ChatterBank1 min ago
Would the institution of marriage have developed in the absence of religion?
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This question has arisen as a consequence of reading a notion posted by a contributor to a book I was reading. The author suggested that the institution of marriage as we understand it only happened because of religion - but thinking about that, I am not so sure. So what do you think? Would marriage have come about in a hypothetical world absent of any religious thinking?
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Well the other question is what actually is marriage in a non religious context.
People who are cohabitors are not usually thought of as married because they haven't been through a ceremony to advertise the union
Does polyigamy and polyandry count as marriage - if so the 1:1 pairing of animals isn't that good an analogy either! and I'm sure we don't wan't to compare with a pride of Lions.
The idea of marriage is actually a bit slippery
People who are cohabitors are not usually thought of as married because they haven't been through a ceremony to advertise the union
Does polyigamy and polyandry count as marriage - if so the 1:1 pairing of animals isn't that good an analogy either! and I'm sure we don't wan't to compare with a pride of Lions.
The idea of marriage is actually a bit slippery
Just to reiterate - This post came about because I read a comment in an article contributing to a book. The author of the article was suggesting that the idea of marriage as we currently understand it was attributable to religion, and in the absence of religion, all other societal and cultural elements being essentially the same as now, marriage would not happen.
My gut reaction would be that this is incorrect, and that some equivalent to what we recognise as marriage would occur in a society that it is the same as ours except for the lack of religion. Pairing to bring up offspring seems a logical development. I must confess though, that I didnt really consider polyamory / polygamy, nor examples of communal living from the natural world, such as prides of lions, or troupes of meerkats etc.
I just thought the author was reaching a bit, attributing "marriage" to religion ;)
My gut reaction would be that this is incorrect, and that some equivalent to what we recognise as marriage would occur in a society that it is the same as ours except for the lack of religion. Pairing to bring up offspring seems a logical development. I must confess though, that I didnt really consider polyamory / polygamy, nor examples of communal living from the natural world, such as prides of lions, or troupes of meerkats etc.
I just thought the author was reaching a bit, attributing "marriage" to religion ;)
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