motivating the parties to marry, a marriage of convenience is one that is devoid of normal reasons to marry. In certain countries like Singapore sham marriages are punishable criminal offences.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sham marriage: Married on the day they met to prolong her stay |url=http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/sham-marriage-married-the-day-they-met-prolong-her-stay-20140626|access-date=26 June 2014}}</ref>

===Contemporary legal and human rights criticisms of marriage===
[[File:Esposas de Matrimonio 1.jpg|thumb|"''Esposas de Matrimonio''" ("Wedding Cuffs"), a [[wedding ring]] sculpture expressing the criticism of marriages' effects on individual liberty. ''Esposas'' is a play on Spanish, in which the singular form of the word ''esposa'' refers to a spouse, and the plural refers to [[handcuffs]].]]

{{Main|Criticism of marriage}}
People have proposed arguments against marriage for reasons that include political, philosophical and religious criticisms; concerns about the [[Divorce demography|divorce rate]]; individual liberty and gender equality; questioning the necessity of having a personal relationship sanctioned by government or religious authorities; or the promotion of [[celibacy]] for religious or philosophical reasons. Research has found that unhappily married couples are at 3–25 times the risk of developing clinical depression.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tatiana D. Gray, Matt Hawrilenko, and James V. Cordova |date=2019 |title=Randomized Controlled Trial of the Marriage Checkup: Depression Outcomes |url=https://arammu.com/assets/research/MC%20Depression%20Outcomes.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fink |first1=Brandi C. |last2=Shapiro |first2=Alyson F. |date=March 2013 |title=Coping Mediates the Association Between Marital Instability and Depression, but Not Marital Satisfaction and Depression |journal=Couple & Family Psychology |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1037/a0031763 |issn=2160-4096 |pmc=4096140 |pmid=25032063}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Maria R. Goldfarb & Gilles Trudel |date=2019 |title=Marital quality and depression: a review |journal=Marriage & Family Review |volume=55 |issue=8 |pages=737–763 |doi=10.1080/01494929.2019.1610136 |s2cid=165116052 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ref/10.1080/01494929.2019.1610136?scroll=top|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

====Power and gender roles====
[[File:Are married women required by law to obey their husbands., OWID.svg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|Countries where married women are required by law to obey their husbands as of 2015<ref>{{cite web |title=Are married women required by law to obey their husbands? |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/women-required-to-obey-husband |website=Our World in Data |access-date=15 February 2020}}</ref>]]

Historically, in most cultures, married women had very few rights of their own, being considered, along with the family's children, the property of the [[husband]]; as such, they could not own or inherit property, or represent themselves legally (see, for example, [[coverture]]). Since the late 19th century, in some (primarily [[Western world|Western]]) countries, marriage has undergone gradual legal changes, aimed at improving the rights of the wife. These changes included giving wives legal identities of their own, abolishing the right of husbands to physically discipline their wives, giving wives property rights, liberalizing [[divorce]] laws, providing wives with [[reproductive rights]] of their own, and requiring a [[wife]]'s consent when sexual relations occur. In the 21st century, there continue to be controversies regarding the legal status of married women, legal acceptance of or leniency towards violence within marriage (especially sexual violence), traditional marriage customs such as [[dowry]] and [[bride price]], forced marriage, [[marriageable age]], and criminalization of consensual behaviors such as [[premarital sex|premarital]] and [[extramarital sex]].

[[Feminist theory]] approaches opposite-sex marriage as an institution traditionally rooted in [[patriarchy]] that promotes male superiority and power over women. This [[power (social and political)|power dynamic]] conceptualizes men as "the provider operating in the public sphere" and women as "the caregivers operating within the private sphere".<ref name="Weadock">Weadock, Briana. [http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/1/0/3/0/p110303_index.html "Disciplining Marriage: Gender, Power and Resistance"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425130145/http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/1/0/3/0/p110303_index.html |date=25 April 2012 }}. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Hilton San Francisco & Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco, CA,, 14 August 2004.</ref> "Theoretically, women ... [were] defined as the property of their husbands .... The adultery of a woman was always treated with more severity than that of a man."<ref>Evans, Tanya (2005) ''Women, Marriage and the Family'', p. 64 in Barker, Hannah, & Elaine Chalus, eds., ''Women's History: Britain, 1700–1850: An Introduction'', Oxon/London: Routledge, {{ISBN|0-415-29177-1}}.</ref> "[F]eminist demands for a wife's control over her own property were not met [in parts of Britain] until ... [laws were passed in the late 19th century]."<ref>Evans, Tanya, ''Women, Marriage and the Family'', ''op. cit.'', in Barker, Hannah, & Elaine Chalus, eds., ''Women's History'', ''op. cit.'', p. 66 & n. 69.</ref>

Traditional heterosexual marriage imposed an obligation of the wife to be sexually available for her husband and an obligation of the husband to provide material/financial support for the wife. Numerous philosophers, feminists and other academic figures have commented on this throughout history, condemning the hypocrisy of legal and religious authorities in regard to sexual issues; pointing to the lack of choice of a woman in regard to controlling her own sexuality; and drawing parallels between marriage, an institution promoted as sacred, and [[prostitution]], widely condemned and vilified (though often tolerated as a "[[lesser of two evils principle|necessary evil]]"). [[Mary Wollstonecraft]], in the 18th century, described marriage as "legal prostitution".<ref>{{cite book|author=Wollstonecraft, Mary |title=Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Man and a Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Hints |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOzywCVo3swC |year=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-43633-5}}</ref> [[Bertrand Russell]] in his book ''[[Marriage and Morals]]'' wrote that: "Marriage is for woman the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution."<ref>{{cite book|author=Russell, Bertrand |title=Marriage And Morals |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.227102 |year=1929}}</ref> [[Angela Carter]] in ''[[Nights at the Circus]]'' wrote: "What is marriage but prostitution to one man instead of many?"<ref>{{cite book|author=Carter, Angela |title=Nights at the circus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IklaAAAAMAAJ |year=1984 |publisher=Chatto & Windus|isbn=978-0-7011-3932-2 }}</ref>

Some critics object to what they see as [[propaganda]] in relation to marriage – from the government, religious organizations, the media – which aggressively promote marriage as a solution for all social problems; such propaganda includes, for instance, [[marriage promotion]] in schools, where children, especially [[girl]]s, are bombarded with positive information about marriage, being presented only with the information prepared by authorities.<ref>Hardisty, Jean (2008) [http://www.publiceye.org/jeans_report/marriage-promotion-part-2.pdf Marriage as a cure for poverty?]. Red Sun Press, {{ISBN|0-915987-21-X}}.</ref><ref>[http://government.arts.cornell.edu/assets/faculty/docs/smith/nopromomarriage.23feb.pdf Reduce Poverty Using Proven Methods: Eliminate Federal Funding of "Marriage Promotion" and Staff HHS with Appointees Who Value All Families]. arts.cornell.edu</ref>

The performance of dominant gender roles by men and submissive gender roles by women influence the power dynamic of a heterosexual marriage.<ref>Veronica Jaris Tichenor, "Thinking About Gender and Power in Marriage", The Kaleidoscope of Gender, 2010</ref> In some American households, women internalize gender role stereotypes and often assimilate into the role of "wife", "mother", and "caretaker" in [[conformity]] to societal norms and their male partner. Author [[bell hooks]]<!-- bell hooks, the writer, spells her name in all lower-case, and that applies even at the beginning of a sentence. --> states "within the family structure, individuals learn to accept sexist oppression as 'natural' and are primed to support other forms of oppression, including heterosexist domination."<ref>{{cite book|author=bell hooks|title=Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uvIQbop4cdsC|year=2000|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=978-0-7453-1663-5}}</ref> "[T]he cultural, economic, political and legal supremacy of the husband" was "[t]raditional ... under English law".<ref>Barnett, Hilaire A, ''Introduction to Feminist Jurisprudence'' (London: Cavendish Publishing, 1998 ({{ISBN|1-85941-237-8}})), p. 35 and, per p. 35 n. 35, see chap. 3 (author then of Queen Mary & Westfield Coll., Univ. of London).</ref> This patriarchal dynamic is contrasted with a conception of [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]] or [[Shared earning/shared parenting marriage|peer marriage]] in which power and labour are divided equally, and not according to [[gender role]]s.<ref name="Weadock" />

In the US, studies have shown that, despite egalitarian ideals being common, less than half of respondents viewed their opposite-sex relationships as equal in power, with unequal relationships being more commonly dominated by the male partner.<ref name="Sprecher">{{cite journal|doi=10.1023/A:1025601423031|year=1997|last1=Sprecher|first1=Susan|last2=Felmlee|first2=Diane|journal=Sex Roles|volume=37|issue=5/6|pages=361–79|url=http://business.highbeam.com/435388/article-1G1-20247079/balance-power-romantic-heterosexual-couples-over-time|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430030941/http://business.highbeam.com/435388/article-1G1-20247079/balance-power-romantic-heterosexual-couples-over-time|archive-date=2011-04-30|title=The Balance of Power in Romantic Heterosexual Couples Over Time from "His" and "Her" Perspectives|s2cid=141083115|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Studies also show that married couples find the highest level of satisfaction in egalitarian relationships and lowest levels of satisfaction in wife dominate relationships.<ref name="Sprecher" /> In recent years, egalitarian or peer marriages have been receiving increasing focus and attention politically, economically and culturally in a number of countries, including the United States.

====Extra-marital sex====
{{See also|Chastity|Adultery}}
[[File:Jan Brueghel the Elder-Christus und die Ehebrecherin-AP.JPG|thumb|''[[Jesus and the woman taken in adultery|Christ and the woman taken in adultery]]'' by [[Jan Brueghel the Elder]], [[Pinakothek]]]]
[[File:Magdalen-asylum.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|[[Magdalene laundries]] were institutions that existed from the 18th to the late 20th centuries, throughout Europe and North America, where "fallen women", including [[single mother|unmarried mothers]], were detained. Photo: Magdalene laundry in [[Ireland]], ca. early 20th century.<ref>Figure 9, Frances Finnegan, ''Do Penance or Perish'', Congrave Press, 2001.</ref>]]

Different societies demonstrate variable tolerance of extramarital sex. The Standard Cross-Cultural Sample describes the occurrence of extramarital sex by gender in over 50 pre-industrial cultures.<ref name="Divale, 2000">{{cite book |last=Divale |first=W. |date=2000 |title=Pre-Coded Variables for the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, Volume I and II |location=Jamaica, New York |publisher=York College, CUNY |url=http://worldcultures.org/SCCS1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217131745/http://worldcultures.org/SCCS1.pdf |archive-date=17 December 2008 |quote=See Variable 170 and Variable 171}}</ref><ref name="Murdock, White,1969">{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/3772907 |last1=Murdock |first1=G.P. |last2=White |first2=D.R. |title=Standard cross-cultural sample |journal=Ethnology |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=329–69 |year=1969 |jstor=3772907 }}</ref> The occurrence of extramarital sex by men is described as "universal" in 6 cultures, "moderate" in 29 cultures, "occasional" in 6 cultures, and "uncommon" in 10 cultures. The occurrence of extramarital sex by women is described as "universal" in 6 cultures, "moderate" in 23 cultures, "occasional" in 9 cultures, and "uncommon" in 15 cultures. Three studies using nationally representative samples in the United States found that between 10 and 15% of women and 20–25% of men engage in extramarital sex.<ref name="Clements,1994">{{cite news |author=Clements, M. |title=Sex in America today: A new national survey reveals how our attitudes are changing |publisher=Parade Magazine |pages=4–6 |date=7 August 1994 }}</ref><ref name="Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, Michaels,1994">{{cite book |last1=Laumann |first1=E.O. |last2=Gagnon |first2=J.H. |last3=Michael |first3=R.T. |last4=Michaels |first4=S. |date=1994 |title=The social organization of sexuality: Sexual practices in the United States |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref><ref name="Wiederman,1997">{{cite journal |doi=10.1080/00224499709551881 |author=Wiederman, M.W. |title=Extramarital sex: Prevalence and correlates in a national survey |journal=Journal of Sex Research |volume=34 |pages=167–74 |year=1997 |issue=2 }}</ref>

Many of the world's major religions look with disfavor on [[sexual intercourse|sexual relations]] outside marriage.<ref>{{cite web|author=Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance|date=31 December 2006|url=http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_sex.htm|title=Human sexuality and gender topics: Subjects of major concern to many faith groups|publisher=Religioustolerance.org}}</ref> In some non-[[Secularity|secular]] Islamic countries, there are criminal penalties for [[fornication|sexual intercourse before marriage]].<ref name="Kury Redo Shea 2016 p. 652">{{cite book | last1=Kury | first1=H. | last2=Redo | first2=S. | last3=Shea | first3=E. | title=Women and Children as Victims and Offenders: Background, Prevention, Reintegration: Suggestions for Succeeding Generations (Volume 1) | publisher=Springer International Publishing | issue=v. 1 | year=2016 | isbn=978-3-319-08398-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wpBPDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA652 | access-date=2024-01-08 | page=652}}</ref> Sexual relations by a married person with someone other than his/her spouse is known as [[adultery]]. Adultery is considered in many jurisdictions to be a crime and [[grounds for divorce]].

In some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eyeontheun.org/voices.asp?p=632 |title=Human Rights Voices – Pakistan, August 21, 2008 |publisher=Eyeontheun.org  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121175822/http://www.eyeontheun.org/voices.asp?p=632 |archive-date=21 January 2013 }}</ref> Afghanistan,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aidsportal.org/news_details.aspx?ID=4236 |title=Home |publisher=AIDSPortal  |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20081026065259/http://www.aidsportal.org/news_details.aspx?ID=4236 |archive-date=26 October 2008 }}</ref><ref name="travel.state.gov">{{cite web|url=https://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1142.html |title=Iran |publisher=Travel.state.gov  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130801084310/http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1142.html |archive-date=1 August 2013 }}</ref> Iran,<ref name="travel.state.gov"/> Kuwait,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/2f5665ae20b956cb8025675a0033cafb?Opendocument |title=Treaty Bodies Database – Document – Summary Record – Kuwait |publisher=United Nations Human Rights |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151031125832/http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/2f5665ae20b956cb8025675a0033cafb?Opendocument |archive-date= Oct 31, 2015 }}</ref> Maldives,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Maldives.html |title=Culture of Maldives – history, people, clothing, women, beliefs, food, customs, family, social |publisher=World Culture Encyclopedia }}</ref> Morocco,<ref>{{cite news|last=Fakim |first=Nora |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19049000 |title= Morocco: Should pre-marital sex be legal? |publisher=BBC News |date=9 August 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604075418/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19049000 |archive-date= Jun 4, 2023 }}</ref> Oman,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.interpol.com/Public/Children/SexualAbuse/NationalLaws/csaOman.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807023017/http://www.interpol.int/Public/Children/SexualAbuse/NationalLaws/csaOman.pdf |archive-date=Aug 7, 2011 |title=Legislation of Interpol member states on sexual offences against children – Oman |publisher=Interpol }}</ref> Mauritania,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/af/154358.htm |title=2010 Human Rights Report: Mauritania |publisher=U.S. State Department |date=8 April 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604004917/https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/af/154358.htm |archive-date= Jun 4, 2023 }}</ref> United Arab Emirates,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dubaifaqs.com/education-dubai.php |title=Education in Dubai |publisher=Dubai FAQs |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230828020342/https://www.dubaifaqs.com/education-dubai.php |archive-date= Aug 28, 2023  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Judd |first1=Terri |first2=Nikolina |last2=Sajn |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/briton-faces-jail-for-sex-on-dubai-beach-863918.html |title=Briton faces jail for sex on Dubai beach – Middle East – World |work=The Independent |date=10 July 2008 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230531154322/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/briton-faces-jail-for-sex-on-dubai-beach-863918.html |archive-date= May 31, 2023 }}</ref> Sudan,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/2007/06/28/idUSL28849488._CH_.2400 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121209050025/http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/06/28/idUSL28849488._CH_.2400  |archive-date=9 December 2012 |title=Sudan must rewrite rape laws to protect victims |work=Reuters |date=28 June 2007 }}</ref> Yemen,<ref>{{cite web|author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/47387b712f.html/ |title=Refworld &#124; Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa – Yemen |publisher=UNHCR }}</ref> any form of sexual activity outside marriage is illegal.

In some parts of the world, women and girls accused of having sexual relations outside marriage are at risk of becoming victims of [[honor killing]]s committed by their families.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_1.shtml Ethics – Honour crimes]. BBC. Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref><ref>Pandey, Geeta. (16 June 2010) "[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10334529  Indian community torn apart by 'honour killings']". BBC News. Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref> In 2011 several people were sentenced to death by [[stoning]] after being accused of adultery in Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Mali and Pakistan.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/25/iran-stoning-woman-adultery_n_1169429.html |title=Iran Stoning: Woman To Be Executed For Adultery |website=HuffPost World |access-date=5 September 2013 |author1=Ali Akbar Dareini |date=Dec 25, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624054510/http://www.huffingtonpost.com:80/2011/12/25/iran-stoning-woman-adultery_n_1169429.html |archive-date= Jun 24, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8366197.stm |title=Somali woman stoned for adultery |work=BBC News |date=18 November 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404013126/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8366197.stm |archive-date= Apr 4, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author1=Tait, Robert  |author2=Hoseiny, Noushin  |name-list-style=amp |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/21/iran.humanrights |title=Eight women and a man face stoning in Iran for adultery |work= The Guardian |date= 21 July 2008|location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404051247/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/21/iran.humanrights |archive-date= Apr 4, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url-status=live |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/two-men-stoned-to-death-for-adultery-in-iran |title=Two Men Stoned to Death for Adultery in Iran |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527200840/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,479752,00.html |archive-date=27 May 2013 |website=Fox News |date=13 January 2009 |access-date=5 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10983494 | work=BBC News | title=Taliban 'kill adulterous Afghan couple' | date=16 August 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230729064841/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10983494 |archive-date= Jul 29, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2011/01/27/woman-stoned-to-death-in-north-afghanistan.html |title=Woman stoned to death in north Afghanistan |website=RAWA News |access-date=5 September 2013 |date=January 27, 2011 |first1=Quentin |last1=Sommerville }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/31/sudanese-woman-stoning-death-adultery | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=David | last=Smith | title=Sudanese woman sentenced to stoning death over adultery claims | date=31 May 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230814130241/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/31/sudanese-woman-stoning-death-adultery |archive-date= Aug 14, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hoije |first=Katarina |date=2012-08-02 |title=Islamists: Two stoned to death for committing adultery in Mali |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/02/world/africa/mali-couple-stoned/index.html |website=CNN |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924042456/https://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/02/world/africa/mali-couple-stoned/index.html |archive-date= Sep 24, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Shah |first=Saeed |date=2010-07-18 |title=Pakistani couple face death by stoning threat after conviction for adultery |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/18/couple-sentenced-pakistan |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230530062444/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/18/couple-sentenced-pakistan |archive-date= May 30, 2023 }}</ref> Practices such as honor killings and stoning continue to be supported by mainstream politicians and other officials in some countries. In [[Pakistan]], after the 2008 [[Honour killing in Pakistan|Balochistan honour killings]] in which five women were killed by tribesmen of the [[Umrani|Umrani Tribe]] of [[Balochistan, Pakistan|Balochistan]], Pakistani Federal Minister for Postal Services [[Israr Ullah Zehri]] defended the practice.<ref name="times">{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4678530.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716093713/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4678530.ece |archive-date=2011-07-16 |url-status=unfit |title=Three teenagers buried alive in 'honour killings' |newspaper=[[The Times]] |location=London |first=Zahid |last=Hussain |author-link=Zahid Hussain (journalist) |date=5 September 2008 |url-access=subscription}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

====Sexual violence====
{{Main|Marital rape}}
An issue that is a serious concern regarding marriage and which has been the object of international scrutiny is that of [[marital rape|sexual violence within marriage]]. Throughout much of the history, in most cultures, sex in marriage was considered a 'right', that could be taken by force (often by a man from a woman), if 'denied'. As the concept of [[human rights]] started to develop in the 20th century, and with the arrival of [[second-wave feminism]], such views, and laws, have become less widely held.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Freedman |first=Estelle B. |date=2013-08-25 |title=Feminism's amazing achievement: Changing the conversation – and laws – about rape |url=https://www.salon.com/2013/08/25/how_feminism_redefined_rape/ |access-date=2022-10-11 |website=Salon |language=en}}</ref>

The legal and social concept of marital rape has developed in most industrialized countries in the mid- to late 20th century; in many other parts of the world it is not recognized as a form of abuse, socially or legally. Several countries in [[Eastern Europe]] and [[Scandinavia]] made marital rape illegal before 1970, and other countries in [[Western Europe]] and the English-speaking [[Western world]] outlawed it in the 1980s and 1990s. In [[England and Wales]], marital rape was made illegal in 1991. Although marital rape is being increasingly criminalized in [[Developing country|developing countries]] too, cultural, religious, and traditional ideologies about "conjugal rights" remain very strong in many parts of the world; and even where countries may have adequate laws against rape in marriage, these laws may rarely be enforced.<ref name="Banerjee Rao 2022 pp. 11–13">{{cite journal | last1=Banerjee | first1=Debanjan | last2=Rao | first2=T. S. Sathyanarayana | title=The Dark Shadow of Marital Rape: Need to Change the Narrative | journal=Journal of Psychosexual Health | volume=4 | issue=1 | date=2022 | issn=2631-8318 | doi=10.1177/26318318221083709 | pages=11–13| doi-access=free }}</ref>

Apart from the issue of rape committed against one's spouse, marriage is, in many parts of the world, closely connected with other forms of sexual violence: in some places, like [[Morocco]]<!---see specific example below--->, unmarried girls and women who are raped are often forced by their families to marry their rapist. Because being the victim of rape and losing [[virginity]] carry extreme social stigma, and the victims are deemed to have their "reputation" tarnished, a marriage with the rapist is arranged. This is claimed to be in the advantage of both the victim – who does not remain unmarried and does not lose social status – and of the rapist, who avoids punishment. In 2012, after a Moroccan 16-year-old girl committed [[suicide]] after having been forced by her family to marry her rapist and enduring further abuse by the rapist after they married, there have been protests from activists against this practice which is common in Morocco.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17379721 |title=Morocco protest after raped Amina Filali kills herself |work=BBC News |date=15 March 2012 }}</ref>

In some societies, the very high social and religious importance of marital fidelity, especially female fidelity, has as result the criminalization of adultery, often with harsh penalties such as [[stoning]] or [[Flagellation|flogging]]; as well as leniency towards punishment of violence related to infidelity (such as [[honor killing]]s).<ref>[[Domestic violence]] is today illegal in the [[Western World]], but this is not the case in many [[developing countries]]. In [[Jordan]], for instance, part of article 340 of the Penal Code states that "''he who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery and kills, wounds, or injures one of them, is exempted from any penalty''. {{cite book|author1=Altstein, Howard  |author2=Simon, Rita James |name-list-style=amp |title=Global perspectives on social issues: marriage and divorce|publisher=[[Lexington Books]]|location=Lexington, Mass|year=2003|page=11|isbn=978-0-7391-0588-7}}</ref> In the 21st century, criminal laws against adultery have become controversial with international organizations calling for their abolition.<ref>[http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/10/adultery-laws-unfairly-target-women-u-n-says/ IPS – Adultery Laws Unfairly Target Women, U.N. Says {{!}} Inter Press Service]. Ipsnews.net (24 October 2012). Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref><ref name="ohchr.org">[http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12672&LangID=E DisplayNews]. Ohchr.org (18 October 2012). Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref> Opponents of adultery laws argue that these laws are a major contributor to discrimination and violence against women, as they are enforced selectively mostly against women; that they prevent women from reporting [[sexual violence]]; and that they maintain social norms which justify violent crimes committed against women by husbands, families and communities. A Joint Statement by the United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice states that "Adultery as a criminal offence violates women's human rights".<ref name="ohchr.org"/> Some human rights organizations argue that the criminalization of adultery also violates internationally recognized protections for private life, as it represents an arbitrary interference with an individual's privacy, which is not permitted under international law.<ref>[https://www.hrw.org/news/2009/10/11/indonesia-new-aceh-law-imposes-torture Indonesia: New Aceh Law Imposes Torture {{!}} Human Rights Watch]. Hrw.org (11 October 2009). Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref>

====Laws, human rights and gender status====
The laws surrounding heterosexual marriage in many countries have come under international scrutiny because they contradict international standards of [[human rights]]; institutionalize [[violence against women]], [[child marriage]] and [[forced marriage]]; require the permission of a husband for his wife to work in a paid job, sign legal documents, file criminal charges against someone, sue in civil court etc.; sanction the use by husbands of violence to "discipline" their wives; and discriminate against women in divorce.<ref>[http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-19/world/uae.court.ruling_1_islamic-law-sharia-law-ruling?_s=PM:WORLD Court in UAE says beating wife, child OK if no marks are left – CNN.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325143850/http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-19/world/uae.court.ruling_1_islamic-law-sharia-law-ruling?_s=PM%3AWORLD |date=25 March 2012 }}. Articles.cnn.com. Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref><ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr55/006/2011/en/ Key human rights concerns highlighted by Amnesty International in advance of Swaziland's Universal Periodic Review hearing in October 2011]. Amnesty International</ref><ref>[http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/7cec89369c43a6dfc1256a2a0027ba2a/14366a04dd560e57c125729d006cd1ac/$FILE/N0322916.pdf Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Twenty-eighth session], United Nations, 14 February 2003.</ref>

Such things were legal even in many Western countries until recently: for instance, in [[France]], married women obtained the right to work without their husband's permission in 1965,<ref>[http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/explore/cmcf-vsi-women-in-france.pdf Women in France] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092212/http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/explore/cmcf-vsi-women-in-france.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }}. Modern and Contemporary France, Taylor and Francis.</ref><ref>[http://www.parisvoice.com/-archives-97-86/282-frances-leading-women-show-the-way France's leading women show the way] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728175142/http://www.parisvoice.com/-archives-97-86/282-frances-leading-women-show-the-way |date=28 July 2013 }}. Parisvoice.com. Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref><ref>[http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/TWR-07.html Lesson – The French Civil Code (Napoleonic Code) – Teaching Women's Rights From Past to Present]. Womeninworldhistory.com. Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref> and in [[West Germany]] women obtained this right in 1977 (by comparison women in [[East Germany]] had many more rights).<ref>Bennhold, Katrin (5 October 2010). [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/europe/06iht-letter.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all 20 Years After Fall of Wall, Women of Former East Germany Thrive], ''The New York Times''.</ref><ref>Trzcinski, Eileen and Holst, Elke (April 2010) [http://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.356386.de/dp998.pdf Gender Differences in Subjective Well-Being in and out of Management Positions], German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin.</ref> In [[Spain]], during Franco's era, a married woman needed her husband's consent, referred to as the ''permiso marital'', for almost all economic activities, including employment, ownership of property, and even traveling away from home; the ''permiso marital'' was abolished in 1975.<ref>[http://countrystudies.us/spain/43.htm Spain – Social Values And Attitudes]. Countrystudies.us. Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref>

An absolute submission of a wife to her husband is accepted as natural in many parts of the world, for instance surveys by UNICEF have shown that the percentage of women aged 15–49 who think that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances is as high as 90% in Afghanistan and Jordan, 87% in Mali, 86% in Guinea and Timor-Leste, 81% in Laos, 80% in Central African Republic.<ref>[http://www.childinfo.org/attitudes_data.php Statistics by Area – Attitudes towards wife-beating – Statistical table] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140704112113/http://www.childinfo.org/attitudes_data.php |date=4 July 2014 }}. Childinfo.org. Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref> Detailed results from Afghanistan show that 78% of women agree with a beating if the wife "goes out without telling him [the husband]" and 76% agree "if she argues with him".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.childinfo.org/files/MICS_Afghanistan_2010-11.pdf|title=UNICEF Data|access-date=8 February 2013}}</ref>

Throughout history, and still today in many countries, laws have provided for [[extenuating circumstances]], partial or complete defenses, for men who killed their wives due to adultery, with such acts often being seen as [[Crime of passion|crimes of passion]] and being covered by legal defenses such as [[Provocation (legal)|provocation]] or defense of [[honor killing|family honor]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/738-decriminalization-of-adultery-and-defenses.html|title=Decriminalization of adultery and defenses|website=www.endvawnow.org}}</ref>

====Right and ability to divorce====
While international law and conventions recognize the need for consent for entering a marriage – namely that people cannot be forced to get married against their will – the right to obtain a divorce is not recognized; therefore holding a person in a marriage against their will (if such person has consented to entering in it) is not considered a violation of human rights, with the issue of divorce being left at the appreciation of individual states.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Collins |first=Jem |date=2018-07-25 |title=It's 2018 And You Still Don't Have A Right To Divorce |url=https://eachother.org.uk/divorce-right/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=EachOther |language=en}}</ref>

In the EU, the last country to allow divorce was [[Malta]], [[Maltese divorce referendum, 2011|in 2011]]. Around the world, the only countries to forbid divorce are [[Philippines]] and [[Vatican City]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/06/world/asia/philippines-legal-divorce-battle/|title=The fight to make divorce legal in the Philippines |first=Sunshine|last=Lichauco de Leon|work=CNN |date=6 October 2014 |access-date=11 August 2021 }}</ref> although in practice in many countries which use a [[Divorce#At-fault divorce|fault-based divorce]] system obtaining a divorce is very difficult. The ability to divorce, in law and practice, has been and continues to be a controversial issue in many countries, and public discourse involves different ideologies such as feminism, [[social conservatism]], religious interpretations.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1828&context=faculty_scholarship |title=Feminism and Family Law |last=Bartlett |first=Katherine T. |date=1999 |journal=Family Law Quarterly |volume=33 |number=3 |pages=475–500}}</ref>

====Dowry and bridewealth====
[[File:Say no to dowry.jpg|thumb|Anti-dowry poster in [[Bangalore|Bangalore, India]]]]

In recent years, the customs of [[dowry]] and [[bride price]] have received international criticism for inciting conflicts between families and clans; contributing to [[violence against women]]; promoting materialism; increasing property crimes (where men steal goods such as cattle in order to be able to pay the bride price); and making it difficult for poor people to marry. African women's rights campaigners advocate the abolishing of bride price, which they argue is based on the idea that women are a form of property which can be bought.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://econ.arts.ubc.ca/asiwan/siwan-jep2.pdf |title=The Economics of Dowry and Brideprice |website=econ.arts.ubc.ca |access-date=30 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303210516/http://econ.arts.ubc.ca/asiwan/siwan-jep2.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016  }}</ref> Bride price has also been criticized for contributing to [[child trafficking]] as impoverished parents sell their young daughters to rich older men.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Human+rights+groups+ask+NWFP+Govt.+to+ban+%27bride+price%27+to+curb+women...-a0216984357 |title=Human rights groups ask NWFP Govt. to ban 'bride price' to curb women Trafficking |publisher=Thefreelibrary.com |date=18 January 2010 }}</ref> A senior Papua New Guinea police officer has called for the abolishing of bride price arguing that it is one of the main reasons for the mistreatment of women in that country.<ref>{{cite web |author=iSite Interactive Limited |url=http://www.islandsbusiness.com/news/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace=MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=130/focusContentID=26256/tableName=mediaRelease/overideSkinName=newsArticle-full.tpl |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130126135528/http://www.islandsbusiness.com/news/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace=MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=130/focusContentID=26256/tableName=mediaRelease/overideSkinName=newsArticle-full.tpl  |archive-date=26 January 2013 |title=PNG Police blame bride price for violence in marriage |publisher=Islands Business |date=21 November 2011 }}</ref> The opposite practice of dowry has been linked to a high level of violence (see [[Dowry death]]) and to crimes such as [[extortion]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/830-addressing-dowry-related-violence-through-criminalization-of-dowry-demands.html |title=Addressing dowry-related violence through criminalization of dowry demands |publisher=Endvawnow.org }}</ref>

====Children born outside marriage====
{{Further|Legitimacy (family law)}}
[[File:The Outcast (1851) - Richard Redgrave.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|''The Outcast'', by [[Richard Redgrave]], 1851. A patriarch casts his daughter and her illegitimate baby out of the family home.]]
[[File:Percentage of birth to unmarried women, selected countries, 1980 and 2007.png|upright=1.35|thumb|Percentage of births to unmarried women, selected countries, 1980 and 2007<ref name="non_mar1">{{cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db18.htm|title=Changing Patterns of Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States |website=CDC/National Center for Health Statistics|date=13 May 2009|access-date=24 September 2011}}</ref>]]
Historically, and still in many countries, children born outside marriage suffered severe social stigma and discrimination. In England and Wales, such children were known as [[Bastard (law of England and Wales)|bastards and whoresons]].

There are significant differences between world regions in regard to the social and legal position of non-marital births, ranging from being fully accepted and uncontroversial to being severely stigmatized and discriminated.<ref>The 1997 Global Study on Family Values found that only 3% of respondents in Iceland, 8% in France, and 9% in Germany, thought that it was "wrong" to have a child outside marriage. [http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/taku77/refer/valupoll.htm Global Study of Family Values. An International Gallup Poll. Family Values Differ Sharply Around the World]. hi-ho.ne.jp</ref><ref>In many parts of the world, especially in Muslim majority countries, children born outside marriage and their mothers face severe social and legal difficulties [https://web.archive.org/web/20130501013343/http://www.mrt-rrt.gov.au/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=91cf943a-3fa6-4fce-afec-4ab2c2a356fd Refugee Review Tribunal Australia]. mrt-rrt.gov.au. 21 April 2009.</ref>

The 1975 European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock protects the rights of children born to unmarried parents.<ref>[http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/085.htm European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock]. Conventions.coe.int. Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref> The convention states, among others, that: "The father and mother of a child born out of wedlock shall have the same obligation to maintain the child as if it were born in wedlock" and that "A child born out of wedlock shall have the same right of succession in the estate of its father and its mother and of a member of its father's or mother's family, as if it had been born in wedlock."<ref>[http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/085.htm Council of Europe – ETS no. 085 – European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock]. Conventions.coe.int. Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref>

While in most Western countries legal inequalities between children born inside and outside marriage have largely been abolished, this is not the case in some parts of the world.

The legal status of an unmarried father differs greatly from country to country. Without voluntary formal recognition of the child by the father, in most cases there is a need of due process of law in order to establish [[Paternity law|paternity]]. In some countries however, unmarried cohabitation of a couple for a specific period of time does create a presumption of paternity similar to that of formal marriage. This is the case in Australia.<ref>[http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fla1975114/s69q.html Family Law Act 1975 – SECT 69Q Presumption of paternity arising from cohabitation]. Austlii.edu.au. Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref> Under what circumstances can a paternity action be initiated, the rights and responsibilities of a father once paternity has been established (whether he can obtain parental responsibility and whether he can be forced to [[Child support|support the child]]) as well as the legal position of a father who voluntarily acknowledges the child, vary widely by jurisdiction. A special situation arises when a married woman has a child by a man other than her husband. Some countries, such as [[Israel]], refuse to accept a legal challenge of paternity in such a circumstance, in order to avoid the stigmatization of the child (see [[Mamzer]], a concept under [[Halakha|Jewish law]]). In 2010, the [[European Court of Human Rights]] ruled in favor of a German man who had fathered twins with a married woman, granting him right of contact with the twins, despite the fact that the mother and her husband had forbidden him to see the children.<ref>[http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/hof.nsf/d0cd2c2c444d8d94c12567c2002de990/db5e85a236de283dc1257803004974b7?OpenDocument ECHR : Anayo v. Germany Publication : [not yet received&#93;] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226171503/http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/hof.nsf/d0cd2c2c444d8d94c12567c2002de990/db5e85a236de283dc1257803004974b7?OpenDocument |date=26 February 2014 }}. Sim.law.uu.nl. Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref>

The steps that an unmarried father must take in order to obtain rights to his child vary by country. In some countries (such as the UK – since 2003 in England and Wales, 2006 in Scotland, and 2002 in Northern Ireland) it is sufficient for the father to be listed on the birth certificate for him to have parental rights;<ref>[https://www.gov.uk/parental-rights-responsibilities/what-is-parental-responsibility Parental rights and responsibilities]. GOV.UK (1 July 2013). Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref> in other countries, such as Ireland, simply being listed on the birth certificate does not offer any rights, additional legal steps must be taken (if the mother agrees, the parents can both sign a "statutory declaration", but if the mother does not agree, the father has to apply to court).<ref>[http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/birth_family_relationships/cohabiting_couples/legal_guardianship_and_unmarried_couples.html Legal guardianship and cohabiting couples]. Citizensinformation.ie (8 March 2013). Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref>

Children born outside marriage have become more common, and in some countries, the majority. Recent data from [[Latin America]] showed figures for non-marital childbearing to be 74% for [[Colombia]], 69% for [[Peru]], 68% for [[Chile]], 66% for [[Brazil]], 58% for [[Argentina]], 55% for [[Mexico]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sustaindemographicdividend.org/articles/international-family-indicators/global-childrens-trends |title=Global Children's Trends &#124; The Sustainable Demographic Dividend |publisher=Sustaindemographicdividend.org }}</ref><ref>Joice Melo Vieira. [http://paa2013.princeton.edu/papers/131703 The Evolution of Births Outside of Marriage, Paternal Recognition and Children's Rights in Brazil] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084714/http://paa2013.princeton.edu/papers/131703 |date=4 March 2016 }}. Department of Demography (IFCH) and Population Studies Center (Nepo), State University of Campinas</ref> In 2012, in the [[European Union]], 40% of births were outside marriage,<ref name="ec.europa.eu">{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tps00018|title=Eurostat – Tables, Graphs and Maps Interface (TGM) table|website=ec.europa.eu}}</ref> and in the United States, in 2013, the figure was similar, at 41%.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/births.htm|title=FastStats|date=8 August 2018|website=www.cdc.gov}}</ref> In the [[United Kingdom]] 48% of births were to unmarried women in 2012; in [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] the figure was 35%.<ref name="ec.europa.eu"/>

During the first half of the 20th century, unmarried women in some Western countries were coerced by authorities to give their children up for [[adoption]]. This was especially the case in Australia, through the [[forced adoption in Australia|forced adoptions in Australia]], with most of these adoptions taking place between the 1950s and the 1970s. In 2013, [[Julia Gillard]], then Prime Minister of Australia, offered a national apology to those affected by the forced adoptions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ag.gov.au/About/ForcedAdoptionsApology/Pages/default.aspx|title=National Apology for Forced Adoptions|last=AGD|website=www.ag.gov.au|language=en-au|access-date=2019-07-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-21872954/julia-gillard-sorry-for-shameful-forced-adoptions|title=Gillard sorry for forced adoptions|work=BBC News}}</ref>

Some married couples [[Voluntary childlessness|choose not to have children]]. Others are unable to have children because of [[infertility]] or other factors preventing [[Fertilisation|conception]] or the bearing of children. In some cultures, marriage imposes an ''obligation'' on women to bear children. In northern [[Ghana]], for example, payment of [[Bride price|bridewealth]] signifies a woman's requirement to bear children, and women using birth control face substantial threats of physical abuse and reprisals.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bawah|first=AA.|author2=Akweongo P|author3=Simmons R|author4=Phillips JF.|title=Women's fears and men's anxieties: the impact of family planning on gender relations in northern Ghana|journal=Studies in Family Planning|volume=30|issue=1|pages=54–66|year=1999|url=http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/councilarticles/sfp/SFP301Bawah.pdf|doi=10.1111/j.1728-4465.1999.00054.x|pmid=10216896|hdl=2027.42/73927|hdl-access=free|access-date=11 January 2007|archive-date=14 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014212722/http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/councilarticles/sfp/SFP301Bawah.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Religion==
[[File:Verlobung Frau und Mann - mit Ringtausch - und Treue Verlobungsversprechen - Dresden - Bild 011.jpg|thumb|A man and woman exchange rings]]
{{Further|Religion and divorce}}

Religions develop in specific geographic and social milieux.<ref>
{{cite book
| last1                 = Olson
| first1                = Duane
| title                 = Issues in Contemporary Christian Thought: A Fortress Introduction
| url                   = https://books.google.com/books?id=iJ71DHpbRAwC
| publisher             = [[Fortress Press]]
| date      = 2011
| page                  = 150
| isbn                  = 978-1-4514-0731-0
| access-date            = 2015-09-17
| quote                 = In the course of human history, over thousands of years, many human cultures arise in relative isolation from each other, and major world religions develop in these relatively independent cultures.
}}</ref> Religious attitudes and practices relating to marriage vary, but have many similarities.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zarean |first1=Mansoureh |last2=Barzegar |first2=Khadijeh |date=2016 |title=Marriage in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism |url=http://ri.urd.ac.ir/article_43969.html |journal=Religious Inquiries |volume=5 |issue=9 |pages=67–80 |access-date=May 30, 2020}}</ref>

===Abrahamic religions===

====Baháʼí Faith====
The [[Baháʼí Faith]] encourages marriage and views it as a mutually strengthening bond. A [[Baháʼí marriage]] is contingent on the consent of all living parents.<ref name="oneworld">{{cite encyclopedia|last= Smith|first= Peter|encyclopedia= A concise encyclopedia of the Baháʼí Faith|title= Marriage|year= 2000|publisher= Oneworld Publications|location= Oxford|isbn= 978-1-85168-184-6|pages= [https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope0000smit/page/232 232–33]|url= https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope0000smit/page/232}}</ref>

====Christianity====
{{Main|Christian views on marriage}}
{{Further|Wedding#Christian customs}}
[[File:Crowning in Syro-Malabar Nasrani Wedding by Mar Gregory Karotemprel.jpg|thumb|Crowning during [[Nasrani wedding|Holy Matrimony]] in the [[Syro-Malabar Catholic Church]], an [[Eastern Catholic]] Church and a part of the [[Saint Thomas Christian]] community in [[India]]]]
[[File:St Mary's Church, Kyoto.jpg|thumb|Christian wedding in [[Kyoto]], Japan]]
[[File:Russian church wedding in Toronto,Canada.jpg|thumb|[[Russian Orthodox]] wedding ceremony]]

Modern Christianity bases its views on marriage upon the teachings of [[Jesus]] and the [[Paul the Apostle]].<ref name="Witte" /> Many of the largest [[Christianity|Christian]] denominations regard marriage as a [[sacrament]], sacred institution, or [[covenant (religion)|covenant]].<ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/ritesrituals/weddings_1.shtml |title=Religions – Christianity: Marriage and weddings |publisher=BBC }}</ref>

The first known decrees on marriage were during the [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] [[Council of Trent]] (twenty-fourth session of 1563), decrees that made the validity of marriage dependent on the wedding occurring in the presence of a priest and two witnesses.<ref name=monger/><ref name=omalley/> The absence of a requirement of parental consent ended a debate that proceeded from the 12th century.<ref name=omalley/><ref>For clarification, see [https://archive.org/details/stateofvirginity0000stra/page/53 <!-- quote="Winkel" "Gender, Religion, and Politics in an Early Modern". --> State of Virginity: Gender, Religion, and Politics in an Early Modern Europe] (Google Books) by Ulrike Strasser, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2007</ref> In the case of a civil [[divorce]], the innocent spouse had and has no right to marry again until the death of the other spouse terminates the still valid marriage, even if the other spouse was guilty of adultery.<ref name="omalley">*{{cite book|first=John W.|last=O'Malley|title=Trent: What Happened at the Council|url=https://archive.org/details/trent0000omal|url-access=registration|date=15 January 2013|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-06760-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/trent0000omal/page/225 225]}}
*{{cite book|last=O'Malley|first=John|title=The Council of Trent. Myths, Misunderstandings and Unintended Consequences|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k3FFCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA6|date=22 May 2013|publisher=Gregorian Biblical BookShop|isbn=978-88-7839-255-7|page=6}}</ref>

The Christian Church performed marriages in the [[narthex]] of the church prior to the 16th century, when the emphasis was on the marital contract and betrothal. Subsequently, the ceremony moved inside the [[sacristy]] of the church.<ref name="monger">{{cite book|last1= Monger|first1= George P.|year= 2004|chapter= Christian Weddings|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=o8JlWxBYs40C&q=marriage+ceremony+%22early+christianity%22&pg=PA70|title= Marriage Customs of the World: From Henna to Honeymoons|location= Santa Barbara, CA|publisher= ABC CLIO|pages= [https://archive.org/details/marriagecustomso0000mong/page/70 70–71]|isbn= 978-1-57607-987-4|oclc= 469368346|url= https://archive.org/details/marriagecustomso0000mong/page/70}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09703b.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Ritual of Marriage|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref>

[[Catholicism|Catholics]], [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]], as well as many [[Anglicanism|Anglicans]] and [[Methodism|Methodists]], consider marriage termed ''holy matrimony'' to be an expression of [[divine grace]],<ref name="Jr.Warrick2013">{{cite book|last1=Yrigoyen|first1=Charles Jr.|last2=Warrick|first2=Susan E.|title=Historical Dictionary of Methodism|date=7 November 2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|language=en|isbn=978-0-8108-7894-5|page=236|quote=In Methodism, the sacred service celebrates a covenenat grounded in the will of God and sustained by divine grace. ... Methodism encourages the solemnization of marriages within the context of congregational worship and eucharistic celebration.}}</ref> termed a ''[[sacrament]]'' and ''[[Sacred mysteries|mystery]]'' in the first two Christian traditions. In [[Latin liturgical rites|Western ritual]], the ministers of the sacrament are the spouses themselves, with a [[bishop]], [[priest]], or [[deacon]] merely witnessing the union on behalf of the Church and blessing it. In [[Eastern Christianity|Eastern ritual churches]], the bishop or priest functions as the actual minister of the Sacred Mystery; Eastern Orthodox deacons may not perform marriages. Western Christians commonly refer to marriage as a [[vocation]], while Eastern Christians consider it an [[ordination]] and a [[martyr]]dom, though the theological emphases indicated by the various names are not excluded by the teachings of either tradition.{{Dubious|date=January 2010}} Marriage is commonly celebrated in the context of a [[Eucharist]]ic service (a [[Mass in the Catholic Church#Ritual Masses|nuptial Mass]] or [[Divine Liturgy]]).

The Roman Catholic tradition of the 12th and 13th centuries defined marriage as a sacrament ordained by God,<ref name="Witte"/> signifying the mystical marriage of Christ to his Church.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070217152549/https://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm |archive-date=17 February 2007 |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, Article Seven, Paragraph 1612 |publisher=Vatican.va }}</ref>
<blockquote>The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070217152549/https://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm|archive-date=17 February 2007|title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, Article Seven, Paragraph 1601 |publisher=Vatican.va }}</ref>
</blockquote>

For Catholic and Methodist Christians, the mutual love between husband and wife becomes an image of the eternal love with which God loves humankind.<ref name="Church2016">{{cite book|title=The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church 2016|date=16 December 2016|publisher=United Methodist Publishing House|language=en|isbn=978-1-5018-3325-0|page=623|quote=For the church, the marriage covenant is grounded in the covenant between God and God's people into which Christians enter in their baptism.}}</ref> In the [[United Methodist Church]], the celebration of Holy Matrimony ideally occurs in the context of a Service of Worship, which includes the celebration of the Eucharist.<ref name="Jr.Warrick2013"/> Likewise, the celebration of marriage between two Catholics normally takes place during the public liturgical celebration of the Holy Mass, because of its sacramental connection with the unity of the Paschal mystery of Christ (Communion). Sacramental marriage confers a perpetual and exclusive bond between the spouses. By its nature, the institution of marriage and conjugal love is ordered to the procreation and upbringing of offspring. Marriage creates rights and duties in the Church between the spouses and towards their children: "[e]ntering marriage with the intention of never having children is a grave wrong and more than likely grounds for an annulment".<ref>McLachlan, P. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/19991009023353/http://www.catholic-pages.com/marriage/sacrament.asp Sacrament of Holy Matrimony]}}. Catholic-pages.com</ref> According to Roman Catholic legislation, progeny of annulled relationships are considered legitimate. Civilly remarried persons who civilly divorced a living and lawful spouse are not separated from the Church, but they cannot receive Eucharistic Communion.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070217152549/https://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm |archive-date=17 February 2007 |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, Article Seven, Paragraph 1665 |publisher=Vatican.va }}</ref>

[[Divorce]] and [[remarriage]], while generally not encouraged, are regarded differently by each Christian denomination, with certain traditions, such as the Catholic Church, teaching the concept of an [[annulment]]. For example, the [[Reformed Church in America]] permits divorce and remarriage,<ref name="RCA1975">{{cite web |title=Statements of General Synod |url=https://www.rca.org/synod/statements/ |publisher=[[Reformed Church in America]] |access-date=4 June 2021 |language=English |date=1975}}</ref> while connexions such as the [[Evangelical Methodist Church Conference]] forbid divorce except in the case of [[fornication]] and do not allow for remarriage in any circumstance.<ref name="EMCC2017">{{cite book |title=Evangelical Methodist Church Discipline |date=15 July 2017 |publisher=[[Evangelical Methodist Church Conference]] |language=English|pages=22–21|quote=The marriage contract is so sacred that we advise against seeking divorce on any grounds whatseover. Should any member seek divorce on any unscriptural grounds (Matt. 5:32 "But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced comitteth adultery."), and that well proven, he shall be summoned to appear at a meeting in the local church, with the general board working in co-operation with the local church board. If proven guilty of such offense, he shall be dismissed at once, and no longer considered a member of Evangelical Methodist Church. We advise against the remarriage of all divorced persons, as the scriptures declare in Romans 7:3a "...So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress." If any person becoming converted, and having such marital complications as mentioned above in the days of their sin and ignorance, it is our belief that God will and does forgive them; however, we shall not receive such persons into church membership, but with to extend to them the right hand of fellowship, promising the prayers of God's people. Should any pastor, knowingly or unknowingly, receive such persons that have been divorced and remarried into membership, such membership shall not be valid. Ministers are advised to have nothing to do with the re-marriage of persons divorced on any grounds. In the event any person is divorced by an unbelieving companion and shall remain in an unmarried state, retaining his or her Christian integrity, he or she shall not be dismissed or barred from church membership.}}</ref> The [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] allows divorce for a limited number of reasons, and in theory, but usually not in practice, requires that a marriage after divorce be celebrated with a penitential overtone. With respect to marriage between a Christian and a pagan, the early Church "sometimes took a more lenient view, invoking the so-called Pauline privilege of permissible separation (1 Cor. 7) as legitimate grounds for allowing a convert to divorce a pagan spouse and then marry a Christian."<ref>[http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/augustweb-only/46.0c.html?start=2 Divorce and Remarriage from Augustine to Zwingli]. Christianity Today. Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref>

The Catholic Church adheres to the proscription of [[Jesus]] in ''Matthew'', 19: 6 that married spouses who have consummated their marriage "are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate."<ref>''Matthew'', 19: 6, ''New American Bible Revised Edition'', [http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/19].</ref> Consequently, the Catholic Church understands that it is wholly without authority to terminate a sacramentally valid and consummated marriage, and its ''Codex Iuris Canonici'' ([[1983 Code of Canon Law]]) confirms this in Canons 1055–7. Specifically, Canon 1056 declares that "the essential properties of marriage are unity and ''indissolubility''; in [C]hristian marriage they acquire a distinctive ''firmness'' by reason of the sacrament."<ref>''Code of Canon Law Annotated'', edited by Ernest Caparros et alia, Canon 1056, pp. 806–07 (Woodridge, Illinois: Midwest Theological Forum, 2004); see the printed work to correctly cite the translator(s) et alia; emphasis added.</ref> Canon 1057, §2 declares that marriage is "an ''irrevocable'' covenant".<ref>''Code of Canon Law Annotated'', edited by Ernest Caparros et alia, Canon 1057, §2, p. 807 (Woodridge, Illinois: Midwest Theological Forum, 2004); see the printed work to correctly cite the translator(s) et alia; emphasis added.</ref> Therefore, divorce of such a marriage is a metaphysical, moral, and legal impossibility. However, the Church has the authority to annul a presumed "marriage" by declaring it to have been invalid from the beginning, i. e., declaring it not to be and never to have been a marriage, in an [[Annulment (Catholic Church)|annulment]] procedure,<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/relationships/chmarriageanddivorcerev1.shtml |title= GCSE Bitesize: Marriage |publisher= BBC }}</ref> which is basically a fact-finding and fact-declaring effort.

For [[Protestantism|Protestant]] denominations, the purposes of marriage include intimate companionship, rearing children, and mutual support for both spouses to fulfill their life callings. Most [[Calvinism|Reformed Christians]] did not regard marriage to the status of a sacrament but considered it a covenant between spouses before God. In addition, some Protestant denominations (such as the Methodist Churches) affirmed that Holy Matrimony is a "[[means of grace]], thus, sacramental in character".<ref name="Mulhall2013">{{cite book|last=Mulhall|first=Daniel S.|title=The Ecumenical Christian Dialogues and The Catechism of the Catholic Church|date=18 September 2013|publisher=Paulist Press|language=en |isbn=978-1-61643-809-8|page=155|quote=The Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century were unwilling to call marriage a sacrament because they did not regard matrimony as a necessary means of grace for salvation. Though not necessary for salvation certainly marriage is a means of grace, thus, sacramental in character.}}</ref>
[[File:Phil and Marlene.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A couple following their marriage in the [[Manti Utah Temple]]]]

Since the 16th century, five competing models have shaped marriage in the Western tradition, as described by [[John Witte, Jr.]]:<ref>{{cite book | last =Witte | first =John | title =From Sacarament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition | publisher =Westminster John Knox Press | series=The Family, Religion, and Culture |  edition =1st | date =2007}}</ref>
* Marriage as Sacrament in the Roman Catholic Tradition
* Marriage as Social Estate in the Lutheran Reformation
* Marriage as Covenant in the Reformed (and Methodist) Traditions<ref>{{cite book |title=Book of Discipline of the Free Methodist Church |date=2015 |publisher=[[Free Methodist Church]] |pages=53–54 |language=English }}</ref>
* Marriage as Commonwealth in the Anglican Tradition
* Marriage as Contract in the Enlightenment Tradition

Members of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church) believe that "[[Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|marriage]] between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the [[Plan of salvation (Latter Day Saints)|Creator's plan]] for the eternal destiny of His children."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world?lang=eng|title=The Family: A Proclamation to the World|website=ChurchofJesusChrist.org}}</ref> Their view of marriage is that family relationships can endure beyond the grave.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/lesson-5-laws-and-ordinances?lang=eng|title=Lesson 5: Laws and Ordinances|website=ChurchofJesusChrist.org}}</ref> This is known as 'eternal marriage' which can be eternal only when authorized priesthood holders perform the sealing ordinance in sacred [[Temple (LDS Church)|temples]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/the-eternal-family-teacher-manual/lesson-15-eternal-marriage?lang=eng|title=Lesson 15: Eternal Marriage|website=ChurchofJesusChrist.org}}</ref>

With respect to religion, historic Christian belief emphasizes that Christian weddings should occur in a [[church (building)|church]] as Christian marriage should begin where one also starts their faith journey (Christians receive the sacrament of [[baptism]] in church in the presence of their [[Church (congregation)|congregation]]).<ref name="Dooley2016">{{cite book |last1=Dooley |first1=Sandra |title=A Guide to Catholic Weddings |date=20 June 2016 |publisher=Liturgy Training Publications |isbn=978-1-61833-134-2 |pages=29–30 |language=English}}</ref> Catholic Christian weddings must "take place in a church building" as holy matrimony is a sacrament; sacraments normatively occur in the presence of Christ in the house of God, and "members of the faith community [should be] present to witness the event and provide support and encouragement for those celebrating the sacrament."<ref name="Dooley2016"/> Bishops never grant permission "to those requesting to be married in a garden, on the beach, or some other place outside of the church" and a dispensation is only granted "in extraordinary circumstances (for example, if a bride or groom is ill or disabled and unable to come to the church)."<ref name="Dooley2016"/> Marriage in the church, for Christians, is seen as contributing to the fruit of the newlywed couple regularly attending church each [[Lord's Day]] and raising children in the faith.<ref name="Dooley2016"/>

=====Christian attitudes to same-sex marriage=====
{{Main|Religious arguments about same-sex marriage}}

Although many Christian denominations do not currently perform [[same-sex marriage]]s, many do, such as the [[Presbyterian Church (USA)]], some dioceses of the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]], the [[Metropolitan Community Church]], [[Quakers]], [[United Church of Canada]], and [[United Church of Christ]] congregations, and some [[Homosexuality and the Anglican Communion#Anglican Church of Canada|Anglican]] dioceses, for example.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070703002853/http://marriagelaw.cua.edu/publications/wrr.pdf "World Religions and Same-Sex Marriage"], Marriage Law Project, [[Columbus School of Law]] at The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, July 2002 revision</ref><ref name="united">{{cite web|url=http://www.united-church.ca/exploring/marriage/affirmingcongregations |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100531085742/http://www.united-church.ca/exploring/marriage/affirmingcongregations |archive-date=31 May 2010 |title=Affirming Congregations, The Episcopal Church and Ministries of the United Church of Canada |publisher=United-church.ca }}</ref> Same-sex marriage is recognized by various [[religious denomination]]s.<ref name="pewforum">{{cite web|title=Religious Groups' Official Positions on Same-Sex Marriage|url=http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=291|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081109194247/http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=291 |archive-date=9 November 2008 |publisher=pewforums.org|date=1 April 2008}}</ref><ref name="NYT UCC SSM">{{cite news|title=United Church of Christ Backs Same-Sex Marriage|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/national/05church.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050708015301/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/national/05church.html |archive-date=2005-07-08 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |author=Shaila Dewan|date=5 July 2005|work=The New York Times}}</ref>

==== Islam ====
{{More citations needed section|date=August 2011}}
{{Main|Islamic marital jurisprudence}}
[[File:Pakistani Marriage Culture Video.webm|thumb|Pakistani marriage culture video]]
[[File:Jeunes Mariés dans le parc dAk Saray (Shahrisabz) (6018352949).jpg|thumb|[[Newlywed]] couples visit [[Timur]]'s statues to receive wedding blessings in [[Uzbekistan]].]]
[[File:Signing the Nikah.jpg|thumb|A Muslim bride of [[Pakistan]] origin signing the ''nikkah nama'' or [[marriage certificate]]]]
[[File:Muslim wedding in India.jpg|thumb|A Muslim couple being wed alongside the [[Tungabhadra River]] at [[Hampi]], India]]

[[Islam]] also commends marriage, with the age of marriage being whenever the individuals feel ready, financially and emotionally.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Levy|first=Reuben|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JCJgmiv7uZcC&q=the+social+structure+of+islam&pg=PA1|title=The Social Structure of Islam|date=2000|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-20910-6|language=en}}</ref>

In Islam, [[polygyny]] is allowed while [[polyandry]] is not, with the specific [[Polygamy in Islam|limitation]] that a man can have no more than four legal wives at any one time and an unlimited number of [[Islamic views on concubinage|female slaves]] as [[Concubinage|concubines]] who may have rights similar wives, with the exception of not being free unless the man has children with them, with the requirement that the man is able and willing to partition his time and wealth equally among the respective wives and concubines (this practice of concubinage, as in Judaism, is not applicable in contemporary times and has been deemed by scholars as invalid due to shifts in views about the role of slavery in the world).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Global Connections . How Many Wives? |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/mideast/educators/women/lesson3a.html |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=www.pbs.org}}</ref>

For a Muslim wedding to take place, the bridegroom and the guardian of the bride (''[[wali]]'') must both agree on the marriage. Should the guardian disagree on the marriage, it may not legally take place. If the ''wali'' of the girl is her father or paternal grandfather, he has the right to force her into marriage even against her proclaimed will, if it is her first marriage, the exercise of this power is, however, very strictly regulated in the interests of the bride. A guardian who is allowed to force the bride into marriage is called ''[[Marriage in Islam#Conditions|wali mujbir]]''. As minors are not in a position to make a declaration of their wishes which is valid in law, they can only be married at all by a wali mudjbir, but a woman married in this way by another than her ascendant is entitled on coming of age to demand that her marriage be declared void ([[faskh]]) by the [[qadi]].<ref>The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Vol. VIII, p. 27, Leiden 1995.</ref>

[[File:An Islamic wedding for a new Bride and groom.jpg|thumb|A [[Nigerians|Nigerian]] Islamic wedding]]

From an Islamic ([[Sharia]]) law perspective, the minimum requirements and responsibilities in a Muslim marriage are that the groom provide living expenses to the bride, and in return, the bride's main responsibility is raising children to be proper Muslims. All other rights and responsibilities are to be decided between the husband and wife, and may even be included as stipulations in the marriage contract, so long as they do not go against the minimum requirements of the marriage.

In [[Sunni Islam]], [[Islamic marital jurisprudence|marriage]] must take place in the presence of at least two reliable witnesses, with the consent of the guardian of the bride and the consent of the groom. Following the marriage, the couple may consummate the marriage. To create an '[[urf]] marriage, it is sufficient that a man and a woman indicate an intention to marry each other and recite the requisite words in front of a suitable Muslim. The wedding party usually follows but can be held days, or months later, whenever the couple and their families want to; however, there can be no concealment of the marriage as it is regarded as public notification due to the requirement of witnesses.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sistani.org/local.php?modules=nav&nid=2&bid=59&pid=3079|title=The method of pronouncing the marriage formula}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090218220414/http://www.sistani.org/local.php?modules=nav&nid=2&bid=59&pid=3078 Marriage formula]. sistani.org</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090218001957/http://www.sistani.org/local.php?modules=nav&nid=2&bid=59&pid=3080 Conditions of pronouncing Nikah]. sistani.org</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sistani.org/local.php?modules=nav&nid=2&bid=59&pid=3083|title=Women with whom matrimony is Haraam}}</ref>

In [[Shia Islam]], marriage may take place without the presence of witnesses as is often the case in temporary [[Nikah mut'ah]] (prohibited in Sunni Islam), but with the consent of both the bride and the groom. Following the marriage, they may consummate their marriage.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.al-islam.org/muta-temporary-marriage-in-islamic-law-sachiko-murata/four-pillars-muta|title=The Four Pillars Of Mut'a|website=Al-Islam.org|date=27 September 2012}}</ref>

====Judaism====
[[File:Joodse bruiloft Rijksmuseum SK-A-2598.jpeg|thumb|A Jewish wedding, painting by [[Jozef Israëls]], 1903]]
[[File:V03p128a01 Ketubah.jpg|thumb|A [[Ketubah]] in Hebrew, a Jewish marriage-contract outlining the duties of each partner]]
{{Main|Jewish views on marriage}}
In [[Judaism]], marriage is based on the laws of the [[Torah]] and is a contractual bond between spouses in which the spouses agree to be consecrated to one another.<ref>[[Mishnah]] Kidushin 1:1</ref> This contract is called [[Erusin|Kiddushin]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin 2a |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Kiddushin.2a.1?lang=bi |website=Sefaria |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref> Though procreation is not the sole purpose, a Jewish marriage is also expected to fulfill the commandment to have children, as it is written "God blessed them and God said to them, 'Be fertile and increase.{{' "}}<ref>{{cite web |title=B'reishit 1:28 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.1.28?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en |website=Sefaria |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref> The main focus centers around the relationship between the spouses. [[Kabbalah|Kabbalistically]], marriage is understood to mean that the spouses are merging into a single soul. In Kabbalistic thought, a man is considered "incomplete" if he is not married, as his soul is only one part of a larger whole that remains to be unified.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/448425/jewish/Why-Marry.htm |title=Why Marry? |publisher=[[Chabad.org]]  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071224153323/http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/448425/jewish/Why-Marry.htm |archive-date=24 December 2007 }}</ref>

The [[Hebrew Bible]] describes a number of marriages, including those of [[Isaac]],<ref>{{cite web |title=B'reishit 24 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.24?lang=bi&aliyot=0 |website=Sefaria |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref> [[Jacob]]<ref name="B'reishit 29">{{cite web |title=B'reishit 29 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.29.2?lang=bi&aliyot=0 |website=Sefaria |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref> and [[Samson]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Shoftim 14 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Judges.14?lang=bi |website=Sefaria |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref> [[Polygyny]], or men having multiple wives at once, is one of the most common marital arrangements represented in the Hebrew Bible;<ref name="JewEncMar">{{Jewish Encyclopedia|inline=1|title=Marriage|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=M&artid=213}}</ref> another is that of concubinage ([[pilegesh|pilagshut]]) which was often arranged by a man, and a woman who generally enjoyed the same rights as a full legal wife. Other means of concubinage are observed by the author of Judges 19–20,<ref>{{cite web |title=Shoftim 19–20 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Judges.19.2?lang=bi |website=Sefaria |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref> or during war, as in Deuteronomy 21:10–12.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Farbiarz |first1=Rachel |title=Women & War |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/women-war/ |website=My Jewish Learning |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref> The rabbis of the Talmud exhibited discomfort with abduction of women in war for the purpose of marriage, declaring it to be a "compromise against man's [[Yetzer hara|evil inclination]]" to be avoided.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cohen |first1=Shaye J. D. |last2=Farber |first2=Zev |title=Marrying a Beautiful Captive Woman |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/marrying-a-beautiful-captive-woman |website=The Torah |publisher=Project TABS |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref> Today [[Ashkenazi Jews]] are prohibited to take more than one wife because of a ban instituted on this by [[Gershom ben Judah]] (d. 1040 CE). However, academic scholarship indicates that prohibitions on polygyny may have existed far earlier, based on the [[Damascus Document|Damascus Covenant]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sassoon |first1=Isaac S. D. |title=The Biblical Prohibition of Polygyny? |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-biblical-prohibition-of-polygyny |website=The Torah |publisher=Project TABS |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref>

Among ancient Hebrews, marriage was a domestic affair and not a religious ceremony; no officiant or witness was required by law. [[Maimonides|The Rambam]] wrote that "before the Torah was given, when a man would meet a woman in the marketplace and he and she decided to marry, he would bring her home, conduct relations in private and thus make her his wife." Subsequently, to the Torah being handed down at Sinai, however, the Jews received the commandment that a marriage must be witnessed.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Maimonides |title=Mishneh Torah, Marriage 1:1 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Marriage.1.1?lang=bi&with=About&lang2=en |website=Sefaria |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref>

Betrothal (''[[erusin]]''), which refers to the time that this binding contract is made, is distinct from marriage itself (''[[Jewish wedding|nissu'in]]''), with the time between these events varying substantially.<ref name="JewEncMar" /><ref name="CheyneAndBlackMar">{{EncyclopaediaBiblica|article=MARRIAGE|section=Manius-Mash}}</ref> In biblical times, a wife was regarded as [[personal property]], belonging to her husband;<ref name="JewEncMar" /><ref name="CheyneAndBlackMar" /> the descriptions of the Bible suggest that she would be expected to perform tasks such as spinning, sewing, weaving, manufacture of clothing, fetching of water, baking of bread, and [[animal husbandry]].<ref name="B'reishit 29"/> A husband's obligations to his wife are 1) to provide her with food and care; 2) to supply her clothing and shelter; 3) to share a home with her; 4) to provide the ketubah (marriage contract); 5) to supply medical care if she falls ill; 6) to ransom her back if she is kidnapped; 7) to provide proper burial when she dies; 8) to provide for her materially if he predeceases her; 9) to provide for the support of their daughters until they marry or become adults; and 10) to see that their sons inherit the money specified in her ketubah, in addition to their portion of his estate.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Maimonides |title=Mishneh Torah, Marriage 12:2 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Marriage.12.2?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en |website=Sefaria |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref> Men are also obligated sexually to their wives, per BT Ketubot 61b:10, with the frequency of marital relations determined in part by the occupation (and hence availability) of the husband.<ref>{{cite web |title=Talmud Bavli, Ketubot 61b:10 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Ketubot.61b.10?lang=bi |website=Sefaria |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref>

Because a wife was regarded as property, her husband was originally free to divorce her for any reason, at any time.<ref name="CheyneAndBlackMar" /> However, Talmudic sources complicate this matter significantly, with Beit Shammai stating that a man may divorce his wife only if she has committed a sexual transgression (such as adultery).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Feinstein |first1=Eve Levavi |title=When Is a Man Allowed to Divorce his Wife? |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/when-is-a-man-allowed-to-divorce-his-wife |website=The Torah |publisher=Project TABS |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref> Divorcing a woman against her will was also banned by [[Gershom ben Judah]] for [[Ashkenazi Jews]]. A divorced couple were permitted to remarry, unless the wife had married someone else after her divorce.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Feinstein |first1=Eve Levavi |title=Remarrying Your Ex-Wife |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/remarrying-your-ex-wife |website=The Torah |publisher=Project TABS |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref>

===Hinduism===
{{Main|Marriage in Hinduism}}
{{Multiple image
|image1=Hindu marriage ceremony offering.jpg
|caption1=Hindu marriage ceremony from a [[Rajput]] wedding
|image2=Bride Groom NP.JPG
|caption2=A Nepalese Hindu couple in marriage ceremony}}

[[Hinduism]] regards ''Vivāha'' or ''Biye'' (marriage) to be a sacred duty that entails both religious and social obligations. It is regarded to be an important [[Samskara (rite of passage)|''samskara'']], or a rite of passage.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rao |first=CN Shankar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDscEAAAQBAJ&dq=vivaha+samskara&pg=PA363 |title=Sociology |date=2012 |publisher=S. Chand Publishing |isbn=978-81-219-1036-1 |page=363 |language=en}}</ref> [[Hindu texts]] describe four [[Puruṣārtha|''purusharthas'']] (goals of existence): ''[[dharma]]'' (righteousness), ''[[artha]]'' (wealth), ''[[kama]]'' (desire), and ''[[moksha]]'' (liberation). The purpose of the marriage ''samskara'' is to fulfill the goal of ''kama'', allowing an adherent to gradually advance towards the attainment of ''moksha''. The [[Manusmriti]] describes many different types of marriages and their categorisation, ranging from the [[Gandharva marriage|''gandharva vivaha'']]<ref name="Banerjee 86">{{Cite book |last=Banerjee |first=Gooroodass |title=The Hindu Law of Marriage and Stridhan |page=86}}</ref> (a consensual marriage of love between a man and a woman without the performance of rituals or witnesses) to the [[Rakshasa marriage|''rakshasa vivaha'']]<ref name="Banerjee 86"/> (a "demoniac" marriage, performed by abduction of one participant by the other participant, usually, but not always, with the help of other persons). In the [[Indian subcontinent]], [[arranged marriage in the Indian subcontinent|arranged marriages]], in which the spouse's parents or an older family member choose the partner, are still predominant in comparison with [[love marriage]]s in the contemporary period. The [[Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856|Hindu Widow's Remarriage Act 1856]] empowers a Hindu widow to remarry.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-07-20|title=What is The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856?|url=https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/hindu-widows-remarriage-act-1856-1563262916-1|access-date=2021-05-18|website=Jagranjosh.com}}</ref>

===Buddhism===
{{Main|Buddhist view of marriage}}
The Buddhist view of marriage considers marriage a secular affair and thus not a [[sacrament]]. Buddhists are expected to follow the civil laws regarding marriage laid out by their respective governments. Gautama Buddha, being a [[kshatriya]] was required by Shakyan tradition to pass a series of tests to prove himself as a warrior, before he was allowed to marry.

===Sikhism===
In a Sikh marriage, the couple walks around the ''[[Guru Granth Sahib]]'' holy book four times, and a holy man recites from it in the [[kirtan]] style. The ceremony is known as '[[Anand Karaj]]' and represents the holy union of two souls united as one.

===Wicca===
Wiccan marriages are commonly known as handfastings and are a celebration held by Wiccans. [[Handfasting]] was originally a medieval ritual and has been revived by contemporary Pagans. In the ritual, the couple's wrists are tied together to symbolize the binding of two lives. It is commonly used in Wicca and Pagan ceremonies, but it has become more mainstream and comes up in both religious and secular vows and readings. Although handfastings vary for each Wiccan they often involve honoring Wiccan deities.<ref name=Bedard>{{cite book |last1=Bedard |first1=Karlie |title=All about Wicca |url=http://rguir.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/977/1/9781283500166.pdf |date=2012 |publisher=University Publications |location=Delhi |isbn=978-1-283-50016-6 |pages=17–18}}</ref> Some Wiccan traditions have a marriage vow "for as long as love lasts" instead of the traditional Christian "till death do us part". The first Wiccan wedding took place in 1960, between [[Frederic Lamond (Wiccan)|Frederic Lamond]] and his wife, Gillian. Most Wiccan traditions will celebrate same-sex and different-sex handfastings.<ref name=Bedard/> The length of commitment varies from a year and a day (after which the vows may be renewed), "as long as love shall last", for a lifetime, or for future incarnations.

Consensual sex is considered sacred for Wiccans. Some traditions perform the Great Rite, in which a High Priest and High Priestess invoke the God and Goddess on each other before making love. It can be used to raise magical energy for the use of spell work. It can also be performed symbolically, using the athame to symbolize masculine energy and the chalice to symbolize feminine energy.<ref>A Wiccan Bible: Exploring the Mysteries of the Craft from Birth to Summerland – p. 124, A. J. Drew – 2003</ref>

== Health ==
{{Main|Marriage and health}}
[[File:Nepalese marriage.jpg|thumb|Nepali wedding]]
Marriage, like other close relationships, exerts considerable influence on [[health]].<ref name="Robles2013">{{Cite web|url=http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2013-09831-001/|title=PsycNET|website=psycnet.apa.org|language=en|access-date=2019-07-17}}</ref> Married people experience lower [[morbidity]] and mortality across such diverse health threats as [[cancer]], [[Myocardial infarction|heart attacks]], and [[surgery]].<ref name="KiecoltGlaser2001">{{Cite journal|pmid=11439708|year=2001|last1=Kiecolt-Glaser|first1=JK|last2=Newton|first2=TL|title=Marriage and health: His and hers|volume=127|issue=4|pages=472–503|journal=Psychological Bulletin|doi=10.1037/0033-2909.127.4.472}}</ref> Research on marriage and health is part of the broader study of the benefits of social relationships.

Social ties provide people with a sense of identity, purpose, belonging, and support.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1177/0022146510395592|title=Mechanisms Linking Social Ties and Support to Physical and Mental Health|year=2011|last1=Thoits|first1=P. A.|journal=Journal of Health and Social Behavior|volume=52|issue=2|pages=145–61|pmid=21673143|s2cid=18169869}}</ref> Simply being married, as well as the quality of one's marriage, have been linked to diverse measures of health.<ref name=Robles2013/>{{clarify|reason=rewrite. This tends to "sort of" duplicate the first sentence. I can't move this first because then it would be too obvious!|date=January 2015}}

The health-protective effect of marriage is stronger for men than women.<ref name=KiecoltGlaser2001/><ref name="wanic2011">{{cite journal | last1 = Wanic | first1 = R. | last2 = Kulik | first2 = J. | year = 2011 | title = Toward an understanding of gender differences in the impact of marital conflict on health | journal = Sex Roles | volume = 65 | issue = 5–6| pages = 297–312 | doi=10.1007/s11199-011-9968-6| s2cid = 145011583 }}</ref> Marital status—the simple fact of being married—confers more health benefits to men than women.<ref name=KiecoltGlaser2001/>

Women's health is more strongly impacted than men's by marital conflict or satisfaction, such that unhappily married women do not enjoy better health relative to their single counterparts.<ref name=KiecoltGlaser2001/><ref name=wanic2011/><ref name="saxbe2008">{{Cite journal|pmid=18230009|year=2008|last1=Saxbe|first1=DE|last2=Repetti|first2=RL|last3=Nishina|first3=A|title=Marital satisfaction, recovery from work, and diurnal cortisol among men and women|volume=27|issue=1|pages=15–25|doi=10.1037/0278-6133.27.1.15|journal=Health Psychology|url=http://repettilab.psych.ucla.edu/Saxbe%20Repetti%20Nishina%202008.pdf|citeseerx=10.1.1.597.2884|access-date=27 October 2017|archive-date=19 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819082339/http://repettilab.psych.ucla.edu/Saxbe%20Repetti%20Nishina%202008.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Most research on marriage and health has focused on heterosexual couples; more work is needed to clarify the health impacts of [[same-sex marriage]].<ref name=Robles2013/>

==Divorce and annulment==
{{Main|Divorce|Divorce law by country}}

In most societies, the death of one of the partners terminates the marriage, and in monogamous societies, this allows the other partner to remarry, though sometimes after a waiting or mourning period.

In some societies, a marriage can be [[annulment|annulled]], when an authority declares that a marriage never happened. Jurisdictions often have provisions for [[void marriage]]s or [[voidable marriage]]s.

A marriage may also be terminated through [[divorce]]. Countries that have relatively recently legalized divorce are Italy (1970), Portugal (1975), Brazil (1977), Spain (1981), Argentina (1987), Paraguay (1991), Colombia (1991), Ireland (1996), Chile (2004) and Malta (2011). The [[Divorce in the Philippines|Philippines]] and the [[Vatican City]] are the only jurisdictions which do not allow divorce.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/06/07/12/philippines-ready-divorce-law |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607204409/http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/06/07/12/philippines-ready-divorce-law |archive-date=7 June 2012 |title=Is Philippines ready for a divorce law? |publisher=ABS-CBN News |date=6 July 2012|author=Malig, Jojo }}</ref> After divorce, one spouse may have to pay [[alimony]]. [[Divorce law by country|Laws concerning divorce]] and the ease with which a divorce can be obtained vary widely around the world. After a divorce or an annulment, the people concerned are free to remarry (or marry).

A statutory right of two married partners to mutually consent to divorce was enacted in western nations in the mid-20th century. In the United States, [[no-fault divorce]] was first enacted in California in 1969 and the final state to legalize it was New York in 1989.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://divorcesupport.about.com/od/maritalproblems/i/nofault_fault_2.htm |title=No-Fault Divorce – The Pros and Cons Of No-Fault Divorce |publisher=Divorcesupport.about.com |date=30 July 2010 |access-date=19 February 2010 |archive-date=30 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630173542/http://divorcesupport.about.com/od/maritalproblems/i/nofault_fault_2.htm  }}</ref>

About 45% of marriages in Britain<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/mar/27/britishidentity.divorce Nearly half of marriaged doomed for divorce], [[The Guardian]] (27 March 2008)</ref> and, according to a 2009 study, 46% of marriages in the U.S.<ref>Yen, Hope (18 May 2011) [http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/18/census-divorces-decline-7-year-itch-persists/?page=all Census; divorce decline but 7 year itch persists], Associated Press.</ref> end in divorce.

==History==
The history of marriage is often considered under [[history of the family]] or legal history.<ref>for the historiography see Frederik J. G. Pedersen, "Marriage" in {{cite book|editor=Kelly Boyd|title=Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing vol 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0121vD9STIMC&pg=PA766|year=1999|publisher=Taylor & Francis|pages=766–68|isbn=978-1-884964-33-6}}</ref>

===Ancient world=== <!--linked-->

====Ancient Near East====
Many cultures have legends concerning the origins of marriage. The way in which a marriage is conducted and its rules and ramifications have changed over time, as has the institution itself, depending on the culture or demographic of the time.<ref>[[Hobhouse, Leonard Trelawny]] (1906) [https://archive.org/details/moralsinevolutio00hobh ''Morals in evolution: a study in comparative ethics''], New York: H. Holt and Co, p. 180.</ref>

The first recorded evidence of marriage ceremonies uniting a man and a woman dates back to approximately 2350 BC, in ancient [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theweek.com/articles/528746/origins-marriage|title=The origins of marriage|date=January 1, 2007|work=[[The Week]]|access-date=December 8, 2019}}</ref> Wedding ceremonies, as well as dowry and divorce, can be traced back to Mesopotamia and [[Babylonia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ehistory.osu.edu/articles/marriage-ancient-mesopotamia-and-babylonia|title=Marriage in Ancient Mesopotamia and Babylonia|last=Naranjo|first=Robert|website=eHistory.osu.edu|publisher=[[Ohio State University]]|access-date=December 8, 2019}}</ref>

<!---taken from article, "Jewish views on marriage"--->
According to ancient Hebrew tradition, a wife was seen as being property of high value and was, therefore, usually, carefully looked after.<ref name="JewEncMar" /><ref name="CheyneAndBlackMar" /> Early nomadic communities in the Middle East practiced a form of marriage known as ''[[Beena marriage|beena]]'', in which a wife would own a tent of her own, within which she retains complete independence from her husband.<ref name="WRSKinship167">[[William Robertson Smith]], ''Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia'', (1885), 167</ref> The [[Covenant Code]] orders "If he take him another; her food, her clothing, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish (or lessen)". The [[Talmud]] interprets this as a requirement for a man to provide food and clothing to, and have sex with, each of his wives.<ref name="JewEncHusWif">{{Jewish Encyclopedia|inline=1|title=Husband and Wife|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=H&artid=986}}</ref>{{clarify|date=April 2013}} However, "duty of marriage" is also interpreted as whatever one does as a married couple, which is more than just sexual activity. And the term diminish, which means to lessen, shows the man must treat her as if he was not married to another.

As a [[polygyny|polygynous]]<!--this is NOT a spelling mistake for 'polygamous'--> society, the Israelites did not have any laws that imposed marital fidelity on men.<ref name="CheyneAndBlackJeal">{{EncyclopaediaBiblica|article=Jealousy, Ordeal of|section=Jannaeus-Jerah}}</ref><ref name="JewEncAdu">{{Jewish Encyclopedia|inline=1|title=Adultery|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=865&letter=A}}</ref> [[Adultery|Adulterous]] married women, adulterous betrothed women, and the men who slept with them, however, were subject to the [[Capital punishment|death penalty]] by [[Adultery#In the Hebrew Bible|the biblical laws against adultery]]. The [[literary prophets]] indicate that adultery was a frequent occurrence, despite these legal strictness's.<ref name="CheyneAndBlackJeal" />

====Classical Greece and Rome====
{{see also|Marriage in ancient Rome|Ancient Greek wedding customs}}

In [[ancient Greece]], no specific civil ceremony was required for the creation of a heterosexual marriage – only mutual agreement and the fact that the couple must regard each other as husband and wife accordingly.<ref name="WILLIAMSON 1998">{{Cite book |last=WILLIAMSON |first=MALCOLM |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YvvJtcFkRpcC |title=The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece |date=1998 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-12663-2 |language=en}}</ref> Men usually married when they were in their 20s and women in their teens.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Greek Women: Marriage and Divorce|url=https://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/43.html|access-date=2021-06-28|website=www.pbs.org}}</ref> It has been suggested that these ages made sense for the Greeks because men were generally done with military service or financially established by their late 20s, and marrying a teenage girl ensured ample time for her to bear children, as life expectancies were significantly lower.{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}} Married Greek women had few rights in ancient Greek society and were expected to take care of the house and children.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} Time was an important factor in Greek marriage. For example, there were superstitions that being married during a [[full moon]] was good luck and Greeks married in the winter in honor of Hera.<ref name="WILLIAMSON 1998"/> Inheritance was more important than feelings: a woman whose father dies without male heirs could be forced to marry her nearest male relative – even if she had to divorce her husband first.<ref name="PT">[http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20170601170518/https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200505/marriage%2Dhistory "Marriage, a History."] ''Psychology Today'', 1 May 2005</ref>

There were several types of marriages in ancient Roman society. The traditional ("conventional") form called ''conventio in manum'' required a ceremony with witnesses and was also dissolved with a ceremony.<ref name="magnusHirschfeldSexology">{{cite web |url=http://sexarchive.info/ATLAS_EN/html/history_of_marriage_in_western.html |title=Magnus Hirschfeld Archive of Sexology |publisher=Erwin J. Haeberle }}</ref> In this type of marriage, a woman lost her family rights of inheritance of her old family and gained them with her new one. She now was subject to the authority of her husband.<ref>Frier and McGinn, ''Casebook'', p. 53.</ref> There was the free marriage known as ''sine manu''. In this arrangement, the wife remained a member of her original family; she stayed under the authority of her father, kept her family rights of inheritance with her old family and did not gain any with the new family.<ref name="RomanEmpireMarriage">{{cite web |url=http://www.roman-empire.net/society/soc-marriage.html |title=Roman empire.net marriage |publisher=Roman-empire.net  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212170628/http://www.roman-empire.net/society/soc-marriage.html |archive-date=12 February 2009 }}</ref> The minimum age of marriage for girls was 12.<ref>{{cite book|author=Treggiari, Susan |author-link=Susan Treggiari |title=Roman Marriage: Isusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I0J1A6o4GuQC&pg=PA39|year=1993|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-814939-2|page=39}}</ref>

====Germanic tribes====
[[File:Seuso and his wife at Lake Balaton.jpg|thumb|Seuso and his wife]]

Among ancient [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] tribes, the bride and groom were roughly the same age and generally older than their Roman counterparts, at least according to [[Tacitus]]:
<blockquote>The youths partake late of the pleasures of love, and hence pass the age of puberty unexhausted: nor are the virgins hurried into marriage; the same maturity, the same full growth is required: the sexes unite equally matched and robust, and the children inherit the vigor of their parents.<ref>Tacitus (by commentator Edward Brooks). 2013. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7524/7524-h/7524-h.htm#link2H_4_0002 The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus]. Project Gutenberg. Footnotes 121–122.</ref></blockquote>
Where [[Aristotle]] had set the prime of life at 37 years for men and 18 for women, the [[Visigothic Code|Visigothic Code of law]] in the 7th century placed the prime of life at 20 years for both men and women, after which both presumably married. Tacitus states that ancient Germanic brides were on average about 20 and were roughly the same age as their husbands.<ref>Herlihy, David. (1985). ''Medieval Households''. Harvard University Press, pp. 73–5, {{ISBN|0-674-56376-X}}.</ref> Tacitus, however, had never visited the German-speaking lands and most of his information on [[Germania]] comes from secondary sources. In addition, [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] women, like those of other Germanic tribes, are marked as women from the age of 12 and older, based on archaeological finds, implying that the age of marriage coincided with [[puberty]].<ref>Green, Dennis Howard and Siegmund, Frank. 2003. ''The Continental Saxons from the Migration Period to the Tenth Century''. Boydell Press. p. 107</ref>

===Europe===
{{Further|History of the family|Royal intermarriage}}
[[File:Brauysegen im Bett.gif|thumb|Woodcut. How Reymont and Melusina were betrothed / And by the bishop were blessed in their bed on their wedlock. From the ''[[Melusine]]'', 15th century.]]

From the [[Early Christianity|early Christian]] era (30 to 325 CE), marriage was thought of as primarily a private matter, with no uniform religious or other ceremony being required.<ref>{{cite book |title=Marriage, sex, and civic culture in late medieval London |last=McSheffrey|first=Shannon |year=2006 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-3938-6 |page=21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dJX_Nr2fdzAC}}</ref> However, bishop [[Ignatius of Antioch]], writing around 110, exhorts, "[I]t becomes both men and women who marry, to form their union with the approval of the bishop, that their marriage may be according to God, and not after their own lust."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-polycarp-longer.html |title=St. Ignatius of Antioch to Polycarp (Roberts-Donaldson translation) |publisher=Earlychristianwritings.com |date=2 February 2006 }}</ref>

In 12th-century Europe, women took the surname of their husbands and starting in the second half of the 16th century parental consent along with the church's consent was required for marriage.<ref name="those_terrible_middle_ages">{{Cite book| last1 = Pernoud|first1 = Régine|title = Those terrible Middle Ages: debunking the myths| url = https://archive.org/details/thoseterriblemid00pern| url-access = limited|year = 2000|publisher = Ignatius Press| location = San Francisco|isbn = 978-0-89870-781-6|page = [https://archive.org/details/thoseterriblemid00pern/page/n52 102]}}</ref>

With few local exceptions, until 1545, Christian marriages in Europe were by mutual consent, declaration of intention to marry and upon the subsequent physical union of the parties.<ref name="upennExcerptFromBook">[http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/toc/14042_toc.html Excerpt from Marriage, Sex, and Civic Culture in Late Medieval London] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090323055903/http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/toc/14042.html |date=23 March 2009 }} "the sacramental bond of marriage could be made only through the freely given consent of both parties."</ref><ref name="marriageDotAbout">{{cite web |url=http://marriage.about.com/cs/generalhistory/a/marriagehistory.htm |title=marriage.about.com |publisher=marriage.about.com |date=16 June 2010 |access-date=25 November 2008 |archive-date=14 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214012630/http://marriage.about.com/cs/generalhistory/a/marriagehistory.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The couple would promise verbally to each other that they would be married to each other; the presence of a priest or witnesses was not required.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.exploregenealogy.co.uk/FindingEarlyMarriageRecords.html |title=Marriage Records |publisher=Exploregenealogy.co.uk |date=29 October 2007 }}</ref> This promise was known as the "verbum." If freely given and made in the present tense (e.g., "I marry you"), it was unquestionably binding;<ref name="upennExcerptFromBook"/> if made in the future tense ("I will marry you"), it would constitute a [[Engagement|betrothal]].

According to the [[Fueros of Navarre|Charter of Navarre]], the basic union consisted of a civil marriage with no priest required and at least two witnesses, and the contract could be broken using the same formula.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}} The Church in turn lashed out at those who got married twice or thrice in a row while their formers spouses were still alive. In 1563 the [[Council of Trent]], twenty-fourth session, required that a valid marriage must be performed by a priest before two witnesses.<ref name="Matrimonios a lo Navarro">{{cite journal |last1=Esparza Zabalegi |first1=Jose Mari|date=March 2010 |title=Matrimonios a lo Navarro |journal=Nabarralde Kazeta |issue=7 |page=45 }}</ref>

One of the functions of churches from the [[Middle Ages]] was to register marriages, which was not obligatory. There was no state involvement in marriage and personal status, with these issues being adjudicated in [[ecclesiastical court]]s. During the Middle Ages marriages were arranged, sometimes as early as birth, and these early pledges to marry were often used to ensure treaties between different royal families, nobles, and heirs of fiefdoms. The church resisted these imposed unions, and increased the number of causes for nullification of these arrangements.<ref name="those_terrible_middle_ages"/> As Christianity spread during the Roman period and the Middle Ages, the idea of free choice in selecting marriage partners increased and spread with it.<ref name="those_terrible_middle_ages"/>

In medieval Western Europe, later marriage and higher rates of definitive [[celibacy]] (the so-called "European marriage pattern") helped to constrain patriarchy at its most extreme level. For example, [[England in the Middle Ages|Medieval England]] saw marriage age as variable depending on economic circumstances, with couples delaying marriage until the early twenties when times were bad and falling to the late teens after the [[Black Death]], when there were labor shortages;<ref>Hanawalt, Barbara A. 1986. The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England. Oxford University Press, Inc. Pg 96</ref> by appearances, marriage of adolescents was not the norm in England.<ref>Hanawalt, pp. 98–100</ref><ref>33. Young, Bruce W. 2008. ''Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare''. Greenwood Press. pp. 21, 24, 28</ref> Where the strong influence of classical [[Celts|Celtic]] and [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] cultures (which were not rigidly patriarchal)<ref>John T. Koch, Antone Minard. 2012. The Celts: History, Life, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. p. 495</ref><ref>Young, Bruce W. 2008. Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare. Greenwood Press. pp. 16–17, 20</ref> helped to offset the Judaeo-Roman patriarchal influence,<ref>Greif, Avner. 2005. Family Structure, Institutions, and Growth: The Origin and Implications of Western Corporatism. Stanford University. 2011. pp. 2–3. {{cite web|url=http://www.aeaweb.org/assa/2006/0106_0800_1104.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-11-20  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904002714/https://www.aeaweb.org/assa/2006/0106_0800_1104.pdf |archive-date=4 September 2015 }}</ref> in Eastern Europe the tradition of early and universal marriage (often in early [[adolescence]]),<ref>Levin, Eve. 1995. ''Sex and Society in the World of the Orthodox Slavs, 900–1700''. Cornell University Press. pp 96–98</ref> as well as traditional [[Slavs|Slavic]] patrilocal custom,<ref>Levin, 1995; pp. 137, 142</ref> led to a greatly inferior status of women at all levels of society.<ref>Levin, 1995; pp. 225–27</ref>
[[File:Dräkt, Gustav III, gnr 3485 & dräkt, Sofia magdalena, gnr 3502. Fel föremålsref - Livrustkammaren - 16527.tif|thumb|Swedish royal wedding clothes from 1766 at [[Livrustkammaren]] in Stockholm]]

The average age of marriage for most of [[Western European marriage pattern|Northwestern Europe]] from 1500 to 1800 was around [[Hajnal line|25 years of age]];<ref>Stone, Linda. (2010). ''Kinship and Gender''. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, pp. 231–36, {{ISBN|0-8133-4402-6}}.</ref><ref>Schofield, Phillipp R. (2003). ''Peasant and community in Medieval England, 1200–1500''. Medieval culture and society. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. p. 98, {{ISBN|0-333-64710-6}}.</ref><ref name="autogenerated82">Laslett, Peter. (1965). The World We Have Lost. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 82, {{ISBN|0-415-31527-1}}.</ref> as the Church dictated that both parties had to be at least 21 years of age to marry without the consent of their parents, the bride and groom were roughly the same age, with most brides in their early twenties and most grooms two or three years older,<ref name="autogenerated82"/> and a substantial number of women married for the first time in their thirties and forties, particularly in urban areas,<ref>Coontz, Stephanie. (2005). ''Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage''. New York: Viking Press, Penguin Group Inc. pp. 125–29, {{ISBN|0-14-303667-X}}.</ref> with the average age at first marriage rising and falling as circumstances dictated. In better times, more people could afford to marry earlier and thus fertility rose and conversely marriages were delayed or forgone when times were bad, thus restricting family size;<ref>Kertzer, David I and Marzio Barbagli. (2001). ''The history of the European family''. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. xxii, {{ISBN|0-300-09090-0}}.</ref> after the [[Black Death]], the greater availability of profitable jobs allowed more people to marry young and have more children,<ref>Lehmberg, Stanford E. and Samantha A. Meigs. (2008). The Peoples of the British Isles: A New History: From Prehistoric Times to 1688. Lyceum Books. p. 117, {{ISBN|1-933478-01-2}}.</ref> but the stabilization of the population in the 16th century meant fewer job opportunities and thus more people delaying marriages.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00483.x|title=Girl power: The European marriage pattern and labour markets in the North Sea region in the late medieval and early modern period|year=2010|last1=De Moor|first1=Tine|last2=Van Zanden|first2=Jan Luiten|journal=The Economic History Review|volume=63|pages=1–33 (17)}}</ref>

The age of marriage was not absolute, however, as child marriages occurred throughout the Middle Ages and later, with just some of them including:
* The 1552 CE marriage between John Somerford and Jane Somerford Brereto, at the ages of 3 and 2, respectively.<ref name="woman-compendium">{{cite book |author=Hermann Heinrich Ploss |author2=Max Bartels |author3=Paul Bartels |title=Woman: An Historical Gynæcological and Anthropological Compendium |date=1935 |publisher=William Heinemann (Medical Books) Ltd. |location=London |isbn=978-1-4831-9419-6 |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_yW0BQAAQBAJ&q=129&pg=PA129}}</ref>
* In the early 1900s, [[Magnus Hirschfeld]] surveyed the age of consent in about 50 countries, which he found to often range between 12 and 16. In the [[Vatican City|Vatican]], the age of consent was 12.<ref name="ascrim-persp">{{Cite book |last1=Bullough |first1=Vern L. |title=Adolescence, Sexuality, and the Criminal Law: Multidisciplinary Perspectives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9d23AwAAQBAJ&q=Magnus+Hirschfeld+age+of+consent+50+countries&pg=PA37 |access-date=18 October 2015 |isbn=978-1-317-95499-6 |page=37|date=2014-06-03 |publisher=Routledge }}</ref>

As part of the [[Reformation|Protestant Reformation]], the role of recording marriages and setting the rules for marriage passed to the state, reflecting [[Martin Luther]]'s view that marriage was a "worldly thing".<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=History of Marriage}}</ref> By the 17th century, many of the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] European countries had a state involvement in marriage.

In England, under the Anglican Church, marriage by consent and cohabitation was valid until the passage of [[Marriage Act 1753]]. This act instituted certain requirements for marriage, including the performance of a religious ceremony observed by witnesses.<ref name="WestLaw">''West's Encyclopedia of American Law, 2nd Edition.'' Thomson Gale, 2005. {{ISBN|0-7876-6367-0}}</ref>
[[File:Paolo Monti - Serie fotografica - BEIC 6363689.jpg|thumb|A marriage in 1960 in Italy. Photo by [[Paolo Monti]].]]

As part of the [[Counter-Reformation]], in 1563 the [[Council of Trent]] decreed that a [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] marriage would be recognized only if the marriage ceremony was officiated by a priest with two witnesses. The council also authorized a [[Catechism]], issued in 1566, which defined marriage as "The conjugal union of man and woman, contracted between two qualified persons, which obliges them to live together throughout life."<ref name="Witte">{{cite book|last=Witte|first=John Jr.|title=From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|year=1997|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fromsacramenttoc0000witt/page/39 39–40]|isbn=978-0-664-25543-5|url=https://archive.org/details/fromsacramenttoc0000witt/page/39}}</ref>

In the [[early modern period]], [[John Calvin]] and his [[Protestantism|Protestant]] colleagues reformulated Christian marriage by enacting the Marriage Ordinance of Geneva, which imposed "The dual requirements of state registration and church consecration to constitute marriage"<ref name="Witte"/> for recognition.

In [[England and Wales]], Lord Hardwicke's [[Marriage Act 1753]] required a formal ceremony of marriage, thereby curtailing the practice of [[Fleet Marriage]], an irregular or a clandestine marriage.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/17.1/leneman.html |title=The Scottish Case That Led to Hardwicke's Marriage Act |last=Leneman |first=Leah |year=1999 |publisher=Law and History Review  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706143516/http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/17.1/leneman.html |archive-date=6 July 2008 |access-date=8 June 2008 }}</ref> From the 1690s until the [[Marriage Act 1753]] as many as 300,000 clandestine marriages were performed at Fleet Prison alone.<ref>{{cite book|title=For Better, for Worse: British Marriages, 1600 to the Present|last=Gillis|first=John R.|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn = 978-0-19-503614-5|year=1985|url=https://archive.org/details/forbetterforwors00gill|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/forbetterforwors00gill/page/92 92]}}</ref> The act required a marriage ceremony to be officiated by an Anglican priest in the [[Anglican Church]] with two witnesses and registration. The act did not apply to Jewish marriages or those of Quakers, whose marriages continued to be governed by their own customs.

[[File:Flodmark-Ehrs Marriage 2016 crop.jpg|thumb|Newlyweds after a civil ceremony in the tower of [[Stockholm City Hall]] in 2016]]

In England and Wales, since 1837, civil marriages have been recognized as a legal alternative to church marriages under the [[Marriage Act 1836]]. In Germany, civil marriages were recognized in 1875. This law permitted a declaration of the marriage before an official clerk of the civil administration, when both spouses affirm their will to marry, to constitute a legally recognized valid and effective marriage, and allowed an optional private clerical marriage ceremony.

In contemporary [[English law|English common law]], a marriage is a voluntary [[contract]] by a man and a woman, in which by agreement they choose to become husband and wife.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Marriage |title=Marriage&#124;LII / Legal Information Institute |publisher=Topics.law.cornell.edu |date=19 August 2010  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110325205909/http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Marriage |archive-date=25 March 2011 }}</ref> Edvard Westermarck proposed that "the institution of marriage has probably developed out of a primeval habit".<ref>{{cite book|title=The History of Human Marriage|last=Westermarck|first=Edward Alexander|author-link=Edvard Westermarck|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London]]|year=1903|isbn=978-1-4021-8548-9|edition=reprint}}</ref>

Since the late twentieth century, major social changes in Western countries have led to changes in the demographics of marriage, with the age of first marriage increasing, fewer people marrying, and more couples choosing to [[Cohabitation|cohabit]] rather than marry. For example, the number of marriages in Europe decreased by 30% from 1975 to 2005.<ref>Vucheva, Elitsa. (30 July 2013) [http://euobserver.com/social/27161 / Social Affairs / Europeans marry older, less often]. Euobserver.com. Retrieved on 5 September 2013.</ref> As of 2000, the average marriage age range was 25–44 years for men and 22–39 years for women.

===China===
{{Main|Chinese marriage}}

The mythological origin of Chinese marriage is a story about [[Nüwa]] and [[Fu Xi]] who invented proper marriage procedures after becoming married. In ancient Chinese society, people of the same surname are supposed to consult with their [[family tree]]s prior to marriage to reduce the potential risk of unintentional incest. Marrying one's maternal relatives was generally not thought of as incest. Families sometimes intermarried from one generation to another. Over time, Chinese people became more geographically mobile. Individuals remained members of their biological families. When a couple died, the husband and the wife were buried separately in the respective clan's graveyard. In a maternal marriage, a male would become a son-in-law who lived in the wife's home.

The [[New Marriage Law]] of 1950 radically changed Chinese marriage traditions, enforcing [[monogamy]], equality of men and women, and choice in marriage; [[arranged marriage]]s were the most common type of marriage in China until then. Starting October 2003, it became legal to marry or divorce without authorization from the couple's work units.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cntoc.html|title=Danwei|access-date=7 October 2014}}</ref>{{clarify|reason=new marriage law or what?|date=October 2013}} Although people with infectious diseases such as AIDS may now marry, marriage is still illegal for the mentally ill.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1439403/China-relaxes-laws-on-love-and-marriage.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1439403/China-relaxes-laws-on-love-and-marriage.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | first=Richard | last=Spencer | title=China relaxes laws on love and marriage | date=21 August 2003}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===Korea===
The practice of [[matrilocality]] in Korea started in the [[Goguryeo]] period and ended in the early [[Joseon]] period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Molony |first1=Barbara |title=Gender in Modern East Asia |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |page=22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=김선주 |title=연애와 혼인 사이 |url=http://contents.history.go.kr/front/km/view.do?levelId=km_001_0030_0010_0020 |website=National Institute of Korean History |language=ko}}</ref> The Korean saying that when a man gets married, he is "entering ''jangga''" (the house of his father-in-law), stems from the Goguryeo period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Bae-yong |title=Women in Korean History |date=2008 |publisher=Ewha Womans University Press |page=19}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Black wedding]]
* [[Collective wedding]]
* [[Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages]]
* [[Inter-caste marriage]]
* [[Lavender marriage]]
* [[List of countries by marriage rate]]
* [[List of coupled cousins]]
* [[Marriage certificate]]
* [[Relationship science]]
* [[Transnational marriage]]
* [[White wedding]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
{{Reflist|group=nb}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*{{cite book|chapter=[[s:The Art of Dying Well/Chapter 15|The fifteenth precept, on Matrimony]]|title=The Art of Dying Well|year=1847|publisher=Richardson and Son|first=Robert|last=Bellarmine|author-link=Robert Bellarmine|translator=John Dalton}}
*{{cite book|chapter=[[s:The Catechism of the Council of Trent/Part 2: Holy Matrimony|Part 2: Holy Matrimony]]|title=The catechism of the Council of Trent|year=1829|publisher=Lucas Brothers|translator=James Donovan|author=Council of Trent}}
*[https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/59386 The history of human marriage by Edward Westermarck]

==External links==
{{Sister project links |wikt=Marriage |commons=Marriage |n=no |q=Marriage |s=Portal:Marriage |b=no |v=no}}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=t3kiLAQxrnMC ''For Better, for Worse: British Marriages, 1600 to the Present''] John Gillis. 1985. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-503614-X}}
* [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Canons_and_Decrees_of_the_Council_of_Trent/Session_XXIV/Sacrament_of_Matrimony The Council of Trent on Marriage by the Catholic Church]
* {{cite journal|url=http://lawfam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/1/47|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051217205550/http://lawfam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/1/47|archive-date=2005-12-17|title=Legal Regulation of Marital Relations: An Historical and Comparative Approach – Gautier 19 (1): 47 – International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family|journal=International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family |date=April 2005 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=47–72 |doi=10.1093/lawfam/ebi003 |last1=Gautier |first1=Arlette |url-access=subscription }}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20020321.shtml "Marriage – Its Various Forms and the Role of the State"] on [[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''[[In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)|In Our Time]]'' featuring Janet Soskice, Frederik Pedersen and Christina Hardyment
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061003193449/http://lawfam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/4/2/154 Radical Principles and the Legal Institution of Marriage: Domestic Relations Law and Social Democracy in Sweden] – Bradley 4 (2): 154 – International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110312111112/http://www.thehist.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=145&Itemid=673 Recordings] & [https://web.archive.org/web/20110312095329/http://www.thehist.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=709&Itemid=672 Photos] from a [[College Historical Society]] debate on the role of marriage, featuring Senator [[David Norris (politician)|David Norris]] and Senator [[Rónán Mullen]].
*  Chris Knight. "[http://www.chrisknight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/Early-Human-Kinship-Was-Matrilineal.pdf Early Human Kinship Was Matrilineal]." In N. J. Allen, H. Callan, R. Dunbar and W. James (eds.), ''Early Human Kinship''. Oxford: Blackwell, pp.&nbsp;61–82.
* [http://swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/contets/MLtc.html The Delights of Wisdom Concerning Marriage ("Conjugial") Love, After Which Follows the Pleasures of Insanity Concerning Scortatory Love.] by Emanuel Swedenborg (Swedenborg Society 1953)

{{Family}}
{{Family rights}}
{{Types of marriages|state=autocollapse}}
{{Wedding}}
{{Sex}}
{{Parenting}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Marriage| ]]
[[Category:Demography]]
[[Category:Family]]
[[Category:Kinship and descent]]
[[Category:Mating]]
[[Category:Social institutions]]