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Category: Societal Issues
Date Submitted: 02/15/2016 09:29 AM
Social Theory and Marriage
Abigail Bukky Divis
SOC 3113
Dr. Ellefritz
December 23, 2015
1
The institution of marriage can potentially be seen as one of the oldest ways that society
socially organizes itself. We have all been socialized to believe different concepts behind love
and marriage in accordance with our surrounding environments. For example in Western society,
marriage can be seen as a step defining adulthood based on love for another person. In other
societies, marriage is based on economic situations or cultural expectations. Sociological theory
looks to explain and analyze various social phenomena. It examines how societies and
individuals change and develop and explains social behavior in relation to the self, social
structures and society. In this paper, marriage is examined and analyzed through various
sociological perspectives.
Emile Durkheim focused on social facts, which are the external and collective ways in
which society shapes, structures and constrains our behavior. Marriage, as a form of social
organization, is a part of the sui generis reality, that exists independently of any of the
individuals in society as well as acting as a constraining force upon these individuals integrating
them socially. Marriage as a social fact exists long before and after the lifetimes of the couples
who enter and leave its arrangement. The propensity of individuals to enter a marriage is also
influenced by other social facts like the economy, expectations from church or family, and also
romantic attraction. For example, those who are raised within a religious setting may feel the
need to marry since marriage is held in high regard and almost expected in most religious circles.
2
Marriage constrains the collective expectations, as well as the reality, of who can marry whom
and prohibits the ability to acknowledge other alternative possibilities. ...