The Importance Of Arranged Marriages

Arranged marriages are marriages in which family members take a significant role in bringing a couple together. Relatives, particularly parents, often take the initiative to find, evaluate, and approve potential spouses for their children. In some cases, the couple may marry while still relative strangers under the expectation that they will develop a loving relationship over time. These marriages are in contrast to so-called "love marriages," in which a couple is drawn together by mutual attraction and makes the decision to marry on their own. While often associated with cultures in the Middle East, Africa, and India, these arrangements are not unknown in Western countries, particularly among immigrant populations (Fox, 2009). The traditional

In an arranged marriage, the marital partners are chosen by parents, community elders, matchmakers, or religious leaders in an effort to guide young people through the process of finding the right person to marry. Arranged marriages worldwide encompass a wide variety of procedures, cultural customs, length of courtship, as well as the practical and spiritual reasons for the matching of the partners. Generally, such a match is based on considerations other than pre-existing mutual attraction. Traditional arranged marriages became less common in the twentieth century, with the majority of young people in most cultures selecting their own spouse, with or without parental approval (Moon, 2006). However, with the increasing prevalence of divorce among marriages for love, advocates of arranged marriage argue that its values; where the expectation of love is weak at the beginning but ideally grows over time; makes for a stronger and more lasting marital bond. There are several types of arranged marriages; child marriage is when the parents of a small child, even infants arrange a future marriage with another child 's parents. The children are betrothed or promised to each other. Often the two children never even meet each other until the wedding ceremony, when they are both of an acceptable marriageable age; which differs based upon custom. In some cultures, the age is at or even before the onset of puberty (Xiaohe & Whyte, 1990). Many people who have been married in this way do grow to love and cherish their spouses after the marriage. Exchange marriage is the form of marriage involves a reciprocal exchange of spouses between two nations, groups, or tribes. For example, among the Australian Aborigines, the ideal model of any marriage contract is that two men of different groups should marry each other 's sisters. This creates