Tracing matrimony
Has marriage evolved with the ever-evolving human species?
The history
As men started living in groups, societies developed. As societies developed the roles and functions of it's member's developed. Earlier societies of more than a 10,000 years back had simple societies without complex structures or hierarchies. The role of men and women were simple and basic. The men hunted for food and the women cooked it. Their needs were basic, as was the need-fulfillment. In primitive societies, sex was seen as a basic urge and slowly developed as a weapon for subjugation for women. A woman was "scored" or "won" or "subjugated" with the act of sex.
It was when societies started getting structured that the concept of marriage as a ceiling under which a man and woman live together and procreate, emerged. As societies began to get complex, with hierarchies and diversification of roles, problems surfaced. Ancient societies in Africa, India, Inca civilizations (amongst others) dealt with double problems of inheritance and recording legitimacy of children.
Fundamentally, marriage as an institution, a raw version of what it is today, was initiated for sociological reasons. The legitimacy of children, family-building, families being seen as core units of societies were some of the reasons. According to the Marxist theory of history, marriage evolved from the economic point of view of inheritance, heir-ship and reception of titles in clans. It was the economic aspect of marriages that brought into existence concepts such as bride-price, dowry etc.
Politics and Marriage
With the onset of the imperial system of political governance the hierarchical structures of societies became more complex. Identification of heirs assumed a larger significance. A summation of an Athenian court of law said, "We have call girls for our pleasure, mistresses for the refreshment of our bodies, and wives to bear legitimate children and keep our house." The use of the word legitimate suggests an interest of the State in recognising marriage and giving it a socio-political acceptance. There is a lot of evidence, which shows how the earliest Greeks laid a lot of emphasis on legitimacy of children.
The advancement of royalty in play with a sociological institution like marriage made it also a political weapon in the hands of the State. Marriages were done to appease enemies, as signatures of amalgamations of kingdoms; daughters were given away (in marriage) as gifts and so forth. All these were considered the norm rather than the exception of imperial governance in civilizations like Vedic India, Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt from way back in 3000 BC even upto the 18th century.
Religion
As religion became dominant as a daily ritual and added to the mainstream of society the focus shifted to the subject of spirituality. It is Judaism or Hebraism that first called the physical union of a man and woman in matrimony as spiritual, and sanctified it by saying it was an injunction from the divine. As religion sought to instill a code of behavior in an individual, it devised morals and values systems around the act of marriage and thus sought to give it more meaning and purpose in an individual's life.
Marriage and having a family were considered sacred duties of an individual in the Judaic doctrine. In the age of Christianity, marriage was no longer a means to identify offspring for fair inheritance. It was no longer a weapon to appease political enemies. It was now a part of the seven necessary sacraments - the completion of which would help man attain heaven. Islam built on this further but added pragmatism, which was the need of the hour for the people whose redemption it was.
The coming of organised religion (Hebraism / Judaism is the oldest organised religion) brought in concepts of morality that remain integral to the concept of marriage till today.
Though monogamy as a concept existed long before the advent of religion, it had only practical value. Polygamy and polyandry co-habited in various societies peacefully. In the Vedic scriptures as well as Greco-Roman times, there have been examples of polygynous men and polyandrous women who are not thought of as immoral for the fact of it. Organised religion gave monogamy and polygamy the moral overtones we perceive them with today.
Marriage is for the State simply a license to two citizens to beget children. The fall out of it was that the institution became a lot more institutionalised. (George Bernard Shaw)
The role of governance and matrimony
As royalty declined and political governance became ideological rather then imperial, the concept of marriage was chiseled further. Governments partially sought to do what religion had done. It further shaped the nature of marriage with a set of rules to give it's citizen rights and duties within the institution and a warning of reprieval / trial at any instance of cheating. The introduction of legal policies addressing the ethics of monogamy, dowry, legalizing procedures etc was considered ground-breaking at that time. These laws were derived from religious and socially accepted mores and all the governments did was to codify them.
In the 20th century the world entered the modern era and things were never the same as they used to be. Societal values went through serious upheavals because of precarious political situations the world over. In these modern and trying times arose another concept that redefined marriage and that was "love". Love as an emotion was never considered necessary or expected in marriage in the past. Up to this point, "love" and "marriage" were viewed as mutually exclusive issues. It was in the modern times that love was started to be seen as a precursor or necessary condition for marriage. There is a mention in the Vedic scriptures, when Manu qualifies one of his types of marriages as a result of lustful impulses, the Gandharva Vivaah. But this kind of alliance neither got an approval from society nor was it considered a norm. Hence it was more of an exception, which did not gain popularity with those times.
Marriage in our lives
We are now at the threshold of another change. Post-industrialisation and growing commercialisation has led to estrangement of not only individuals from each other but from their values that haves shaped them. Drastic lifestyle changes have led to drastic thought-process changes. Marriage is seeing more dissenters then it ever has in it's entire history. Marriage is gaining more dissectors and the institution is largely being seen as defunct, something that kills individuality, freedom and a tool to subjugate the female of our species. Concepts of monogamy, sanctity of the union, faithfulness, roles etc., everything has come into question. The institution is also facing issues specific to the economics and physics of our times. With both of the couple working the terms and dynamics of the marriage has changed. Not to mention gender roles. A wider berth to feminism has seen some marriage related gender roles taking a complete u-turn with the concept of house-husbands. Liberation from gender roles and stereo-typical definitions of marriage has also led to the concept being seen as the union of two strong and equal individuals rather then a man-woman based equation. It is no doubt it is still a popular institution though there are sections of societies that see the institution largely as defunct, something that kills individuality, freedom and a tool to subjugate the female of our species. Having come this far, it is a logical conclusion that the institution has evolved with the ever-evolving human species. As an institution which deals with a constantly evolving species, this institution has dynamically kept pace with it's tenants. Whether it will lead the species into a more evolved existence or vice-versa remains to be seen.
What do you feel is the most important era in shaping the institution of marriage to what it is today?
