Early marriage in Bangladesh

Using Matlab demographic surveillance data (HDSS), we assess if misreporting of age at marriage could be contributing to the apparent persistence of early marriage in Bangladesh. A random sample of 1766 women aged 15–29 born in HDSS area was selected. Almost two-thirds misreported their age at marriage, but not randomly—56 percent under-reported while seven percent over-reported their age at first marriage.

Among the currently married group aged 20–24, the reported mean age at first marriage was 16.8 years, comparable to 16.6 years given by Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2011 for the same age group. However a cross-check with their actual dates of birth recorded in the Matlab HDSS database reveals that the true mean age at first marriage was 18.6 years—giving an average difference of almost two years between reported and actual ages at marriage. The paper identifies rising dowry as a likely determinant of age misreporting.     

Concubinage and marriage in medieval canon law

The medieval canon law adopted an ambivaient attitude toward concubinage among the laity. While the canonists disapproved of concubinage on moral grounds, they sought to assimilate the status of the concubine to that of the married woman and thus to legitimize concubinous relationships. In this process of assimilation the canonists made use of the institution of clandestine marriage, which created problems of its own. The crucial difficulty lay in constructing a satisfactory system of proof, so that it would be clear whether or not a given couple should be treated as married, or whether they should be considered legally as unmarried. The Council of Trent abolished lay concubinage and clandestine marriage, but thereby created a system of marriage law flawed with defects almost as serious as those experienced under the medieval law.     

Concubinage and marriage in medieval canon law

The medieval canon law adopted an ambivaient attitude toward concubinage among the laity. While the canonists disapproved of concubinage on moral grounds, they sought to assimilate the status of the concubine to that of the married woman and thus to legitimize concubinous relationships. In this process of assimilation the canonists made use of the institution of clandestine marriage, which created problems of its own. The crucial difficulty lay in constructing a satisfactory system of proof, so that it would be clear whether or not a given couple should be treated as married, or whether they should be considered legally as unmarried. The Council of Trent abolished lay concubinage and clandestine marriage, but thereby created a system of marriage law flawed with defects almost as serious as those experienced under the medieval law.     

Odd bedfellows: Nietzsche and Mill on marriage

This paper examines Nietzsche's views on love and marriage in the works of his middle period. Contrary to the general consensus in the secondary literature regarding Nietzsche's ideas on these matters, it shows that he offers several positive reflections on love and marriage. Indeed, at times he accepts that friendship is possible between the genders and even models marriage on friendship. Modelling marriage on friendship creates an overlap between Nietzsche's thought and that of John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor. However, it is argued here that, albeit for different reasons, none of these visions of marriage as friendship succeeds in fully accommodating sexuality.     

满族民间婚俗回顾

满族入关后,渐渐接受了汉族文化,满汉文化从碰撞走向相互融合.在形成满汉文化融合的同时,满族仍然保留了许多自己的文化特色.其婚姻习俗种种.就是这种文化特色的表现.本文通过对恰喀喇、瓦尔哈、库雅拉等部族的婚俗以及居住在东北地区的满族的水上婚、林中婚等婚姻形式的回顾,论述满族婚姻自然淳朴特色;在回顾满族民间淳朴婚俗的同时,也使我们在研究满族或者是汉族的婚俗之中,看到了满汉历史文化已经互相认同的一面.由此认识到:在几千年的中华历史中,各民族历史文化的相互融合.     

The history of marriage and the myth of Friedelehe

The idea that Friedelehe and Muntehe constituted two distinct forms of Germanic marriage was based upon an attempt to reconstruct common Germanic culture with scraps of evidence from widely different times and places. A thorough re-examination of the sources for the institutions that were posited, based on this now outmoded methodology, reveals no evidence that transfer of Munt, or guardianship, distinguished between two different types of marriage, except perhaps in Lombard Italy, under the influence of Roman law. The idea that marriage with a dos is a different institution from marriage without one is not attested until the Carolingian period.     

Aphra Behn’s first marriage?

ABSTRACT

This article discusses three new documents that seem to pertain to the early life of the Restoration playwright, Aphra Behn. These documents suggest that Behn was betrothed in 1657 to a gentleman named John Halse; that she corresponded from London in the mid 1660s with William Scot, son of the parliamentarian and regicide Thomas Scot; and that, after her journey to Flanders as a spy, she borrowed money from the Devonshire Butler family to facilitate her return to England. Providing new contexts for Behn’s development as a playwright, these documents not only help to revise our understanding of Behn’s early life, but open opportunities for further research and discoveries.