Marriage and family are key structures in many social orders. While the two phenomena have truly been nearly connected in most society, their association is getting to be more difficult. The relationship among marriage and family is a fascinating theme of study to sociologists.
What can we understand by the term "marriage"? Well, this term has been defined by several sociologists at several times in history and for many societies. Out of hundreds of definitions for the term marriage provided by sociologists, the one we are referring here is [ CITATION Gen l 1033 ];.
"A socially approved sexual and economic relationship between two or more persons that is assumed to be permanent and includes mutual rights and obligations.".
Getting married is a legally and socially recognized status that is actually a contract between the concerned persons (usually two). Traditionally, when two or more persons get married, that means they are in a sexual relationship and are supposed to stay united permanently. As mentioned earlier, the definition of marriage is not fixed. Infect it is wide spread definition and some other sociologists may define the term including factors like either the persons getting married belong to same or different gender and how the aspect of getting into a sexual relationship is perceived in the particular society and during the particular era. There has been a lot of research carried out by sociologists to understand the relationship among the concerned genders and the resulting family. The reason for keen interest of sociologists lies in the historical fact that getting married results in the creation of a new family. These families when gathered in a large number, results in a society, making family the basic entity that formulates a society. Marriage and family are therefore the basic units that constitute the overall society.
After defining marriage, a family can be easily understood and defined.
