Marriage and Long-Standing Relationships

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the basic social institution of marriage and compares it to other long-standing relationships. The paper reviews literature that discusses the attempts to reduce marriage to only one among many forms of recognized and legalized relationships. It discusses the findings of these papers and the implications of these views for society.

From the Paper:

"These major trends in law appear to be attempts to channel public law into an entirely new and authoritative framework "beyond conjugality (Cere 2000)." If they managed to make marriage as only one of many equally valid forms of close relationships, any kind of close relationship could be legally recognized and deserving of social support. The observation was that, recently, the most controversial subject in marriage law was not gay marriage but polyamory. Polymory is distinguished from polygamy. Polygamy means many marriages and polymory means many loves. A polyamorous relationship could consist in multiple-partner sexual relationships, whether in marriage or not. Advocates of polyamory advanced "ethical non-monogamy," which involved more than one person in an open, communicative and honest way. These advocates pushed for liberal religious traditions to recognize multiple-partner marriage (Cere)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Buckley, William. F. Does Marriage Matter? National Review: National Review, Inc., December 22, 2003
• Cere, Daniel. Love and Marriage. Public Interest: The National Affairs, Inc., Spring 2005
• Hoffnung, Michele. Wanting It All: Career, Marriage and Motherhood During Colle Educated Women's 20s. Sex Roles : a Journal of research: Plenum Publishing Corporation, May 2004
• News and Society. Cohabitation Not Equal to Marriage: Vanier Study Reports. Community Action: Community Action Publishers, October 26, 2005
• Wetzstein, Cheryl. For Better - or Best - the Benefits of Marriage. Insight on the News: News World Communications, Inc., November 27, 2000

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