Discuss the emerging forms of marriage and family with examples from the West and the East. Can there be family without marriage? Examine. (2009)
William J. Goode (World Revolution in Family Patterns, 1963) predicted a global convergence towards the conjugal family with free choice of spouse. Six decades on, both West and East show diversification rather than a single model. That diversity also revives an old question in kinship theory: is marriage the necessary foundation of the family?
Emerging forms in the West
- Cohabitation as a stage or alternative. In 2023, 41.1% of births in the EU were outside marriage, rising above half in France (58.5%) and Sweden (57.4%).
- Divorce, remarriage and reconstituted families produce “serial monogamy” and blended step-kin.
- Single-parent, single-person and “living apart together” households.
- Same-sex marriage and families of choice (Kath Weston, Families We Choose, 1991). The Netherlands was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage (2001).
- Theory. Anthony Giddens’s “pure relationship” (The Transformation of Intimacy, 1992), Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim’s individualisation, and Judith Stacey’s “postmodern family” (Brave New Families, 1990) all describe a shift from a prescribed form to plural, negotiated arrangements.
Emerging forms in the East
- Delayed marriage and non-marriage. Masahiro Yamada’s “parasite singles” in Japan live with parents into their thirties. In China, educated urban women are labelled “leftover women” (Leta Hong Fincher, Leftover Women, 2014). South Korea’s fertility fell to 0.72 in 2023, with a small rebound to 0.75 in 2024 as marriages rose.
- Marriage persists but births outside it remain rare in East Asia. The East is delaying marriage more than replacing it.
- India. Households are structurally nuclear but functionally joint (I. P. Desai, Mahuva). Other emerging forms include self-arranged and inter-caste marriage, live-in relationships recognised under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, transnational “Gulf wife” households in Kerala, and single-parent adoption. In Deepika Singh (2022), the Supreme Court recognised “atypical families”, and in 2025 the Madras High Court accepted a queer couple’s “chosen family”.
Can there be family without marriage?
Arguments that marriage is essential
- George Peter Murdock (Social Structure, 1949) defined the family as including adults of both sexes in a socially approved sexual relationship, and held the nuclear family to be universal.
- Bronisław Malinowski’s principle of legitimacy says every child needs a socially recognised father, which marriage supplies.
Evidence that family can exist without marriage
- Nayar taravad: Kathleen Gough (1959) showed a matrilineal household run by the mother’s brother. Sambandham partners visited but did not form a conjugal unit.
- Mosuo (Na) of China: Cai Hua (A Society without Fathers or Husbands, 2001) described “walking marriage”, where lovers visit at night and children are raised in their mother’s sibling household.
- Contemporary forms: single-parent, cohabiting and chosen families perform socialisation and care, which David Morgan calls “family practices”.
Assessment. A substantive definition tied to marriage excludes these cases. A functional definition based on care, co-residence and nurturing includes them. Edmund Leach’s view of marriage as a variable “bundle of rights” suggests that what is universal is socially recognised parenthood and care, not marriage itself.
Conclusion
Family without marriage is both possible and increasingly common, especially in the West. In the East, and particularly in India, marriage remains the normative gateway to family life even as its forms change. Globally, the trend is towards pluralism, not the end of marriage.