The recent marital transition in Bulgaria between historical diversity and Pan-European integration

This paper deals with the development of family dynamics in Bulgaria with particular emphasis on the transformation in individual marital behaviour observed since the early 1990s. First, a brief overview of the development of nuptiality over the last century is provided, which establishes the stability of important features associated with the eastern European marriage pattern. The recent marital changes in the country are then discussed in the context of an evolving Second Demographic Transition, which challenges the last remnants of the eastern European marriage pattern and proceeds as an integrative trend toward the plurality of family forms observed within and between European countries. Special attention is directed towards the urban–rural differences in the development of the recent marital transition in Bulgaria. These differences are analysed from the perspective of the subjective preconditions associated with the change or stability of particular values and world-views related to marital life. The analysis shows that in Bulgaria during the 1990s it was the big cities that tended to be innovative centres, disseminating the new familistic values and behavioural patterns that facilitated the development of new marital trends. Conversely, the towns and villages tended to be places in which traditional values were stronger and prevailed for longer. These values, along with some structural factors, maintained the more traditional marital profile of the rural areas for longer.     

Patterns of family formation: Marriage and fertility timing in Bulgaria at the turn of the twenty-first century — A case-study of Sofia

In this paper, we discuss the changes in the process of family formation in Bulgaria at the end of the twentieth century. Studying the ideal patterns of family formation and the place of children and marriage within them, we offer six typological models. Based on recent population developments and social values changes, we argue that the Hajnal line and the associated hypothesis concerning the existence of separate Eastern and Western Marriage Patterns are irrelevant for understanding the present demographic situation. Attempts to update the line to accommodate recent developments are counter-productive as they obscure the commonality of demographic processes at work across the European continent.     

Patterns of family formation: Marriage and fertility timing in Bulgaria at the turn of the twenty-first century — A case-study of Sofia

In this paper, we discuss the changes in the process of family formation in Bulgaria at the end of the twentieth century. Studying the ideal patterns of family formation and the place of children and marriage within them, we offer six typological models. Based on recent population developments and social values changes, we argue that the Hajnal line and the associated hypothesis concerning the existence of separate Eastern and Western Marriage Patterns are irrelevant for understanding the present demographic situation. Attempts to update the line to accommodate recent developments are counter-productive as they obscure the commonality of demographic processes at work across the European continent.     

Marriage in urban Albania (during the first half of the twentieth century)

This article analyses the marriage pattern in urban Albania, based primarily on the data of the Albanian Population Census of 1918. Age at marriage and the factors influencing nuptiality among the urban population are analysed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. The analyses show that the marriage pattern in urban Albania was similar to Laslett's Mediterranean set, while rural areas displayed an age at marriage for both men and women which was characteristic of the marriage pattern East of the Hajnal line. Albanian cities showed a higher age at marriage for both men and women than villages. The difference in age at marriage between urban and rural areas was noticeably higher for men, while the age at marriage for women showed smaller differences. An explanation for these differences in the age at marriage was found in a combination of traditional marital behaviour and demographic issues, which broadened or narrowed the marriage field, thus directly influencing the age at marriage.     

Marriage in urban Albania (during the first half of the twentieth century)

This article analyses the marriage pattern in urban Albania, based primarily on the data of the Albanian Population Census of 1918. Age at marriage and the factors influencing nuptiality among the urban population are analysed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. The analyses show that the marriage pattern in urban Albania was similar to Laslett's Mediterranean set, while rural areas displayed an age at marriage for both men and women which was characteristic of the marriage pattern East of the Hajnal line. Albanian cities showed a higher age at marriage for both men and women than villages. The difference in age at marriage between urban and rural areas was noticeably higher for men, while the age at marriage for women showed smaller differences. An explanation for these differences in the age at marriage was found in a combination of traditional marital behaviour and demographic issues, which broadened or narrowed the marriage field, thus directly influencing the age at marriage.     

SHOULD PREMARITAL COUNSELING BE MANDATORY AS A REQUISITE TO OBTAINING A MARRIAGE LICENSE?

Despite the fundamental importance of marriage in forming the foundation of family and society, divorce in the United States has become a common occurrence with disruptive consequences immediately affecting the children, the family, and society at large. The state therefore has a strong and legitimate interest in strengthening marriage by mandating premarital counseling for all couples contemplating marriage. Premarital counseling is a program that offers the necessary guidance to assist couples in evaluating their readiness to enter marriage, and allows couples to enter marriage with greater understanding and certainty. As a result, mandatory premarital counseling will promote stability in the marital and family relationship and help to reduce marital discord.     

Household structures in Albania in the early 20th century

This article attempts to shed light on household structures in Albania based on the census of 1918. Quantitative data enable the investigation of patterns of household formation and marriage in a region where such research previously has been missing. The results confirm eastern European marriage patterns for women but not for men in Albania. Northern Albania lies in the core zone of the Balkan patriarchy and joint family households have prevailed in rural Albania, despite a tendency toward frequent divisions of households among brothers. Most important, there existed a great variety of types of households in different villages in Albania in 1918.     

Household structures in Albania in the early 20th century

This article attempts to shed light on household structures in Albania based on the census of 1918. Quantitative data enable the investigation of patterns of household formation and marriage in a region where such research previously has been missing. The results confirm eastern European marriage patterns for women but not for men in Albania. Northern Albania lies in the core zone of the Balkan patriarchy and joint family households have prevailed in rural Albania, despite a tendency toward frequent divisions of households among brothers. Most important, there existed a great variety of types of households in different villages in Albania in 1918.     

Power and inheritance

A widespread inheritance pattern in eastern and southeastern Europe was based on equally partible male inheritance and excluded women from inheritance and dowry. The western transition zone to the other predominant European inheritance systems coincided with the Hajnal line, which divides the distribution of European marriage patterns in historical times. New evidence is added to the historical depth of the cultural–historical transition zone already postulated by Mitterauer. Since the early Middle Ages, this zone also marked the border region of two basic European agrarian systems: the western Grundherrschafts system, which led to the intervention of landlords into inheritance patterns and family structures of the serfs and the non-interventionist tributary systems, which left inheritance practices based on customary laws untouched until the second half of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The above-mentioned inheritance pattern, which was also widespread in Asia, allocated a huge amount of power to the agnatic core of the family and was part of a patriarchal system shaped by patrilineality, patrilocality, low age at marriage, complex family forms, and fragmentation of the soil when demographic transition set in.     

Power and inheritance: Male domination,property, and family in eastern Europe, 1500–1900

A widespread inheritance pattern in eastern and southeastern Europe was based on equally partible male inheritance and excluded women from inheritance and dowry. The western transition zone to the other predominant European inheritance systems coincided with the Hajnal line, which divides the distribution of European marriage patterns in historical times. New evidence is added to the historical depth of the cultural–historical transition zone already postulated by Mitterauer. Since the early Middle Ages, this zone also marked the border region of two basic European agrarian systems: the western Grundherrschafts system, which led to the intervention of landlords into inheritance patterns and family structures of the serfs and the non-interventionist tributary systems, which left inheritance practices based on customary laws untouched until the second half of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The above-mentioned inheritance pattern, which was also widespread in Asia, allocated a huge amount of power to the agnatic core of the family and was part of a patriarchal system shaped by patrilineality, patrilocality, low age at marriage, complex family forms, and fragmentation of the soil when demographic transition set in.     

Situating the family of Ottoman Bulgaria within the European pattern

The article seeks to reassess the traditional stereotype of the complex Balkan family, especially in Bulgaria, on the basis of published and unpublished materials. On most measure features, such as population structure, marriage patterns, fertility and mortality rates, family and household size and structure, and inheritance patterns the Balkans show a great deal of variety and, on some measures, are more like the western and central parts of Europe than the easter-part. But all attempts to argue for the historical predominance of the zadruga in southeastern Europe (and in Bulgaria in particular) are presumptious, because the zadruga has been firmly documented only for the period from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, when it was not statistically predominant. Its appearance (or recurrence) and decline could be explained by different factors, and almost promising area of exploration seems to be the possible connection between a stockbreeding economy and multiple families of the zadruga type.     

How unique is the Western European marriage pattern?: A comparison of nuptiality in historical Europe and the contemporary Arab world

In this article a comparison is drawn between the historical Western European marriage pattern (WEMP), and more recent trends in nuptiality in Arab countries. This comparison makes clear that marriage behavior in the present-day Arab world shows striking similarities to nuptiality patterns which have been described by Hajnal and adherents as typically Western European. Due to a combination of economic hardship, ever growing costs in the marriage ceremony, prolonged education and the emancipation of women, people in the Arab world have started to marry at ever higher ages during the past decades. Moreover, there are indications that universal marriage is in decline. Just as Western European couples in the nineteenth century had to spend years of saving in order to meet the economic requirements for marriage, young couples in today's Arab world have to postpone marriage as they are only at a more advanced age able to bear the economic burden involved in getting married. Striking is also the fact that marriage restriction in both societies started at a moment when the social and legal position of women was improving (in late Medieval Western Europe and today in the Arab world). However, in some ways the historical Western European marriage pattern differs from the contemporary Arab pattern. No other marriage regime has been able to completely reduce fertility and balance population growth to economic development. Whereas population growth in pre-twentieth century Europe was only restricted by nuptiality control, demographic expansion in present day Arab society is also restricted by modern family planning. Declining nuptiality in the Arab world can however not, as some might assume, be put under the header of the Second Demographic Transition observed in Western societies, from the 1960s on. After all, until today, a rise in cohabitation and extra-marital births has not occured in the Arab world.     

Legal restrictions on marriage

Under the legal restrictions on marriage in the Tyrol and Vorarlberg region of Austria between 1820 and 1920, members of the lower classes could marry only with the prior consent of the village authorities. Local and provincial politicians justified the necessity of these laws on the basis of the overpopulation and widespread impoverishment, which, they alleged, had resulted from the rise in lower-class marriages since the onset of industrialization. An analysis of the background and objectives of these legal interventions into marital behavior, however, reveals a different picture in regard to their effect and their effectiveness. The limitations on marriage affected life most profoundly in precisely those areas where people already tended to marry less often and later in life. Where changes in marital behavior did occur, they did not conflict with traditional behavior but rather resulted from the adaptation of the latter to altered living and working conditions. Thus it was material considerations that led the group of new wage-earners to delay or even forego marriage. The analysis shows that the limitations on marriage were directed less against the supposed causes of impoverishment than towards the continuation of social inequality in marriage and the stabilization of the status quo.     

Legal restrictions on marriage: Marriage and inequality in the Austrian Tyrol during the nineteenth century

Under the legal restrictions on marriage in the Tyrol and Vorarlberg region of Austria between 1820 and 1920, members of the lower classes could marry only with the prior consent of the village authorities. Local and provincial politicians justified the necessity of these laws on the basis of the overpopulation and widespread impoverishment, which, they alleged, had resulted from the rise in lower-class marriages since the onset of industrialization. An analysis of the background and objectives of these legal interventions into marital behavior, however, reveals a different picture in regard to their effect and their effectiveness. The limitations on marriage affected life most profoundly in precisely those areas where people already tended to marry less often and later in life. Where changes in marital behavior did occur, they did not conflict with traditional behavior but rather resulted from the adaptation of the latter to altered living and working conditions. Thus it was material considerations that led the group of new wage-earners to delay or even forego marriage. The analysis shows that the limitations on marriage were directed less against the supposed causes of impoverishment than towards the continuation of social inequality in marriage and the stabilization of the status quo.     

Attributions for episodes of marital aggression: The effects of aggression severity and alcohol use

This study examined attributions for husband to wife marital agression as a function of aggression severity and husbands' alcohol use. Subjects were a community sample of 117 wives and 109 husbands who reported an episode of serious physical aggression during a structured interview, conducted at one year of marriage. The results showed that husbands' attributions were influenced by both severity and alcohol use. In particular, sober husbands tended to blame their wives for severe aggression, but, unexpectedly, drinking husbands tended to assume responsibility for severe aggression. In contrast, wives' attributions were influenced mainly by severity. Wives also discriminated between the locus and stability dimensions of causal attributions, whereas husbands relied solely on the locus dimension. Specifically, wives held husbands' behavior more responsible for severe aggression than their own behavior and held husbands' character much more responsible than their own character. Additional findings with regard to relationship attributions were discussed.     

Who's Your Daddy?: The Marital Presumption of Legitimacy in the Modern World and its Application to Same‐Sex Couples

Recently, the definition of marriage has been significantly altered. No longer do we find ourselves exclusively in the midst of “traditional marriage” between one man and one woman. Instead, everywhere we experience different kinds of marriages and diverse, nontraditional families. The United States has finally caught up to many advanced democracies in universally recognizing same‐sex marriage through the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. However, the next question remains unanswered: what about families of same‐sex couples? This Note explores the nature of same‐sex couples, their families, and in particular, their children. It addresses the issue of the marital presumption of legitimacy and encourages its application to all legally recognized married couples regardless of sexual orientation and biology. Even though prior to Obergefell some states were unwilling to apply the presumption, since the implementation of marriage equality, the next logical step would be to utilize the presumption to ensure that all parents, regardless of gender, are recognized and families are preserved.     

‘Civilised domesticity’, race and European attempts to regulate African marriage practices in colonial Natal, 1868–1875

This paper examines a controversy that erupted in the 1860s over attempts by European settlers in the colony of Natal to regulate African marriages. In 1869 the Natal government promulgated a law enabling the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal to regulate African marital customs. The regulations proclaimed under Law 1 of 1869 imposed a tax on every marriage contracted by Africans, restricted the practice of lobola (bridewealth) and required that brides publicly express their assent before an official witness for marriages to be valid. The implementation of these measures unleashed a storm of protest that eventually forced the government to abandon the marriage tax in 1875. Intriguingly, however, while there was African resistance to the law, it was principally the outrage of the colony's European settlers and missionaries that forced the government's hand. This paper explores the creation and implementation of Law 1 of 1869, the subsequent controversy and the abandonment of the marriage tax. In doing so it argues that in the 1860s and 1870s few white Natalians embraced the idea of innate differences between races, and instead employed environmentalist discourses of ‘civilisation’ and ‘savagery’ to explain distinctions between themselves and Africans. These discourses were gendered, for domestic family arrangements in African and European societies were used as the benchmark against which the relative levels of ‘civilisation’ of whites and Africans were measured. This attempt to regulate African family life and the controversy it provoked therefore highlights the extent to which British views of marriage and proper gender roles influenced the practice of colonialism in nineteenth century southern Africa.     

婚姻法修改中几个争议问题的探讨

本文对婚姻法修改中几个有争议的问题进行了理论探讨 ,指出 :共同财产制更能反映婚姻的本质和特征 ,我国法定夫妻财产制应由夫妻共同财产和夫妻个人特有财产两部分构成 ;约定夫妻财产制应从其功能出发选择立法模式 ;改“夫妻感情确已破裂”为“婚姻关系确已破裂”作为判决离婚的理由 ,这一改变不意味着放宽离婚条件或增加离婚难度 ,离婚与社会稳定之间没有直接关系。     

Marriage and Divorce in the Supreme Court and the Law Commission: for Love or Money?

The case note considers the impact of the Supreme Court decision in Radmacher v Granatino regarding pre‐nuptial and other classes of nuptial agreement, together with recent proposals of the Law Commission for reform of the law relating to marital property agreements generally. It explores in particular the question of what, if any, core obligations of marriage cannot – or should not – be excludable by agreement.     

Regional standardization in the age at marriage

Age at marriage is an important issue in family, population, and socioeconomic history as well as in cultural anthropology. In preindustrial Japan, regional differences in inheritance customs determined the regional diversity of marriage patterns. The age at marriage in preindustrial Germany also showed a regional diversity, but compared to Japan, it was standardized within the European marriage pattern. The author contends that there were two different patterns of standardization in marriage behavior in Germany, one being the historical consequence of official institutionalization and the other occurring as a process on a macroeconomic level and resulting in a concentration of age at marriage around a mean age. The distribution of the ages at marriage and its historical change in this context is an important variable for the analysis of marriage behavior.