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Aug 10, 2015 · Rod Barron, a British-based antiquarian book and map dealer, has assembled a delightful array of matrimonial maps dating from the mid-1700s to the 20th century. Below are some highlights from his ...
- The Truth and Myth Behind Animal Trials in The Middle Ages
The most detailed source of case studies (whether real or...
- Earth
In 1893, Ferguson, of Hot Springs, South Dakota, published...
- The Truth and Myth Behind Animal Trials in The Middle Ages
The answer, for many, was at home. In 18th-century thought, the institution of marriage was a microcosm of society. The long-held model of all-powerful husband and submissive wife came to be seen—much like the monarch’s oppressive rule over his subjects—as an obstacle to personal happiness.
The law of marriage of Western Europe in the Middle Ages was canon law, and it was complicated. The basic principles, however, of that law from the late twelfth century into the sixteenth were deceptively simple: (1) Present consent freely exchanged between a man and a woman capable of marriage makes a marriage that is indissoluble so long as ...
Even when, a century later, as stated above, through the same scarcity of clergymen and the growth of tolerance, dissenting ministers and laymen obtained the power of celebrating marriage, there ...
- Overview
- Marital customs and laws
marriage, a legally and socially sanctioned union, usually between a man and a woman, that is regulated by laws, rules, customs, beliefs, and attitudes that prescribe the rights and duties of the partners and accords status to their offspring (if any). The universality of marriage within different societies and cultures is attributed to the many basic social and personal functions for which it provides structure, such as sexual gratification and regulation, division of labour between the sexes, economic production and consumption, and satisfaction of personal needs for affection, status, and companionship. Perhaps its strongest function concerns procreation, the care of children and their education and socialization, and regulation of lines of descent. Through the ages, marriages have taken a great number of forms. (See exchange marriage; group marriage; polyandry; polygamy; tree marriage. See also common-law marriage.)
By the 21st century the nature of marriage in Western countries—particularly with regard to the significance of procreation and the ease of divorce—had begun to change. In 2000 the Netherlands became the first country to legalize same-sex marriages; the law went into force on April 1, 2001. In the ensuing years, numerous other countries—including Canada (2005), France (2013), the United States (2015), and Germany (2017)—followed suit. In addition, some countries extended benefits and obligations to same-sex couples by means of a registered partnership or civil union, both of which terms meant different things in different contexts.
Some form of marriage has been found to exist in all human societies, past and present. Its importance can be seen in the elaborate and complex laws and rituals surrounding it. Although these laws and rituals are as varied and numerous as human social and cultural organizations, some universals do apply.
The main legal function of marriage is to ensure the rights of the partners with respect to each other and to ensure the rights and define the relationships of children within a community. Marriage has historically conferred a legitimate status on the offspring, which entitled him or her to the various privileges set down by the traditions of that community, including the right of inheritance. In most societies marriage also established the permissible social relations allowed to the offspring, including the acceptable selection of future spouses.
Until the late 20th century, marriage was rarely a matter of free choice. In Western societies love between spouses came to be associated with marriage, but even in Western cultures (as the novels of writers such as Henry James and Edith Wharton attest) romantic love was not the primary motive for matrimony in most eras, and one’s marriage partner was carefully chosen.
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Endogamy, the practice of marrying someone from within one’s own tribe or group, is the oldest social regulation of marriage. When the forms of communication with outside groups are limited, endogamous marriage is a natural consequence. Cultural pressures to marry within one’s social, economic, and ethnic group are still very strongly enforced in some societies.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Oct 6, 2015 · A Colonial Wedding. An imagining of the “Wedding of George Washington and Martha Custis.”. Lithograph from Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Paris: Lemercier, c1853. A wedding is one of the most monumental moments in a person’s life. The celebrations that accompany the ceremony might range from simple to lavish but ...
Signed by Catlett C. Fitzhugh 10 November 1860. The marriage was performed on the date specified above. On the same date the license was taken out, Catlett and Ellen entered into a prenuptial contract, which included Ellen’s father, B.F.T. Conway, as the third party. This “prenup” wasn’t filed with the marriage records, but in the ...
