Reddit reviews Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage

Evergreen College, represent! (It's Coontz, btw, with a "C".) It might also be in the Marriage book : http://www.amazon.com/Marriage-History-How-Love-Conquered/dp/014303667X

If you have more interest in this idea, there is a book I would recommend.

Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage By Stephanie Coontz

This book traces how marriage has evolved over thousands of years, and deals with a lot of familiar issues to the FGM debate. If you pay special attention to the chapters about the cult of purity during the 18th century, you'll notice how western men society held very similar notions of protecting a woman's "purity".

Now, this book isn't related to FGM, but it's an interesting read if you want to kind of understand how institutions can evolve from restricting women to empowering them to be equal partners (in the best circumstances).

Edit: Changed "western men" to "western society" to avoid under emphasizing women's roles in enforcing these behaviors as well.

An interesting side note: during the era of the "cult of purity" this was one of the first opportunities for women to gain some rights. Because society was focused on protect the innate 'purity' of women, women were able to refuse sex from their husbands, something which western courts had never afforded them. Until then, men had the right to demand sex basically whenever they wanted and were empowered to "reprimand" their wives if they refused.

During this era of 'purity' courts began to rule that women had a right to protect that purity and deny their husbands sex.

I enjoyed reading Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz, which covers what relationships looked like in several different time periods and cultures. Its a really good book, and addresses the questions you're asking. I read it when I was thinking about getting engaged and it helped me think about what I wanted my marriage to look like. What feels like the widely-held 'ideal' status quo now (monogomous life partners who provide emotional satisfaction) really is a fairly new idea.

https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-History-How-Love-Conquered/dp/014303667X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527796012&sr=8-1&keywords=coontz+marriage

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City is an amazing book. The main point is about Ford trying to create a company town in Brazil in order to grow rubber. But the books gives you a great picture of Ford the man, the company, what the era was like and the larger philosophical and economic ideas behind this project. Honestly, for me it read like fiction- I couldn't put it down.

They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967 looks at the Vietnam war from three different perspectives, from students protesting, to the actual front and then from the government officials. The narrative is amazing and it's so well researched that it was captivating as well, but I think he really captured the feeling of the times as well, which is so great to see in a book.

Michael Pollan is know most for Omnivore's Dilemma (which is a great read) but I really love his first book too, and that doesn't get as much attention, which is still very interesting is The Botany of Desire. He goes through the history of 4 different plants, apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. Not too interesting on the surface, but he makes the stories fascinating. It's a great in its overarching nature about our relationships with plants.

[Marriage: A History by Stephanie Coontz] (http://www.amazon.com/Marriage-History-How-Love-Conquered/dp/014303667X) is another one I always recommend. It is an expansive work showing that the idea of Marriage has been in flux since the beginning and completely depended on the culture and time period. It's well researched but also a compelling work.

You mean like they've always done throughout all of history? Only recently has love been a theme in marriage. Throughout the majority of history, marriage has been about economic or political benefit. Marriage: A History presents a fascinating view on the subject.

If you're in the mood for a great read, you should pick up a copy of Marriage: a History, by Stephanie Coontz. It goes into detail about the rise of marriage as a social construct starting with the rise of western civilizations (Babylonian, Egyptian) to the Roman Empire through the Middle Ages to the modern day. She shows the back and forth game that marriage had with religion and state. Long story made short: started as state, got co-opted by religion, then has slowly been returning to the state. Meanwhile, the meaning of marriage has always been contextual to the surrounding society and has constantly been changing.

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but you could try Marriage, a History. It's a non-fiction book about the shift in the culture of marriage and the growing importance of romantic love over time. It was written in 2006!

I'm super curious to learn whatever you find. I read Marriage, A History (https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-History-How-Love-Conquered/dp/014303667X) a while back and it had a lot of great info, but it was focused on the overall arc of what marriage has meant through most of time (spoiler alert: nobody gave a shit about love in marraige until very recently), versus taking an in-depth look at what happened in the US during/after the Civil Rights movement.

the book

the Wikipedia break-down

To be fair, a lot of native civilizations had radically different conceptions of marriage specifically, and the gender roles that go with each.

For instance in one specific native american tribe, people married according to which jobs they worked, regardless of anatomical sex.
So a male who did the work normally done by a male, marrying another male who did the work that was normally done by a female would not be viewed as strange at all.

There are plenty more examples, and [this book] (http://www.amazon.com/Marriage-History-How-Love-Conquered/dp/014303667X) does a good job of presenting them.

That being said, anthropologically, gender has usually mimicked sex, which is obviously binary with few exceptions

Pretty much a rehash of Marriage, a History, published 6 years ago.

Marriage in its modern form has only existed for a century, if that. It's not correct to say it is a religious ceremony. The civil ceremony has existed for far longer.

Here's some good reading on this: http://www.amazon.com/Marriage-History-How-Love-Conquered/dp/014303667X

In America, the ceremony is both to some people, but only civil to others. My marriage will not be religious.

It really seems petty to say only the religious can use this word with all the history and meaning behind it while everyone else gets a civil union. At this point, I really don't think much of the opposition to marriage equality can be contributed to those that would force everyone to have a civil union first and some a marriage second. People don't oppose marriage equality for that reason.

Even then, many religions conduct same-sex marriages and are fighting to get all of their marriages recognized by the state the way that other religions have their marriages recognized. It's a freedom of religion issue in this way.

Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage