Wedding:

Marriage is the approved social pattern by which two or more people establish a family. It implies not only the right to conceive and raise children, but also a series of other obligations and privileges that affect a good number of people.

The real meaning of marriage is the acceptance of a new state, with a new set of privileges and obligations, and the recognition of this new state by others. A legal marriage legitimizes a social status and creates a set of legally recognized rights and duties.

Marriage is one of the oldest socially recognized institutions and essential for the procreation of children and the satisfaction of our sexual urges. In different societies there are different methods of marriage. Some societies allow a man to marry only one wife, while other societies allow a husband to have more than one wife. Similarly, some societies will not allow a woman to have more than one husband, while other societies will not care that a woman have more than one husband. In some cases, the parents arrange the marriage, while in others the boys and girls arrange their marriage.

Definition of marriage: Marriage is a term for the social relationships of husband and wife or plural spouses. It is also used for the marriage ceremony of the spouses.

Partner selection:

It refers to the finding of a spouse by a man and a woman. There are two methods given like:

1. Exogamy: When a person marries outside of their group, caste, religion, class or race. Exogamy is attributed to him. In modern times, this marriage is mainly practiced.
2. Inbreeding: When a person marries within their group, caste, religion, class or race. It is known as inbreeding. This type of marriage is practiced mainly in rural areas of Pakistan, Afghanistan.

Form of marriage

Different societies have different views on the social recognition and approval of marriage. That is the reason why we find different marriages. The main types of marriage are given below:

1. Monogamy: A person can marry once.
2. Polygamy: The person (man or woman) can marry more than once.
3. Polygyny: A husband is allowed to have more than one wife at the same time.
4. Polyandry: A woman marries more than one man at the same time.
5. Fraternal polyandry: When a woman is considered and treated as the wife of all the brothers living in the family and the offspring is considered as the son / daughter of the older brother.
6. Non-fraternal polyandry: In this way, it is assumed that a woman has more than one husband.
7. Group marriage: Brothers must marry sisters who live together.
8. Experimental marriage: In such a marriage, the couple must be able to meet and mingle and meet freely to understand each other before getting married.
9. Inter-caste marriage: A man marries a woman of a caste. Like in India.
10. Anuloma: When upper caste men are allowed to marry lower caste women it is called anuloma.
11. Pratiloma: When higher caste women marry lower caste men they are called Pratiloma.
12. Hyper-gamy and hypo-gamy: A man who belongs to the nobility can marry a woman of lower social status called Hyper-gamy. But when a woman of higher social status marries a man of lower social status it is called hypo-gamy.
13. Sororate Marriage: If the wife dies. After death, the husband marries the sister of this deceased wife.
14. Levirate marriage: When the husband dies. After death, the wife marries her late husband’s brother.
15. Marriage by elopement: If a boy and a girl run away and marry against the choice of their parents. They marry in court or elsewhere.
16. Compassionate marriage: The dissolution of the marriage by mutual consent, for not having children.
17. Arranged marriage: Marriage, which is arranged with the consent of both parents.
18. I love marriage: The system under which young people themselves select their life partners is called love marriage.
19. Swara marriage: It is a common marriage in Pukhtoon society.

Functions of marriage

1. Social recognition: Marriage gives social recognition to all sexual relationships, which would otherwise have many social problems. Marriage alone makes society accept the relationship of boy and girl, as husband and wife.
2. Procreation of children: So another function of marriage is to have legitimate children; Children born as a result of a socially recognized marriage are accepted by society as legitimate and legal heirs to property and other assets of the family.
3. Sense of sympathy: After marriage alone, the husband, wife, and their children develop a sense of sympathy for each other and begin to share each other’s joys and sorrows. They sacrifice for the good of others.
4. Family base: So another function of marriage is that it is the foundation of family life. As we all know, after marriage the family is born and with it the virtues of all family life emerge in society.
5. Stability in the relationship: After marriage alone, relationships arise, for example, the relationship of husband and wife, son or daughter, father-in-law and mother-in-law or that of grandfather and grandmother, etc. These relationships stabilize over time but only after marriage but not before marriage.
6. Lineage perpetuation: It is after marriage that there is a desire to perpetuate the family name. The children perpetuate the names of their parents and then come grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. After a while, then there is a desire to perpetuate the family lineage and if at any stage of the family there are no scions, then everything is done to have then, so that the family name continues.

In this way, each family has very important and basic functions to perform. Without these functions, our entire social system would fail and lead to many social problems. So marriage has only helped maintain high moral standards that any society can be truly proud of.