Changing Marriage Patterns in Southeast Asia : Economic and Socio-Cultural Dimensions

Various forms of partnering - officially registered marriages, cohabiting relationships, and other kinds of relatively stable relationships - are crucial in the formation of families throughout the world. In Southeast Asia, marriage is the normal form of partnering, as contrasted with, say, the West Indies, or Scandinavia, where more informal arrangements are far more common. Marriage in Southeast Asia defines the establishment of a new family, and serves as a kind of gatekeeper into the possibility of having children. Indeed, crossing the threshold of marriage not only opens the possibility of having children, but signals a cultural requirement to have children.Changing Marriage Patterns in Southeast Asia provides a comprehensive and up to date picture of marriage in the region The chapters are based on two main approaches. The first is to assess trends in marriage in the region and factors affecting these trends, using quantitative data. The second is to investigate socio-cultural and economic factors in marriage patterns, using more qualitative approaches. The result of bringing together these two approaches through the research of demographers, sociologists and anthropologists gives us a rich understanding of both the broad forces affecting marriage patterns and the way these forces work out at the individual and family level.This book presents a rich mosaic of studies on marriage in the region, with an emphasis on the way marriage issues impinge on the welfare of those concerned. As such it is an essential read for students and scholars of Southeast Asia and the sociology of the family.