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K4YZ wrote:
wrote:
K4YZ wrote:
In fact, it has become common for people to have multiple
spouses, just not simultaneously. There was a time when
divorce carried an enormous social stigma and was made
legally difficult in most places. That's all changed.
Yes, it has...and it shouldn't have, but then that's a
trade-off to
civility that we surrendered for the "Sexual Revolution"
in the 60's.
Please explain "tradeoff to civility"?
As for the sexual revolution, I'd say the climb in divorce rates
is/was much more connected to women's liberation and changing
expectations.
And here's a fun fact: The divorce rate in the USA tends to be
*highest* in the "red/conservative/Bible Belt" states, and *lowest* in
the "blue/liberal/leftcoast/eastcoast" states.
Perhaps that is because some of the conservatives push too hard on their
children to "save themselves" for marriage so they rush into marriage
without knowing their partner well enough? Of course this is just
speculation, but an idea to consider.
Another possibility is that in the "blue/liberal/leftcoast/eastcoast"
groups, it is OK simply to live together and when they break up, there is no
need for divorce since they were never married in the first place.
I think I remember reading that Margaret Meade had proposed a system where
there would be a "trial marriage" for a period of time before having a
regular marriage. If I remember correctly, the trial marriage would have an
automatic expiration and one would have to go through the marriage ceremony
or whatever to continue the marriage. The idea being that one could better
determine if this was the person with whom they really wanted to spend the
rest of their life. I've always thought the idea had some merit.
One way or another, marriage customs grow out the needs of the particular
society. In times and places where the number of men and women is
approximately equal and there is not a great discrepancy in the wealth of
men in the society, monogamy tends to be the norm. Where there are
significantly more women than men, polygamy becomes quite common. Or if
there are a few very wealthy men, polygamy may develop as part of showing
off their wealth or power. In some American Indian tribes, monogamy was the
norm yet a man was required, if his brother died, to take his brother's wife
as his own even if he had a wife already.
Dee D. Flint, N8UZE