Marriage (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what marriage is, its history, the types that exist and other characteristics. Also, what is divorce.

What is marriage?

Marriage or conjugal union is a fundamental social institution, which involves two natural and natural persons. It is the way to make a relationship official and subject it to legal regulations. social, moral and even religious dictated by society.

Marriage is at the same time a legal figure, a social and religious ceremony, and a traditional cultural entity. That is to say, by marriage we can understand different types of social, cultural and legal concepts, depending on the specific tradition of a society and its imaginary.

Thus, marriage is commonly regulated by law (especially to prohibit unions that are culturally considered inappropriate, such as incestuous ones), but it has existed for millennia, with a presence in societies that understood justice and the State in a very different way. to the contemporary.

In fact, the word marriage comes from Latin marriagederived from the union of the words mater (“mother”) and moniaa term that was used to refer to ceremonial or legal situations, as in heritage (“patrimony”, that is, the inheritance that the father leaves when he dies).

This term was used in Ancient Rome to refer to the right of a woman to be the legitimate and recognizable mother of a man's children, which gave her the status of married (not available) and the right to inherit the property left behind. her husband when he died.

Furthermore, marriage is often considered the foundation of society. This is based on the idea that any human society aims to perpetuate the species and protect future generations. To achieve this, a marriage union is proposed.

In short, marriage It is the exclusive union of two individuals who wish to share all their assets and rights. In principle it is about man and woman, since marriage is attributed to the end of human reproduction, but this meaning has changed in modern times.

Marriage history

The history of marriage began with the ways in which ancient cultures celebrated and formalized the union of their kings and noble. It often resulted in dynastic changes, strategic unions or changes in the succession of political power, as the case may be.

At that time, commoners did not celebrate any marriage, as it was not necessary to have sexual relations or to conceive children. In any case, they could do it according to very simple ceremonies.

It was common for commoner unions to involve economic exchange: whoever received the wife also received control of a dowry, belonging to the woman, which could be animals, property or land to start a productive family and support it.

Depending on the culture and religion, marriage could be monogamous (one woman and one man) or polygamous (several women for one man), as in the Eastern tradition. But as we understand it today in the West, The marriage was born in Ancient Rome.

His name was marriage and was subject to certain laws and regulations. It was then assimilated by the nascent Christian culture in which it became a sacred bond, celebrated before God and in accordance with certain rites from the Old Testament, that is, from the Jewish religion.

Thanks to the separation of state and religion that occurred in the West since the end of the Middle Ages, Marriage became more of a legal figure than a religious nexus indissoluble.

This is how civil marriage arose, which allowed people of different religions or those prevented by ecclesiastical law to marry. Divorce was also possible, which allowed the interruption of the marriage, although the Church was slow to recognize it, since their marriage vows are “until death do them part.”

Even more recently, the need for equal marriage or equal civil union arose, depending on the legislation of each country, which allows homosexual couples to formalize their love and access the same rights as heterosexual couples.

The right of homosexual people to marry received enormous resistance from conservative sectors, who still prefer to think of marriage in religious terms and not in legal terms.

Characteristics of marriage

equal marriage — The law of many countries allows same-sex marriage.

Marriage, as we understand it today in the West, is characterized by:

Be a voluntary and lasting legal bond. People can marry only of their own free will, and must do so through a series of legal (and religious, if desired) rites and ceremonies that attest to the validity and legitimacy of the act.
It can be civil and/or religious. Everything depends on the beliefs of the spouses, although the only one valid before the State is the civil one, and the only one valid before the Church is the religious one.
Be monogamous. It involves only two people, who commit to having an exclusive loving and sexual bond (fidelity).
It is traditional and conventional. It is governed by the social, moral and religious conventions and traditions of the community and nation, so it can have marked differences from one region of the world to another.
Create a community of goods. Called “marital community”, it implies that all properties and capital obtained since the beginning of the marriage belong to both spouses equally, which implies a common distribution and the need for arrangements in the event of divorce.

Types of marriage

There are the following types of marriage:

Religious marriage. It involves a set of rites and ceremonies with a strong symbolic component, determined by the type of religion in question: Jewish, Catholic, Islamic, etc. It generally requires that both spouses practice the same faith and is usually much more rigid with its commands and demands.
Civil marriage. It is the legal, secular and juridical counterpart of religious marriage, which is governed by the laws of the State and not by the mandates of religion or morality. Therefore, it is much more permissive on certain occasions and is the only one valid in court.
Equal or homosexual marriage. It is the union between two people of the same sex, under the same terms of heterosexual civil marriage. In some latitudes it is more accepted than in others, and in some it is under a name other than “marriage”, such as “civil union”.
Marriage of convenience. This is the name given to marriages that, in principle, are not born of love but of interest, that is, of an exchange like any other. Marriage for interest is not seen well socially, even though in ancient times all forms of marriage were, in principle, for interest: a prince and a princess used to marry to unify their kingdoms, not because they loved each other, for example.

Importance of marriage

Marriage is a central figure in the constitution of societies. More or less explicitly, All societies have the reproduction of the species as their fundamental principle. and the formation of new families. For this reason, the marriage bond from the beginning has been legally protected and protected by social, moral and cultural customs.

Precisely for that reason, The introduction of new forms of marriage are always controversial: This is a small but significant change in the core idea of society.

For some it means making it broader, more democratic and encompassing the lifestyles that already exist, while for others it means the loss or alteration of ancient values created in a society much earlier and very different from the contemporary one.

Divorce

Divorce is the legal act of interruption of a marriage that is, the legal separation that dissolves the conjugal community (the community of property created by the marriage).

It is carried out according to legally agreed terms, depending on the degree of understanding of the spouses who are about to separate. In some cases, one of the two must sue the other to demand the end of the marriage, and a trial is established.

Divorce, although accepted by some churches, is not related to religion. In many cases, divorced individuals cannot remarry in the church until the death of their former partner occurs, since in the eyes of religion, they are still married to them.

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