NUPTIALITY

Submitted byNitti Pathak

MBA(SEM-1)

MARRIAGE
Legal union of persons of opposite sex.
Marriage (also called matrimony or wedlock) is a
socially or ritually recognized union or legal contract
between spouses that establishes rights and obligations
between them, between them and their children, and
between them and their in-laws. The definition of
marriage varies according to different cultures, but it is
principally an institution in which interpersonal
relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged. In
some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered
to be compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity.
When defined broadly, marriage is considered a cultural
universal.
Individuals may marry for several reasons, including
legal, social, libidinal, emotional, financial, spiritual, and
religious purposes. Who they marry may be influenced
by socially determined rules of incest, prescriptive
marriage rules, parental choice and individual desire. In
some areas of the world arranged marriage, child
marriage, polygamy, and sometimes forced marriage,
may be practiced as a cultural tradition.
The legality of the union may be established by civil,
religious, or other means as recognized by the laws of
each
Consensual UnionEstablishment of a marital union
without recorded legal sanction.
Marriage law:
Rights and obligations

A marriage bestows rights and obligations on the

married parties, and sometimes on relatives as well,
being the sole mechanism for the creation of affinal ties
(in-laws). These may include, depending on jurisdiction:
Giving a husband/wife or his/her family control
over a spouse's sexual services, labor, and
property.
Giving a husband/wife responsibility for a spouse's
debts.
Giving a husband/wife visitation rights when
his/her spouse is incarcerated or hospitalized.
Giving a husband/wife control over his/her spouse's
affairs when the spouse is incapacitated.
Establishing the second legal guardian of a
parent's child.
Establishing a joint fund of property for the benefit
of children.
Establishing a relationship between the families of
the spouses.
Property regime:
In many countries today, each marriage partner has the
choice of keeping his or her property separate or
combining properties. In the latter case, called
community property, when the marriage ends by
divorce each owns half. In lieu of a will or trust,
property owned by the deceased generally is inherited
by the surviving spouse.
Marriage restrictions:
Marriage is an institution that is historically filled with
restrictions. From age, to race, to social status, to

consanguinity, to gender, restrictions are placed on

marriage by society for reasons of benefiting the
children, passing on healthy genes, maintaining cultural
values, or because of prejudice and fear. Almost all
cultures that recognize marriage also recognize
adultery as a violation of the terms of marriage.
The marriage rate:
The frequency or incidence of marriage within a
population
The social institution involving legal and /or religious
sanction whereby men and women are joined together
for the purpose of funding a family unit
Marriage rate:
The number of marriages per thousand population or
the number of persons married per thousand
population in a given year.
Also called as the crude marriage rate.
MR=no. of marriages/ total population*k
Data was collected according to standard protocol
regarding age, sex, age at marriage and effect of
epilepsy on marriage, type of seizure and control,
fertility pattern and abortions.
Many demographers to study nuptiality with regard to
proportions single, age at marriage, age at widowhood,
divorce rate and so on.
Median age at first marriage

 Half the people marrying for the first time in a

given year got married before the median age, half
after.
The median age at first is usually computed
separately for males and female typically marry at
younger ages.
The median age at first marriage has been an
effect on the populations fertility.

Studies :
Mostly aggregate level based on National censuses
Sample survey
Previous studies focussed on this particular state dealt
primarily with the formation of union, and factors
influencing the age at marriage.
Thus, the other domain of nuptiality, i.e. widowhood
and remarriages remain neglected which are of equal
importance in the demographic research.
India has one of the largest population in the
younger age groups in the world.
35.3% of the population of the country has been in
the age group 0-14 years at the census 2001.

 41% of the population accounts for less than 18

years of age.
Standardization of nuptiality rates
Most of the marriage measures can and should be
standardized for comparisons
Can be done by direct or indirect method
Used for comparative marriage analyses
Example: Age-standardized first marriage rate of
the U.S. (1960), using England and Wales (1961) as
standard-direct method
Factors affecting nuptiality
Factors affecting timing and prevalence of nuptiality:
Feasibility
Desirability
Availability of mates
Gross Nuptiality Table
Assumes no person dies before passing through
the marriageable ages
Same techniques as in life table construction
Allows one to determine what proportion of a
cohort of single persons would be married at
various ages assuming that the marriage rates
used continues to prevail and there is no mortality
Net Nuptiality Table
Takes into account mortality as well as marriage
Indicates the pace at which a group of single
persons is decreased annually by marriage and
death

 Also gives the probability of a single person

marrying at each year of age according to the
current nuptiality and mortality rates
Provides information on the average age at
marriage
Multiple-decrement life table techniques are
needed
Keeleys explanation
The gains from marriage as suggested by Beckers
theory of marriage includes: high income,
household produced commodities such as children,
prestige, recreation and so on.
The variables included in the Keeleys explanation
of gain to marriage are relative wage rates,
education, urbanisation, income, race, liberal
divorce laws and so on.
Keeley observed that female education and male
wages affect te gain to marriage ad lead to
increased variance in the age distribution of first
marriage.
In analysing the relationship between sex ratio at
marriage
The availability of prospective spouses is
apparently a significant factor in research only
when operative marriage markets have been
properly identified
The availability of potential spouses, which is
defined in terms of endogamous cultural or class
groups, and

 Aspects of social change that influence both sex

ratio and age at marriage.
Divorce
DivorceSeparation of the husband and wife by a
judicial decree which confers on the parties the right to
remarriage.
Crude Divorce Rate
Crude Divorce RateNumber of divorces per 1,000
population
Crude divorce rate=Div/P *1000
Where Div = Number of divorces
P = Mid-year population
General Divorce Rate
General Divorce RateNumber of divorces per 1,000
persons age 15 and more
General divorce rate= Div/P15 *1000
Where, Div =Number of divorces
P15+ = Mid-year population 15 and older
Standardization of Divorce Rates
Crude and general divorce rates can be
standardized
Can be done by direct or indirect method
Used for comparative divorce analyses

Summary

 Marital status provides a static

representation of the population with respect
to its marital composition
Measures on marriage focus on the dynamic
aspect
Marriage information are mainly derived from
vital statistics whereas marital status is
primarily analyzed from census and survey
data
Marriage rates directly measure changes in
population composition characteristics rather
than changes in population size
But if the change in population size is
considered a function of the broader process
of reproductionwhich in most societies
occurs through formation of familiesthen
the rates of family formation and dissolution
are part of population dynamics
Measures on marriage and divorce focus on
the dynamic aspect
Divorce information is mainly derived from
vital statistics
Divorce rates measure changes in population
composition characteristics rather than
changes in population size