The View on Marriage in the United States

In the United States, we tend to view marriage as something that’s the same in every situation We see marriage as a monogamous relationship between a man and a woman. However, other cultures establish families in different ways. Our text states that “Marriage refers to the customs, rules, and obligations that establish a socially endorsed relationship between men and women, between adults and children, and between the kin groups of the married partners.” (Nanda 170). Marriage does not necessarily need to be approved by the government, It doesn’t necessarily have to be heterosexual.

monogamous. or even celebrated in the way that it is, These are things that we as a culture have decided to enforce through social expectations. The idea of marriage was developed out of necessity. The families that marriage forms are necessary, because human “children are totally dependent on adults for a very long period after they are born.

The formation of stable, socially approved relationships is one way of controlling sexual competition and ensuring a relatively stable envrronment for raising children” (Nanda 170)t ”Marriage also extends social alliances by linking different families and kin groups together, leading to cooperation among groups of people larger than the married couple, This expansion of the social group within which people can work together and share resources is of great advantage for the survival of the species.

“(Nanda 170) In this way, marriage serves to assist parents as well as parents. These marriages result in three different kinds of families living together.

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First, there is the nuclear family. “A nuclear family consists of a married couple and their children. lt is most often associated with neolocal residence, in which the married couple establishes an independent household.

This type of family may exist as an isolated and independent unit or it may be embedded within larger kinship units. Only 5 percent of the world’s societies are neurological.” (Nanda 183). It is not common to live like this, completely isolated with only your parents and siblings. The second second type is composite families. “Composite families are aggregates of nuclear families linked by a common spouse, most often the husband. Composite families are thus mainly patrilocal. structured by rules that require a woman to live in her husband’s home after marriage. A polygynous household, consisting of one man with several wives and their respective children, constitutes a composite family. In this case. each wife and her children normally occupy a separate residence.“ (Nanda 184). This type of family generally increases the family’s wealth and lowers the workload on women.

The final type of family is the extended family. “The extended family consists of two or more lineally related kinfolk of the same sex and their spouses and offspring, occupying a single household or homestead and under the authority of a household head. An extended family is notjust a collection of nuclear families. In the extended family system, lineal ties- the blood ties between generations» are more important than ties of marriage. Extended families may be patrilineal or matrilineal.”(Nanda 185). These extended families can serve as a corporate group, and they usually prevail based on agriculture or herding.