Ghost marriage
The never practice the ghost marriage. When a man dies before he has had the chance to marry and produce sons for his lineage, his younger brother must first marry a woman in the name of his dead elder brother before he can himself marry. The children and the wife of this union belong to the dead sibling. In fact it is considered improper for the younger brother of the dead man to have taken a wife for himself first before he discharged this obligation to his elder siblings who was dead.
Woman marriage
Woman marriage is known to occur among the Igbo Eastern Nigeria, a woman who had massed wealth may take a wife and raise children especially sons for their father’s house.
Certain considerations about woman marriage are as follows:
· The husband wife relationship is social not sexual
· Children of wife are considered as the legitimate off spring of her female husband who is biologically a woman but socially a man and the descent of her father continues.
· The husband wife relationship is social not sexual
SELF ASSESSM ENT EXERCISE 6
What do you think about cohabitation as a form of marriage?
Marriage regularizes the link between the spouses. During the onsets of marriage; there arises a near set of social and kinship relations with their attendant inventory of reciprocal rights an obligation. Spouses become related to these and to the kins of their spouse through affinal ties. Through the new relations brought about by marriage, both sides gain although the gain may not be balanced. In considering the reciprocal right and obligations in marriage we also observe the importance of the transfer of property and exchange of goods.
In several African societies, one has to be married and have children to qualify as an ancestor. Everyone in such societies aspires, therefore, to get married at the appropriate time.
The institution of marriage enables a child to have a socially recognized mother and a socially recognized father, whether or not the emphasis in a given society is a on the pater or genitor. From the viewpoint of kinship relationships, marriage provides the child with a lineage, the father if the society is patrilineal, and the mother if the society is matrilineal.
Marriage serves to give the husband and, we may add in the Africa context, his kinship group – a monopoly of the wife, a monopoly of the husband sexuality. It also serves to give the husband partial or monopolistic right to the wife’s domestic and other labour service, and to give to the wife partial or monopolistic rites to the husband labour services.
Through marriage, the husband (and his lineage group) also have partial or total rights over property belonging or accruing to the wife. In matrilineal societies, however, this may be an extremely complicated matter. The wife has similar claims on the husband’s property.
In the African context, however, some societies do not see these rights as automatic.
Cultural rules may dictate who inherits the right and responsibilities, including the children and wife, in place where levirate (marriage to kinsmen’s widow) is the rule.
3.7.1 Marriage: Formalizing and Intimate Relationship
So much conflict seems to be involved in marriage, and so many marriages break up,that its fair task why so many people marry in the first place. The answer is simple: marriage
culture. There are many important social, moral, economic, political, and other aspects of marriage, although these have changed over the years. In the past, people married mainly for piratical economic and social purposes, such as rising children and rendering service to each other and socially. Today, people marry more for personal, emotional reasons. This shift in emphasis places a greater burden on marriage to fulfill needs and expectations, sometimes unreasonably high ones. Let’s look more closely at some of the personal aspects of marriage.
Benefit of marriage. The primary functions and benefits of marriage are those of intimate relationship affection, personal affirmation, companionship, sexually fulfillment, and emotional growth. Marriage also provides a nurturing setting in which to care for and socialize children, although a growing number of couple choose to remain childless.
Raising children places enormous additional demands on a couples time, energy, and financial resources, especially since society delegates to parent the primary responsibility for their children’s physical, emotional, social, and moral well-being and development.
Marriage is also important for its provision for the future. By committing themselves to remain together through good times and bad, men and women provide themselves with lifelong companions with whom to share the joys and sorrows of life. They also provide themselves with some insurance for their later years, when they may be ill or have other problems. Many couple arrives at a new appreciation of the benefits of marriage in their later years, when they can again enjoy the affection and companionship that brought them together at the beginning of their marriage.
The intimate relationship over the life cycle of the marriage. A marriage relationship isn’t static, even though we have been led to believe that the prince and princess imply lives happily ever after. Sometimes, relationship loses their vitality, becoming meaningless and frustrating. Sometimes they grow more vital, becoming profoundly satisfying and meaning full.
At first two different individuals must make many marital adjustments as they learn to live with one another. They have to adjust to each other personal habits, learn to give and receive affection and love, work out their preferred modes of sexual expression, decide on
a division of labor, adjust their social relationships with friends and family, develop ways of making decisions, and address many other tasks of marriage. Parenthood bring new set of adjustments – shifting the focus of family emotion and activities, learning the care of a child, working out child care arrangements, making career decisions.
Parent must adjust further to each change in the family constellation or life cycle. Whether it is the birth of years, middle age, divorce, the death of a spouse, the birth of grandchildren, old age. Many studies and surveys show that all these factors affect marital happiness and satisfaction in generally consistent and predictable ways. I general, marital satisfaction is high at the beginning of marriage, drops during the child-rearing years when demands are greatest, and rises again after the last child has left home.
SELF ASSESSM ENT EXERCISE 7
Mention one major significance of marriage.