Why is Marriage so Important?
Marriage is important in life because it ensures a ‘psychological satisfaction? (that of having a friend for life, family, children) and a ‘biological satisfaction? (that of sex) to an individual. It further ensures a twofold survival, that is, of the group and its culture.
The economic organization of many social groups are much dependent upon co-operation and division of labor between the two sexes. Through marriage, the two sexes enter into socially sanctioned and permanent relations with each other. Hence, marriage play an important role in the stable functioning of such societies.
Human-being is a social animal and cannot survive alone. The marital bond is found to bring together not just two individuals, but two families’ even kindred and villages. Hence, Marriage is not a tool meant to secure for individuals satisfaction of a highly personal character, but a social mechanism designed to create and foster social solidarity.
In contemporary urban society, it is the highly individualistic and personal aspect of marriage which is emphasized.
