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~ The history of marriage, Bride Kidnapping part II ~
Marriage by capture was practiced in ancient cultures throughout the Mediterranean area. Examples can be found in mythology and history.
In 326 CE, the Emperor Constantine issued an edict prohibiting marriage by abduction. The law made kidnapping a public offense. Spurned suitors sometimes kidnapped their intended brides as a method of restoring honor. The suitor, in coordination with his friends, generally abducted his bride while she was out of her house in the course of her daily chores.
The custom of fuitina was widespread in Sicily and continental southern Italy. In 1965, this custom was brought to national attention by the case of Franca Viola, a 17-year-old abducted and raped by a local criminal, with the assistance of a dozen of his friends. When she was returned to her family after a week, she refused to marry her abductor, contrary to local expectation. Her family supported her, and suffered severe intimidation for their efforts.
The 12th-century Norman invasion of Ireland was invited by an instance of wife-stealing: in 1167, the King of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada, had his lands and kingship revoked by order of the High King of Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, as punishment for abducting the wife of another king in 1152. This led Diarmait to seek the assistance of King Henry II of England in order to reclaim his kingdom.
East Slavic tribes practiced bride kidnapping in the 11th century. The traditions were documented by the monk Nestor. According to the Primary Chronicle, the Drevlians captured wives non-consensually, whereas the Radimichs, Viatichi, and Severians "captured" their wives after having come to an agreement about marriage with them. The clergy's increase in influence may have helped the custom to abate.
Illustration : The Abduction of the Sabine Women, by Poussin (for illustration purpose)
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~ The history of marriage, Bride Kidnapping part I ~
Bride kidnapping is a practice in which a man abducts and rapes the woman he wishes to marry. It has been practiced around the world and throughout prehistory and history, among peoples as diverse as the Hmong in Southeast Asia, the Tzeltal in Mexico, and the Romani in Europe. Nowadays, bride kidnapping is considered a sex crime because of the implied element of rape, rather than a valid form of marriage. Some types of it may also be seen as falling along the continuum between forced marriage and arranged marriage.
Bride kidnapping is distinguished from raptio in that the former refers to the abduction of one woman by one man, and is still a widespread practice, whereas the latter refers to the large-scale abduction of women by groups of men, possibly in a time of war.
In agricultural and patriarchal societies, where bride kidnapping is most common, children work for their families. A woman leaves her birth family, geographically and economically, when she marries, becoming instead a member of the groom's family. Due to this loss of labour, the women's families do not want their daughters to marry young, and demand economic compensation (the aforementioned bride price) when they do leave them. This conflicts with the interests of men, who want to marry early, as marriage means an increase in social status, and the interests of the groom's family, who will gain another pair of hands for the family farm, business or home. Depending on the legal system under which she lives, the consent of the woman may not be a factor in judging the validity of the marriage.
Illustration : Rape of the Sabine Women by Pietro da Cortona (for illustration purpose)
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~ The history of marriage, Child marriage ~
Child marriage is a marriage between a child and an adult, or between a child and another child. Although the age of majority and marriage age are typically 18 years old, it can differ in different jurisdictions.
Some factors that encourage child marriages include poverty, bride price, dowries, cultural traditions, religious and social pressure, regional customs, fear of the child remaining unmarried into adulthood, and the perceived inability of women to work. Child marriage has lasting consequences on girls, from their health (mental and physical), education, and social development perspectives.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, women around the world were often married at an early age, soon after reaching puberty. These practices carried over well into the 19th century in societies with largely rural populations. Men tended to marry later in societies where a married couple was expected to establish a household of their own. This encouraged men to remain unmarried until they accumulated sufficient wealth to support a new home.
In many ancient and medieval societies, it was common for girls to be betrothed at or even before the age of puberty. In Ancient Greece, early marriage and teenage motherhood for girls existed. Boys were also expected to marry in their teens. In the Roman Empire, girls were married at the age of 12 and boys from the age of 14. In the Middle Ages, under English civil laws derived from Roman laws, marriages before the age of 16 existed. In Imperial China, child marriage was the norm.
Pre-modern Northwest Europe was characterized by relatively late marriages for both men and women, with both sexes commonly delaying marriage until their mid-20s, although the very wealthy, especially aristocrats, married earlier, but they were a minority of the population.
Illustration : The Child Bride, by John Collier
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~ The history of marriage, Arranged marriage part III ~
In some communities, especially in rural parts of the Middle East and South Asia, a woman who refuses to go through with an arranged marriage is suspected of any kind of "immoral" behavior that may be considered to have dishonored her entire family. Male relatives may be ridiculed, and any of the woman's siblings may find it impossible to enter into a marriage. In these cases, killing the woman is a way for the family to enforce the institution of arranged marriages. Unlike cases of domestic violence, honor killings are often done publicly.
Arranged marriages have been categorized into three groups :
Forced arranged marriage: parents or guardians select, the individuals are neither consulted nor have any say before the marriage
Consensual arranged marriage: parents or guardians select, then the individuals are consulted, who consider and consent, and each individual has the power to refuse; sometimes, the individuals meet – in a family setting or privately – before engagement and marriage as in shidduch custom among Orthodox Jews
Self-selected marriage: individuals select, then parents or guardians are consulted, who consider and consent, and where parents or guardians have the power of veto.
Illustration : After the Reception, by Douglas Volk
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~ The history of marriage, Arranged marriage part II ~
Until the first half of the 20th century, arranged marriages were common in migrant families in the United States. They were sometimes called "picture-bride marriages" among Japanese-American immigrants because the bride and groom knew each other only through the exchange of photographs before the day of their marriage.
These marriages among immigrants were typically arranged by relatives from the country of their origin. As immigrants settled in and melded into a new culture, arranged marriages shifted first to quasi-arranged marriages where parents or friends made introductions and the couple met before the marriage; over time, the marriages among the descendants of these immigrants shifted to autonomous marriages driven by individual's choice.
Arranged marriages have declined in countries where forced marriages were politically outlawed (for example in Imperial Russia or Japan) or in a prosperous countries with more social mobility and increasing individualism; nevertheless, arranged marriages might still be seen in countries of Europe and North America, among royal families, aristocrats and minority religious groups such as in placement marriage among Fundamentalist Mormon groups of the United States.
Illustration : Unequal Marriage, by Vasili Pukirev
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~ The history of marriage, Arranged marriage part I ~
Arranged marriage is a type of marital union where the bride and groom are primarily selected by individuals other than the couple themselves, particularly by family members. Sometimes, a professional matchmaker may be used to find a spouse.
Arranged marriages have historically been prominent in many cultures. The practice remains common in many regions, notably the Caucasus, Central Asia, North Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and West Asia. They were very common throughout the world until the 18th century. Typically, marriages were arranged by parents, grandparents or other close relatives and trusted friends.
In China, arranged marriages were the norm before the mid-20th century. A marriage was a negotiation and decision between parents and other older members of two families.
Illustration : The Reluctant Bride, by Auguste Toulmouche
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~ The history of marriage, Japan ~
Traditionally, marriages in Japan were categorized into two types according to the method of finding a partner—omiai, and ren'ai, in which the husband and wife decided to marry on their own.
During the Heian period (794–1185), society was organized by an elaborate system of rank, and the purpose of marriage was to produce children who would inherit the highest possible rank from the best-placed lineage. Aristocrats exchanged letters and poetry for a period of months before arranging to meet after dark. If a man saw the same woman for a period of three nights, they were considered married, and the wife's parents held a banquet for the couple.
During the Edo period (1600-1868), marriage was inextricable from the ie ( "family" or "household"), the basic unit of society with a collective continuity independent of any individual life. Members of the household were expected to subordinate all their own interests to that of the ie, with respect for an ideal of filial piety. Marriages were arranged by the head of the household, to form alliances between families, to relieve the family of its female dependents, to perpetuate the family line, and, especially for the lower classes, to add new members to the family's workforce.
During the Meiji period (1868-1912), upper class customs of arranged marriage steadily replaced the unions of choice that rural commoners had once enjoyed. Rapid urbanization and industrialization brought more of the population into the cities, ending the isolation of rural life. Public education became almost universal between 1872 and the early 1900s, and schools stressed the traditional concept of filial piety, first toward the nation, second toward the household, and last of all toward a person's own private interests.
Illustration : the first contemporary Shinto wedding ceremony, the 1900 marriage of Crown Prince Yoshihito and Princess Kujo Sadako
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~ The history of marriage, Europe part II ~
The average age of marriage for most of Northwestern Europe from 1500 to 1800 was around 25 years of age; 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, and a substantial number of women married for the first time in their thirties and forties, particularly in urban areas, 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.
As part of the 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". In England, under the Anglican Church, marriage by consent and cohabitation was valid until the passage of Lord Hardwicke's Act in 1753. This act instituted certain requirements for marriage, including the performance of a religious ceremony observed by witnesses.
As part of the Counter-Reformation, in 1563 the Council of Trent decreed that a Roman Catholic marriage would be recognized only if the marriage ceremony was officiated by a priest with two witnesses.
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 affirmed their will to marry, to constitute a legally recognized valid and effective marriage.
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~ The history of marriage, Europe part I ~
From the early Christian era (30 to 325 CE) marriage was thought of as primarily a private matter, with no religious ceremony being required.
In 12th-century Europe, women took the surname of their husbands and in the16th century parental consent along with the church's was required for marriage. Until 1545, Christian marriages in Europe were by mutual consent, declaration of intention to marry and upon the subsequent physical union of the parties. The couple would promise verbally to each other and the presence of a priest or witnesses was not required.
One of the functions of churches from the Middle Ages was to register marriages, which was not obligatory, and there was no state involvement in marriage. During the Middle Ages marriages were arranged 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. As Christianity spread during the Roman period and the Middle Ages, the idea of free choice in selecting marriage partners spread with it.
In medieval Western Europe, later marriage and higher rates of celibacy helped to constrain patriarchy. For example, 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; by appearances, marriage of adolescents was not the norm in England. Where the strong influence of classical Celtic and Germanic cultures helped to offset the Judaeo-Roman patriarchal influence, in Eastern Europe the tradition of early marriage, as well as traditional Slavic patrilocal custom, led to a greatly inferior status of women.
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~ The history of marriage, Ancient Rome ~
Marriage in ancient Rome was a fundamental institution of society and was used by Romans primarily as a tool for interfamilial alliances. Marriages helped families to build economic and political bonds. Matrimonium defined the role of wives as mothers (matres) who would produce legitimate children, as heirs to their parents' estates.
During the Republican era, marriage, divorce and adultery were matters dealt with by the families concerned. Falling marriage and birth rates in the Later Republic and early Empire led to state intervention. Adultery was made a crime, for which citizen-women could be punished by divorce, fines and demotion in social status; men's sexual activity was adultery only if committed with a married citizen-woman.
Under Roman law, the pater familias held absolute authority over his children and his wife. His household was thus understood to be under his manus ("hand"). To further the interests of their birth families, sons of the elite should follow their fathers into public life, and daughters should marry into respectable families.
Lawful divorce was relatively informal; the wife took back her dowry and left her husband's house. Roman men had always held the right to divorce their wives; a pater familias could order the divorce of any couple under his manus. .
In the Imperial era, there are several references to same-sex weddings between male partners. These weddings were generally treated with mockery in literary sources. There is no evidence to contradict an interpretation that the men were expressing a meaningful commitment; even so, a quasi marital union between two men would not have been a valid marriage (iustum matrimonium) in Roman law.
Illustration : portrait of the deceased couple, from the upper front side of the Sarcophagus of Stilicho, around 385 CE
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