The Effect of Money on Frequency of Divorce Essay -- Marriage Divorce

Missing FiguresINTRODUCTIONDespite the fact that divorce is discussed in almost any sociology or anthropology book, no unified explanations for family imbalance are available. Levinson and Malone (1980 69) state that anthropologists have offered little in the way of trus 2rthy, universal explanations for divorce. The differences in cultures, traditions, and practices among societies make it almost impossible to offer general explanations for family instability. The widely held imprint is that when a significant amount of money or property is exchanged, the marriage is more stable. This belief is supported by Minturn et al. (1969 308) findings that absence of bride price, dowry, and gift exchange at marriage make divorce easier. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the presence or absence of a marriage transaction and how marriage payments such as bride wealth and dowry affect the frequency of divorce. Definition of MarriageI began my study by looking for a definition of marriage. For I believe how tribe in these societies view marriage may give me an explanation on why divorce is practiced. Stephens (1963 5) defined marriage as follows . . .is a socially legitimise union, begun with a public announcement and undertaken with some idea of permanence it is assumed with a more or less explicit marriage contract, which spells out trilateral rights and obligations between spouses, and between the spouses and their future children. Similar to Stephens definition, many experts defined marriage as some sort of a permanent relationship between two people. Then, why do societies permit divorce? It can be argued that divorce serves as a way for individuals to get out of abusive and/or hard put marriag... ...r cope with the in-laws and giving the couple more time to spend together to allow more communication. As a result, a dowry or an verificatory dowry is quite effective in reducing the frequency of divorce. BIBLIOGRAPHYCooper, Barbara M. Womens Worth and Wedding Gift Exchange in Maradi, Niger, 1907-89. Journal of African record V36, N1 (Jan, 1995) 121-141.Levinson, David and Martin J. Malone. 1980. Toward Explaining Human Culture A Critical Review of the Findings of Worldwide Cross-cultural Research.Minturn, Leigh, Martin Grosse and Santoah Haider. 1969. Cultural Patterning of Sexual Beliefs and Behavior. Ethnology 8301-318.Stephens, William N. 1963. The Family in Cross-cultural Perspective. New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Tambiah, Stanley J. Bride Wealth and component part Revisited. Current Anthropology V30, N4 (Aug-Oct, 1989) 413-435.