WILL THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE SURVIVE?

EVOLUTION OF MARRIAGE; MODERN TRENDS IN MARRIAGE, INCREASING NUMBER OF JUDICIAL SEPARATION OR DIVORCE & CONCLUSION

Evolution of Marriage: The first human beings, who lived between  5 and 1.8 million years ago, had very little use for marriage. Using the behaviour of Bonobos, a species of Chimpanzees in the Congo belt, as the basis for how early humans would have behaved, it is presumed that males and females, in their nomadic lives, had sex with many partners. Special food sharing was principally in exchange for sexual favours. Because females could collect food - fruits, nuts and insects, while still carrying and protecting their babies, males were not needed as protectors or providers. That meant that in this period, neither partner gained from being in a committed pair.

 

Much later, the women performed most of the farming and the more menial domestic tasks while the men did the fighting and continued to hunt. But as agriculture became more complex and brought larger rewards, the stronger sex wrested more and more of it into their own hands. The concept of marriage was to create a legal contract by which a man could acquire a female slave.

 

As the climate warmed and the forests receded, humans began to move out into the savannah, (grassy plain in tropical and subtropical region,) where their diet consisted of gathered vegetation, and meat killed by hunters using tools. A more meat-based diet meant that babies were born earlier, requiring more care from their mothers. In this period, (between 1.8 million and 23,000 years ago,) the males and females whose offsprings were most likely to survive were those that formed at the very first marriages. 

 

These may not have been marriages in the way that we think of marriages today, but couples in this period would probably have stayed together for about three or four years before one, or the other, would wander off to start another family. (Perhaps not coincidentally, this is exactly the length of time at which divorce rates peak in modern day marriages.)

 

About 23,000 years ago, humans started to grow their own food, revolutionizing human relations. The invention of the plough over 4,000 years ago meant that the most productive household arrangements were ones in which men and women divided their tasks. Men were stronger and less physically tied to children and so they went out and worked on the land. Women stayed closer to the home and cared for children and engaged in a myriad of other chores. 

 

This is the era in which marriage became the union between two people that was recognized by their community. Agriculture tied people to their land, meaning that at the end of the four-year period neither men nor women had any inclination to wander off to find a new family. And so they stayed together and worked as a unit to feed and care for the children they produced. 

 

The creation of marriage as a legal contract between men and women came into being over time as communities settled on what was a “normal” way for them to organize a family and then codified that normalcy into law.

 

For example, if it was the norm within the group that men and women were responsible for feeding and caring for their own children. Then laws were created that gave men some assurance that the children they were raising were their own and women some assurance that their husband would not leave them destitute.

 

So, the concept of marriage was not to create a legal contract that made it possible for men to acquire female slaves. But the origin of marriage came from the biological desire of both men and women to see their children survive.

 

Religious philosophy: According to Hindu tradition, marriage is an instrument for the pursuance of higher goals of life, rather than a means for personal sexual gratification. Christianity went a step further and said, “Marriage is a voluntary union of one man and one woman for life to the total exclusion of all others.” Hence, there is no provision for divorce in Christian Law and only judicial separation could be obtained from a Family Court in India.

 

Ester Boserup, a French lady, author of Woman's Role in Economic Development 1970, proposed that the high incidence of polygamy in sub-Saharan Africa is rooted in the sexual division of labour in hoe-farming and the large economic contribution of women. Islam did not invent the system of polygamy. It existed from the early dawn of human history. Islam put a limit to the number of wives that a person can have — a maximum of four wives at a time. Islam put stringent conditions on a person who wanted to marry a second wife; he must be able to provide and maintain the family, and also deal with both on basis of justice and fairness. Islam is a practical religion; its laws are in line with human nature. It does not deny the natural forces in humans; rather it confronts them and provides guidance to control them without disrupting the peace in society.

 

Historically, premarital sex was considered a moral issue which was taboo in many cultures and considered a sin by a number of religions. But since about the 1960s, it has become more widely accepted, especially in Western countries. The studies show that more than two-thirds of young people have had sexual intercourse while still in their teens. Almost all Western governments have forbidden polygamy; but adultery is most rampant in these very countries. In spite of all attempts to promote monogamous relationships, many married men have extra-marital affairs resulting in higher divorce rates, broken families and children growing up without fathers. Lurvey, of the Family Law Section of American Bar Association said, “We are going from monogamy to something called serial monogamy and we have no rules and guidelines; we’re groping in the dark for how to conduct our lives.”

 

On September 27, 2018, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, scrapped Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, since it violates the constitutional concepts of gender equality.. “Adultery is no more a criminal offence in India.”

 

MODERN TRENDS IN MARRIAGE, INCREASING NUMBER OF JUDICIAL SEPARATION OR DIVORCE:

The judicial separation or formal divorce is the ending of a marital union. The increasing number of divorce rates especially in western countries is alarming. It is a sign of social and moral disruption with a potential to shatter the family institution and the foundations of society itself.

 

The clamour for women's rights in a lot of Western societies and among the elite Indians is gradually increasing. The woman is steadily getting empowered; she is going out to work, entertaining herself at clubs and hotels, she has her independent thought process, she has her likes and dislikes, she has financial, emotional and sexual freedom. The materialistic attitude and the craving for financial independence are the main reasons that contributed to the drastic change in women’s thinking process. One school of thought celebrates these trends as signalling increased individual liberty and the loosening of suffocating social mores. They say that when two adults who feel equally free in this world attempt to live together for a few decades, disagreements are bound to happen. They say that the reason behind divorce rates is not an unhealthy trend, but a healthy trend in an egalitarian society. However, the other school of thought deplores it stating that these trends defeat the purpose of creation of the institution of marriage, which is founded on sacrifice by the parents for the survival of the children born out of wedlock.

 

The institution of marriage will be heavily crippled in the decades to come, as women and men approach equality. Emotional and psychological strength and the inclination for sacrifice is gradually decreasing in both genders because of a renewed definition of personal freedom that is more about “absolute freedom” where one doesn't feel the need of restrictions at all. Despite how one utilizes their sexual freedom, the need of one permanent partner is an emotional necessity, and after a particular age, one does feel that need in life. And that genuine need of a spouse is what will drive marriages in the future, unlike the need to fulfill a social obligation to be married after a certain age, as it stands today. It is significant to note that marriage is no longer needed for children to survive, and therefore, now the moot question is, do we still need marriage? 

 

CONCLUSION: Everything, including faith and the institution of marriage, which had a beginning (birth) and growth has an ending too. The ending is certain but we cannot predict the time. Communism, an offshoot of Christianity, has gone astray. The vanishing of Berlin-Wall, the fall of the Soviet Union and the reforms in China confirm the same. This is a natural rule of law.

Excerpts from

NEED OF THE HOUR

By

Joseph J. Thayamkeril,

Lawyer, Cochin

josephjthayamkeril@gmail.com memoirs

josephjthayamkeril.blogspot.com

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