"Currently, the institution of marriage steadily expanded. Anomie, the negation of the traditional system of values, affecting the credibility of marital and family ties. Western society is undergoing a profound spiritual crisis. " Such statements we hear constantly. Youth crime grows, art degenerates - here are some other aspects of the terms that follow people, believing that everything was better before, and the "golden age" has already expired. The belief in a blessed past as unpromising in the annex to the study of social phenomena, as well as painful dreams of the future, implying that all new, by definition, better than the old.

Attitudes toward marriage and the family has undergone a process of historical development of many metamorphoses. This is characteristic of all social institutions. For us it is important that the structure of marriage is not immutable and that the attitude to him during the Zurich reformer Zwingli differed from the positions that deal in such matters contemporaries Rudolf Brun in XII. In other words, the anatomy of marital life a rich merchant family of Louis XIV in many respects similar to the constitution of marriage is not successful businessman in contemporary Paris.

In Christian countries before the Reformation, divorces are rare, and in the circles of staunch Catholics and Protestants, this situation persisted until recently. However, this does not indicate that the institution of marriage in the past had any special advantages or disadvantages, which have been lost today. Union, there is "up until death do us part", as stated in the famous oath to support and which we now demand that the bride and groom, in past years from a legal point of view, looked much as more serious than at present.

Nevertheless, the postulate of indissoluble marriage in the Christian West is often served as a stern facade of adultery. In the aristocratic circles of Europe has always been taken to have a lover or a mistress, and in Catholic countries did not allow divorce, such as Italy, the couple often lived apart, and actually shared a bed, food, shelter, and were a common household with a "friend" or "girlfriend" . As for the origin of marriage, in this regard the views of scientists disagree. Some anthropologists suggest that humans originally lived in a large community that was more like the herd, any man could engage in coitus with any woman, and the fact that the relationship between sexual intercourse and pregnancy escape the attention of our ancestors, men's role in conceiving a child is not attached irrelevant; children were brought up all the herd. Family, marriage, mono-or polygamous communities - secondary education.

Other scientists believe that marriage and family were typical of people from the very beginning, explaining his opinion that many mammals "support marriage, monogamous or polygamous, - does not matter. Consequently, male, surrounded by a crowd of females and cubs, transformed into a symbol of the primary social structure of the human community.

The origins of marriage

Where to find the origins of marriage: the sexual desire, procreation, or in close connection with the emergence of private property rights? For each historical period characterized by their shape, justify marriage and relationship to it. For example, the ancient Persians, like the law-abiding citizen of the Third Reich, married to beget warriors to his lord, the king and the Fuhrer. Births to play a fundamental role in conjugal relations with many nations, although not always it was a "production soldiers." Thus, Abraham, with the consent of his wife conceived a child for sexual intercourse with the servant Hagar. This was explained by the fact that Sarah was barren.

Even now, when the nations of the earth are integrated due to technological advances, the organization and the concept of marriage reveal very significant differences, but the family is created by different criteria. Yes, freedom of choice of heart, marrying for love or sex under the influence of sympathy spread ever wider, but this is hardly touched all the great nations of the world. In India still 80% of marriages arranged by parents, and the romantic hopes of future spouses to come true too often. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that such unions are no worse and no better than so-called European marriage for love.

Buying a wife prevalent among many peoples, and the abduction of women is less common, allowable number of husbands and wives in different regions and different cultures. Our definitive monogamy - just one of many forms of cohabitation. Polygamy is still common in Africa and Asia. Polyandry, polyandry, according to the researchers, is also still in vogue. In addition, there are mixed forms, synthesizing polyandry and polygyny.

Ethnologists describe every imaginable and unimaginable kinds of family and marriage. In some countries, young married couple moved to her husband's parents, and others - to his wife's parents. According to one law, the husband has complete authority over his wife, not having only one right - to take her life. Under other laws - the main role for his wife. There matriarchy and patriarchy. It happens that men live separately after marriage, and meet with their wives only on certain days, the household is sometimes separately, sometimes together, in some countries, spouses are required a mandatory minimum of sexual intercourse, while others - the law of their limits.

Extreme expression of ideas is indissoluble marriage is the practice of killing and burning of widows, symbolizing that even after the death of her husband's wife keeps him faithful. Perhaps the most peculiar form of conjugal life described by ethnologists presents a situation where parents give their daughter, it is quite ripe girl to marry a little boy. Given that sexual activity with minors husband is practically impossible, the wife can have a lover and children about him. When the spouse reaches puberty, experienced wife teaches him the lesson of an intimate relationship, and several years later her husband, in turn, takes a mistress in a woman, married with a child, and so on to infinity.

Consequently, the modern European attitude to marriage does not coincide with the views of the marriage of other people, so take a phrase like "Family - the first cell of human society," "Father, mother and child constitute the natural community" and so forth as a postulate does not follow. Animals that are characterized by strictly defined "family" structure, from generation to generation instinctively reproduce them as is, but people are going wrong. Moreover, marriage and family - in fact quite "unnatural", not related to instincts, are created intentionally, and therefore - at the root of artificial, ie marriage diverse, volatile, artificial. It is in connection with this artificiality there are so many historical and ethnic versions of married life.

It may be objected that the search for some other environment for raising children is meaningless as long as we have a family - a natural union of mother and father, the people closest to the baby. Indeed, why reinvent the wheel? If parents do not cherish their offspring (a similar concern - the foundation of the family), then mankind would have long since died out, is not it? Following the logic of this argument, we can conclude that the physical and mental health of the child is directly related to the atmosphere in his family, and any marital conflict painfully responds to child. Thus, observing a marriage with a child's perspective, the researchers conclude that this structure in its ideal form is extremely natural and is greatly needed.