Argumentative Essay About Family Marriage

The notion of marriage is cross-culturally variable and depends on a range of factors including legality, contractual unions and conjugality. There are various interpretations of the family and the interpretations are deviating further and further away from the traditional concept of family. The family is often used as a blanket term for a general set of relationships that are domestic rather than public. (Comaroff, 1980, Gough, 1993: 182-194, Lyle and Murray, 1980: 112-115 and Pastemak, Ember and Ember, 1997: 77-85; 191-202)

It is generally assumed that a family consists of consanguineal which is known as blood relations and affinal relations which are known as married relationships. There is a misconception that if these aspects are absent,

Monogamy is a marriage consisting of a man and a woman and polygyny is a marriage consisting of one man with more than one woman. The most common type of marriage that the Tibetans engage in is the ‘fraternal polyandry’. In other words, this is when a wife is shared between four or more brothers. This is seen as one of the world’s rarest forms of marriage although it is not uncommon in the Tibetan society. Traditionally, this represents the ideal form of marriage and family. The dynamics of this type of marriage is that the eldest brother takes up the authority position and ultimately manages the household. Although there is a hierarchy when it comes to eldest versus younger brothers, all brothers participate as sexual partners and Tibetan male and females do not find the sexual aspect of sharing their spouse the least bit scandalous or unusual. In the family dynamic, when it comes to the offspring, no matter which brother the child belongs to all the children in that family are treated equally. There is no linking of children biologically to the brother that is their father and there is no favouritism. (Comaroff, 1980, Gough, 1993: 182-194, Lyle and Murray, 1980: 112-115 and Pastemak, Ember and Ember, 1997: 77-85;