REDEFINING MARRIAGE: From the Orange County Register (or maybe the Duluth News-Tribune)

[It makes a reporter's job much easier when he needn't bother quoting anyone who disagrees with him. --E]

...But more than a fixation with getting hitched and unhitched, marriage, in America, is a work in progress.

The term "traditional marriage" might be getting a lot of play, but many social historians (including some who might not personally favor gay marriage) say that, as a matter of historical fact, there is no such thing. Marriage in the United States has been changing for 400 years, responding to everything from shifting gender roles to technology.

Historians who study marriage (a growth industry, by the way) point to three distinct versions of American marriage. Now, with gay marriage in play and with powerful forces pushing men and women to redefine the roles of husband and wife, many think America might be re-creating marriage yet again. Think of it as Marriage 4.0.

"We live at a moment when marriage (is) undergoing a seismic shift," says Steven Mintz, a professor of history at the University of Houston and author of "Domestic Revolutions," a 1988 book that looked at, among other things, the history of marriage in America.

"For a lot of reasons, we've invested more and more expectations into marriage ... at least in terms of emotional fulfillment."

Marriage -- the form we have now, anyway -- is simply unable to meet those expectations."

In China it was once possible to marry a ghost. In some American Indian cultures, a marriage could include animals or elements of nature.

And in some African cultures, as well as some American Indian cultures, homosexual marriage has been tolerated, particularly if the people getting married took on separate gender roles. Apparently, the needs of group survival trumped any free-floating antipathy that may (or may not) have existed toward homosexuality. ...

"Marriage is not going to die," says Coontz. We may in fact continue to increase our standards of fairness and communication.

"Marriage may never again have a virtual monopoly on child rearing. It'll no longer be the only place where ill people and old people get taken care of. But it may be where commitment gets forged even deeper."

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posted by Eve at 7:58 PM | link

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