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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Lebanon
Index
In the past, marriage within the lineage, especially to first
cousins or other close paternal kin, was the rule. This provided
the woman the security of living among the people with whom she was
raised and also tended to keep property inheritance within the
family. Among Muslims, there is traditional preference for marriage
to a patrilineal first cousin; in some conservative Muslim
villages, the choice is considered obligatory. In Roman Catholic
canon law the marriage of persons within the same bloodline or of
persons within the third degree of collateral relationship is
explicitly forbidden. In Lebanon a dispensation for such marriages
can be obtained and they are not uncommon.
Although permitted under Muslim law, polygamy is generally
regarded as both impractical and undesirable because of the
additional economic burden it places upon the household and because
of the personal complications it entails. Polygamous families
consist of a man, up to four wives, and their children. A man
rarely has more than two wives, one of whom is sometimes much
younger than the other, and is married after the children of the
first wife are almost fully grown. The two wives may live with
their children in different rooms of the same house, or they may
reside in separate abodes. A survey of families in Beirut, made in
the early 1960s, indicated that there was more than one wife in
only 3 percent of the Muslim families interviewed.
Other than the marriage of close relatives, such as first
cousins, a factor that often enters into the choice of a marriage
partner is interest in expanding family resources. A man from the
leading family of a particular lineage, especially an influential
and wealthy lineage, is apt to choose a wife from another such
lineage within his own religious community to improve the position
of his immediate family group.
The general practice in both Christian and Muslim villages is
to find a partner within the village, preferably the closest
eligible relative within the family. This practice has been
considerably weakened in villages close to cities, where marriages
outside the family and outside the village occur more often, and
where first cousin marriage occurs only occasionally.
Marriage is more a matter of recognizing adult status and of
joining interests than of romantic attachment. Men marry to have
sons who will continue their lineage, work their land, and do honor
to their house. Women marry to attain status and to bear sons for
protection in their old age. Most women marry.
Age at marriage varies. In some villages girls tend to marry in
their late teens; boys, in their early twenties. Urban youths marry
somewhat later. Among educated families, young men frequently
postpone marriage for many years, some of them waiting until their
late thirties or early forties.
Christians and Druzes do not enter into a formal marriage
contract; Muslims, however, do. After the announcement of the
engagement of a Muslim couple, and before the wedding takes place,
a formal contract is drawn up. The marriage is legal once the
contract is signed. The contract notes the consent of the couple to
marry and specifies the bride-price, a payment by the young man to
his fiancée. In traditional Muslim society, the bride-price
represented a substantial amount of money, or its equivalent in
land, or a combination of both. In the 1980s, however, except in
remote villages, only a token gift was made. The bride is expected
to provide a dowry, usually in the form of furnishings for a new
household.
Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are frowned upon
throughout society. In the village there are strong sanctions
against sexual relations outside marriage and such relationships
are rare because every potential female partner is enmeshed in the
network of kinship ties which reinforce these sanctions. Improper
conduct toward an unmarried girl damages the honor of her lineage.
Her father and brothers will seek redress, which can take the form
of killing the girl and the man involved, killing the man or
driving him from the village, or a settlement between the two
lineages. If redress is not obtained, open strife between the two
lineages may occur.
Data as of December 1987
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