Marriage, Law and Modernity: Global Histories

Description

Marriage, Law and Modernity offers a global perspective on the modern history of marriage. Widespread recent debate has focused on the changing nature of families, characterized by both the rise of unmarried cohabitation and the legalization of same-sex marriage. However, historical understanding of these developments remains limited. How has marriage come to be the target of national legislation? Are recent policies on same-sex marriage part of a broader transformation? And, has marriage come to be similar across the globe despite claims about national, cultural and religious difference? This collection brings together scholars from across the world in order to offer a global perspective on the history of marriage. It unites legal, political and social history, and seeks to draw out commonalities and differences by exploring connections through empire, international law and international migration. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents List of Figures List of Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: Making Marriage ‘Modern’ Part 1: Marriage and Forms of the Family 1. From Liberalism to Human Dignity: The Transformation of Marriage and Family Rights in Brazil 2. From Toleration to Prosecution: Concubinage and the Law in China 3. The Birth of Mistresses and Bastards: A History of Marriage in Siam (Thailand) 4. Royal Marriage in Europe: An Inherently Conservative System Part 2: Marriage, Religion and the State 5. ‘Till Death Do You Part’: Catholicism, Marriage and Culture War in Austria(-Hungary) 6. Modernizing Marriage in Egypt 7. ‘A Babel of Law’: Hindu Marriage, Global Spaces and Intimate Subjects in Late-Nineteenth-Century India 8. English Exports: Invoking the Common Law of Marriage across the Empire in the Nineteenth Century Part 3: Marriage, Kinship and Community 9. Finding the Ordinary in the Extraordinary: Marriage Norms and Bigamy in Canada 10. Equality before the Law? The Intermarriage Debate in Post-Nazi Germany 11. Customary and Civil Marriage Law and the Question of Gender Equality in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Gabon and Africa Postscript: How History mattered in Same-Sex Marriage Rights Select Bibliography Index