European Marriage Patterns in Perspective

Abstract

The marriage pattern of most of Europe as it existed for at least two centuries up to 1940 was, so far as we can tell, unique or almost unique in the world. The distinctive marks of the ‘European pattern’ are a high age at marriage and a high proportion of people who never marry at all. The ‘European’ pattern pervaded the whole of Europe except for the eastern and south-eastern portion. For many areas the available data on marital status unfortunately may not represent anything even remotely corresponding to the definition just sketched. For India it would clearly be preferable to have data where only those were classified as married who had completed the second marriage ceremony after which consummation takes place. The occupations recorded show that the families involved belonged largely to the more prosperous urban sections of society. The selection effects which may bias genealogical data collected on account of the interest of descendants were mentioned.