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88-538: The Pagan Federation was founded in 1971, and Scotland became a district within it in the early 1990s. Jean Fowler and her husband were the first District Managers. At this time, Scotland and Ireland were overseen jointly. John and Kitty Macintyre became the District Managers in 1997 and became active campaigners for improving the understanding and recognition of Neopaganism in Scotland. Under their leadership,

176-706: A learned borrowing from Latin mātrimōnium , which is derived from māter ' mother ' with the suffix -mōnium for an action, state, or condition. Anthropologists have proposed several competing definitions of marriage in an attempt to encompass the wide variety of marital practices observed across cultures. Even within Western culture , "definitions of marriage have careened from one extreme to another and everywhere in between" (as Evan Gerstmann has put it). In The History of Human Marriage (1891), Edvard Westermarck defined marriage as "a more or less durable connection between male and female lasting beyond

264-529: A temporary wedding (in which a couple makes an intentionally temporary marriage commitment). The phrase refers to the making fast of a pledge by the shaking or joining of hands . The terminology and practice are especially associated with Germanic peoples, including the English and Norse , as well as the Scots. As a form of betrothal or unofficiated wedding, handfasting was common up through Tudor England ; as

352-633: A 1955 article in Man , Leach argued that no one definition of marriage applied to all cultures. He offered a list of ten rights associated with marriage, including sexual monopoly and rights with respect to children, with specific rights differing across cultures. Those rights, according to Leach, included: In a 1997 article in Current Anthropology , Duran Bell describes marriage as "a relationship between one or more men (male or female) in severalty to one or more women that provides those men with

440-686: A Pagan tick-box in the 2021 Census . Leaders within the SPF have also been supportive of efforts to recognise the many people, mostly women, who were killed for witchcraft throughout Scotland's history. Some have, however, called for care to be taken when dealing with portraying the complicated historical relationship between modern Neopagan religions and historical witchcraft accusations, which mainly targeted Christians who were falsely accused for other cultural reasons, such as practising Catholicism within Presbyterian Scotland . Many within

528-524: A bargain by joining hands"; there are also comparanda from the Ingvaeonic languages : Old Frisian hondfestinge and Middle Low German hantvestinge . The term is derived from the verb to handfast , used in Middle to Early Modern English for the making of a contract. In modern Dutch, "handvest" is the term for "pact" or "charter" (e.g., "Atlantisch handvest", "Handvest der Verenigde Naties"); cf. also

616-534: A ceremony held on the occasion of such a contract, usually about a month prior to a church wedding, at which the marrying couple formally declared that each accepted the other as spouse. Handfasting was legally binding: as soon as the couple made their vows to each other they were validly married. It was not a temporary arrangement. Just as with church weddings of the period, the union which handfasting created could only be dissolved by death. English legal authorities held that even if not followed by intercourse, handfasting

704-449: A correlation between " Bride price " and polygamy. A survey of other cross-cultural samples has confirmed that the absence of the plough was the only predictor of polygamy, although other factors such as high male mortality in warfare (in non-state societies) and pathogen stress (in state societies) had some impact. Marriages are classified according to the number of legal spouses an individual has. The suffix "-gamy" refers specifically to

792-410: A credible witness or witnesses was usual. For much of the relevant period, church courts dealt with marital matters. Ecclesiastical law recognised two forms of handfasting, sponsalia per verba de praesenti and sponsalia per verba de futuro . In sponsalia de praesenti , the most usual form, the couple declared they there and then accepted each other as man and wife. The sponsalia de futuro form

880-435: A demand-right of sexual access within a domestic group and identifies women who bear the obligation of yielding to the demands of those specific men." In referring to "men in severalty", Bell is referring to corporate kin groups such as lineages which, in having paid bride price, retain a right in a woman's offspring even if her husband (a lineage member) deceases ( Levirate marriage ). In referring to "men (male or female)", Bell

968-435: A form of human rights abuse, with concerns arising over domestic abuse, forced marriage, and neglect. The vast majority of the world's countries, including virtually all of the world's developed nations, do not permit polygamy. There have been calls for the abolition of polygamy in developing countries. Polygyny usually grants wives equal status, although the husband may have personal preferences. One type of de facto polygyny

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1056-597: A form of plural mating, as are those societies dominated by female-headed families in the Caribbean , Mauritius and Brazil where there is frequent rotation of unmarried partners. In all, these account for 16 to 24% of the "monogamous" category. Serial monogamy creates a new kind of relative, the "ex-". The "ex-wife", for example, may remain an active part of her "ex-husband's" or "ex-wife's" life, as they may be tied together by transfers of resources (alimony, child support), or shared child custody. Bob Simpson notes that in

1144-541: A form of temporary marriage, it was practiced in 17th-century Scotland and has been revived in Neopaganism , though misattributed as Celtic rather than Danish and Old English. Sometimes the term is also used synonymously with " wedding " or " marriage " among Neopagans to avoid perceived non-Pagan religious connotations associated with those terms. It is also used, apparently ahistorically, to refer to an alleged pre-Christian practice of symbolically fastening or wrapping

1232-403: A legitimacy-based definition of marriage is circular in societies where illegitimacy has no other legal or social implications for a child other than the mother being unmarried. Edmund Leach criticized Gough's definition for being too restrictive in terms of recognized legitimate offspring and suggested that marriage be viewed in terms of the different types of rights it serves to establish. In

1320-571: A male to whom they are married or divorced. Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at a time, the relationship is called polygyny , and there is no marriage bond between the wives; and when a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, it is called polyandry , and there is no marriage bond between the husbands. If a marriage includes multiple husbands or wives, it can be called group marriage . A molecular genetic study of global human genetic diversity argued that sexual polygyny

1408-615: A much older man. Several kinds of same-sex marriages have been documented in Indigenous and lineage-based cultures. In the Americas, We'wha ( Zuni ), was a lhamana (male individuals who, at least some of the time, dress and live in the roles usually filled by women in that culture); a respected artist, We'wha served as an emissary of the Zuni to Washington, where he met President Grover Cleveland . We'wha had at least one husband who

1496-413: A person with higher or lower status than them. Others want to marry people who have similar status. In many societies, women marry men who are of higher social status. There are marriages where each party has sought a partner of similar status. There are other marriages in which the man is older than the woman. Some persons also wish to engage in transactional relationship for money rather than love (thus

1584-405: A practice called sororal polygyny ; the pre-existing relationship between the co-wives is thought to decrease potential tensions within the marriage. Fox argues that "the major difference between polygyny and monogamy could be stated thus: while plural mating occurs in both systems, under polygyny several unions may be recognized as being legal marriages while under monogamy only one of the unions

1672-515: A royal lineage by attaching these wives' children to it. The relationships are considered polygynous, not polyandrous, because the female husband is in fact assuming masculine gendered political roles. Religious groups have differing views on the legitimacy of polygyny . It is allowed in Islam and Confucianism . Judaism and Christianity have mentioned practices involving polygyny in the past, however, outright religious acceptance of such practices

1760-466: A sperm donation. Muslim controversies related to Nikah Mut'ah have resulted in the practice being confined mostly to Shi'ite communities. The matrilineal Mosuo of China practice what they call "walking marriage". In some jurisdictions cohabitation , in certain circumstances, may constitute a common-law marriage , an unregistered partnership , or otherwise provide the unmarried partners with various rights and responsibilities; and in some countries,

1848-500: A strong correlation between intensive plough agriculture, dowry and monogamy. This pattern was found in a broad swath of Eurasian societies from Japan to Ireland. The majority of Sub-Saharan African societies that practice extensive hoe agriculture, in contrast, show a correlation between " bride price " and polygamy. A further study drawing on the Ethnographic Atlas showed a statistical correlation between increasing size of

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1936-449: A strong indicator for female autonomy and is continuously used by economic history research. Marriage can be recognized by a state , an organization , a religious authority, a tribal group , a local community , or peers. It is often viewed as a contract . A religious marriage ceremony is performed by a religious institution to recognize and create the rights and obligations intrinsic to matrimony in that religion. Religious marriage

2024-586: A woman such that children born to the woman are the recognized legitimate offspring of both partners." In recognition of a practice by the Nuer people of Sudan allowing women to act as a husband in certain circumstances (the ghost marriage ), Kathleen Gough suggested modifying this to "a woman and one or more other persons." In an analysis of marriage among the Nayar , a polyandrous society in India, Gough found that

2112-449: Is concubinage , where only one woman gets a wife's rights and status, while other women remain legal house mistresses. Although a society may be classified as polygynous, not all marriages in it necessarily are; monogamous marriages may in fact predominate. It is to this flexibility that Anthropologist Robin Fox attributes its success as a social support system: "This has often meant – given

2200-455: Is "a relationship established between a woman and one or more other persons, which provides a child born to the woman under circumstances not prohibited by the rules of relationship, is accorded full birth-status rights common to normal members of his society or social stratum." Economic anthropologist Duran Bell has criticized the legitimacy-based definition on the basis that some societies do not require marriage for legitimacy. He argued that

2288-505: Is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses . It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and between them and their in-laws . It is nearly a cultural universal , but the definition of marriage varies between cultures and religions , and over time. Typically, it is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual , are acknowledged or sanctioned. In some cultures, marriage

2376-410: Is also liable to other penalties, which also vary between jurisdictions. Governments that support monogamy may allow easy divorce. In a number of Western countries, divorce rates approach 50%. Those who remarry do so usually no more than three times. Divorce and remarriage can thus result in "serial monogamy", i.e. having multiple marriages but only one legal spouse at a time. This can be interpreted as

2464-717: Is different from the practice of polygamy, since it requires wealth to establish multiple households for multiple wives. The actual practice of polygamy in a tolerant society may actually be low, with the majority of aspirant polygamists practicing monogamous marriage. Tracking the occurrence of polygamy is further complicated in jurisdictions where it has been banned, but continues to be practiced ( de facto polygamy ). Zeitzen also notes that Western perceptions of African society and marriage patterns are biased by "contradictory concerns of nostalgia for traditional African culture versus critique of polygamy as oppressive to women or detrimental to development." Polygamy has been condemned as being

2552-623: Is found in other parts of the world as well (including some Mormon sects and Muslim families in the United States). In some societies such as the Lovedu of South Africa, or the Nuer of the Sudan, aristocratic women may become female 'husbands.' In the Lovedu case, this female husband may take a number of polygamous wives. This is not a lesbian relationship, but a means of legitimately expanding

2640-611: Is known variously as sacramental marriage in Christianity (especially Catholicism ), nikah in Islam , nissuin in Judaism , and various other names in other faith traditions, each with their own constraints as to what constitutes, and who can enter into, a valid religious marriage. The word marriage appeared around 1300 and is borrowed from Old French mariage (12th century), itself descended from Vulgar Latin maritāticum (11th century), ultimately tracing to

2728-627: Is most common in egalitarian societies marked by high male mortality or male absenteeism. It is associated with partible paternity , the cultural belief that a child can have more than one father. The explanation for polyandry in the Himalayan Mountains is related to the scarcity of land; the marriage of all brothers in a family to the same wife ( fraternal polyandry ) allows family land to remain intact and undivided. If every brother married separately and had children, family land would be split into unsustainable small plots. In Europe, this

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2816-507: Is observed for both boys and girls, the overwhelming majority of child spouses are girls. In many cases, only one marriage-partner is a child, usually the female, due to the importance placed upon female virginity . Causes of child marriage include poverty , bride price , dowry , laws that allow child marriages, religious and social pressures , regional customs, fear of remaining unmarried, and perceived inability of women to work for money. Today, child marriages are widespread in parts of

2904-595: Is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing sexual activity . A marriage ceremony is called a wedding , while a private marriage is sometimes called an elopement . Around the world, there has been a general trend towards ensuring equal rights for women and ending discrimination and harassment against couples who are interethnic , interracial , interfaith , interdenominational , interclass , intercommunity , transnational , and same-sex as well as immigrant couples, couples with an immigrant spouse, and other minority couples. Debates persist regarding

2992-482: Is referring to women within the lineage who may stand in as the "social fathers" of the wife's children born of other lovers. (See Nuer " ghost marriage ".) Monogamy is a form of marriage in which an individual has only one spouse during their lifetime or at any one time (serial monogamy). Anthropologist Jack Goody 's comparative study of marriage around the world utilizing the Ethnographic Atlas found

3080-501: Is so recognized. Often, however, it is difficult to draw a hard and fast line between the two." As polygamy in Africa is increasingly subject to legal limitations, a variant form of de facto (as opposed to legal or de jure ) polygyny is being practiced in urban centers. Although it does not involve multiple (now illegal) formal marriages, the domestic and personal arrangements follow old polygynous patterns. The de facto form of polygyny

3168-595: Is the only body that can register a Pagan Celebrant in the UK. They also provide chaplains for people in hospital, university students, and prisoners. The SPF publishes a quarterly digital magazine called eSPIN for members. Every year they organise a conference which includes talks, workshops, discussion groups, entertainment, healing therapies, and market stalls. Their annual summer camp is targeted towards families and takes place in Clatt Village Hall. Leaders in

3256-650: Is wide cross-cultural variation in the social rules governing the selection of a partner for marriage. There is variation in the degree to which partner selection is an individual decision by the partners or a collective decision by the partners' kin groups, and there is variation in the rules regulating which partners are valid choices. The United Nations World Fertility Report of 2003 reports that 89% of all people get married before age forty-nine. The percent of women and men who marry before age forty-nine drops to nearly 50% in some nations and reaches near 100% in other nations. In other cultures with less strict rules governing

3344-705: The Isle of Skye , show some records of 'Handfast" or "left-handed" marriage occurring in the late 1600s, when the Gaelic scholar Martin Martin noted, "It was an ancient custom in the Isles that a man take a maid as his wife and keep her for the space of a year without marrying her; and if she pleased him all the while, he married her at the end of the year and legitimatised her children; but if he did not love her, he returned her to her parents." The most disastrous war fought between

3432-526: The Latin maritātus 'married', past participle of maritāre 'to marry'. The adjective marītus, -a, -um 'matrimonial, nuptial' could also be used, through nominalization , in the masculine form as a noun for 'husband' and in the feminine form for 'wife'. The related word matrimony is borrowed from the Old French word matremoine , which appears around 1300 CE and is in turn ultimately

3520-470: The Middle Ages but declined in the early modern period. In some circumstances handfasting was open to abuse, with persons who had undergone "troth-plight" occasionally refusing to proceed to a church wedding, creating ambiguity about their former betrothed's marital status. Shakespeare negotiated and witnessed a handfasting in 1604, and was called as a witness in the suit Bellott v Mountjoy about

3608-590: The Oneida Perfectionists in up-state New York. Of the 250 societies reported by the American anthropologist George Murdock in 1949, only the Kaingang of Brazil had any group marriages at all. A child marriage is a marriage where one or both spouses are under the age of 18. It is related to child betrothal and teenage pregnancy . Child marriage was common throughout history, even up until

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3696-501: The 1900s in the United States, where in 1880 CE, in the state of Delaware , the age of consent for marriage was 7 years old. Still, in 2017, over half of the 50 United States have no explicit minimum age to marry and several states set the age as low as 14. Today it is condemned by international human rights organizations. Child marriages are often arranged between the families of the future bride and groom, sometimes as soon as

3784-516: The British case, serial monogamy creates an "extended family" – a number of households tied together in this way, including mobile children (possible exes may include an ex-wife, an ex-brother-in-law, etc., but not an "ex-child"). These "unclear families" do not fit the mould of the monogamous nuclear family . As a series of connected households, they come to resemble the polygynous model of separate households maintained by mothers with children, tied by

3872-563: The Chiefs in 1616, was induced to insert a clause in the Statutes of Iona by which "marriages contracted for several [archaic definition 'single'] years" were prohibited; and any who might disregard this regulation were to be "punished as fornicators". By the 18th century, the Kirk of Scotland no longer recognised marriages formed by mutual consent and subsequent sexual intercourse, even though

3960-563: The Italian loan word manifesto in English. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) forbade clandestine marriage, and required marriages to be publicly announced in churches by priests. In the sixteenth century, the Council of Trent legislated more specific requirements, such as the presence of a priest and two witnesses, as well as promulgation of the marriage announcement thirty days prior to

4048-630: The MacLeods and MacDonalds of Skye culminated in the Battle of Coire Na Creiche when Donald Gorm Mor, who handfasted [for a year and a day] with Margaret MacLeod, a sister of Rory Mor of Dunvegan , ignominiously expelled his mistress from Duntulm. It is probable that it was as a result of this war that Lord Ochiltree's Committee, which formed the Statutes of Iona in 1609 and the Regulations for

4136-491: The Mormons, a home and family for every woman." Nonetheless, polygyny is a gender issue which offers men asymmetrical benefits. In some cases, there is a large age discrepancy (as much as a generation) between a man and his youngest wife, compounding the power differential between the two. Tensions not only exist between genders, but also within genders; senior and junior men compete for wives, and senior and junior wives in

4224-496: The SPF have long campaigned for improved recognition and treatment of Neopagans in Scotland. One of their most notable campaigns has been to achieve census recognition for Paganism on the Scottish Census . Campaigning began in 2001 to get a Pagan tick-box in the census after numbers for small religious minorities were not released. The SPF believes that having a Pagan tick-box in the census is the only way to accurately report

4312-699: The Scottish Pagan Federation was founded as an independent organisation in 2006. After the Macintyres announced their retirement in 2017, Steffy Von Scott and Jennifer Connolly took over as District Managers. The SPF is organised around three core principles. These principles are designed to be compatible with the Scottish Government's legal recognition of Paganism as a religion within Scotland and with their strong interfaith engagement. Public education to NGOs, civic society,

4400-590: The Scottish civil authorities did. To minimise any resulting legal actions, the ceremony was to be performed in public. This situation persisted until 1939, when Scottish marriage laws were reformed by the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939 and handfasting was no longer recognised. The existence of handfasting as a distinct form of "trial marriage" was doubted by A. E. Anton, in Handfasting in Scotland (1958). In

4488-577: The actual Kennealy-Morrison portraying the Celtic neopagan priestess). The term has entered the English-speaking mainstream, most likely from neopagan wedding ceremonies during the early 2000s, often erroneously being described as "pre-Christian" by wedding planners. Evidence that the term "handfasting" had been re-interpreted as describing this ceremony specifically is found in the later 2000s, e.g. "handfasting—the blessed marriage rite in which

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4576-654: The article, he asserted that the first reference to such a practice is by Thomas Pennant in his 1790 Tour in Scotland , that this report had been taken at face value throughout the 19th century, and was perpetuated in Walter Scott 's 1820 novel The Monastery . However, the Pennant claim in 1790 was not the first time this had been discussed or put to print, as the Martin Martin texts predate Pennant by almost 100 years. The term "handfasting" or "hand-fasting"

4664-624: The center for women's studies at Beijing University, told a Newsday correspondent, "Walking marriages reflect sweeping changes in Chinese society." A "walking marriage" refers to a type of temporary marriage formed by the Mosuo of China, in which male partners live elsewhere and make nightly visits. A similar arrangement in Saudi Arabia , called misyar marriage , also involves the husband and wife living separately but meeting regularly. There

4752-598: The ceremony. These laws did not extend to the regions affected by the Protestant Reformation . In England, clergy performed many clandestine marriages, such as so-called Fleet Marriage , which were held legally valid; and in Scotland , unsolemnised common-law marriage was still valid. From about the 12th to the 17th century, "handfasting" in England was simply a term for "engagement to be married", or

4840-585: The dowry in 1612. Historians speculate that his own marriage to Anne Hathaway was so conducted when he was a young man in 1582, as the practice still had credence in Warwickshire at the time. After the beginning of the 17th century, gradual changes in English law meant the presence of an officiating priest or magistrate became necessary for a marriage to be legal. Finally the 1753 Marriage Act , aimed at suppressing clandestine marriages by introducing more stringent conditions for validity, effectively ended

4928-635: The earliest documented same-sex wedding in Latin Christendom occurred in Rome, Italy , at the San Giovanni a Porta Latina basilica in 1581. Several cultures have practised temporary and conditional marriages. Examples include the Celtic practice of handfasting and fixed-term marriages in the Muslim community. Pre-Islamic Arabs practiced a form of temporary marriage that carries on today in

5016-490: The girl is born. However, in the late 1800s in England and the United States, feminist activists began calling for raised age of consent laws, which was eventually handled in the 1920s, having been raised to 16–18. Child marriages can also occur in the context of bride kidnapping . In the year 1552 CE, John Somerford and Jane Somerford Brereton were both married at the ages of 3 and 2, respectively. Twelve years later, in 1564, John filed for divorce. While child marriage

5104-430: The group lacked a husband role in the conventional sense. The husband role, unitary in the west, was instead divided between a non-resident "social father" of the woman's children, and her lovers, who were the actual procreators. None of these men had legal rights to the woman's child. This forced Gough to disregard sexual access as a key element of marriage and to define it in terms of legitimacy of offspring alone: marriage

5192-418: The group marriage, and all members of the marriage share parental responsibility for any children arising from the marriage. No country legally condones group marriages, neither under the law nor as a common law marriage, but historically it has been practiced by some cultures of Polynesia, Asia, Papua New Guinea and the Americas – as well as in some intentional communities and alternative subcultures such as

5280-572: The groups from which a partner can be chosen the selection of a marriage partner may involve either the couple going through a selection process of courtship or the marriage may be arranged by the couple's parents or an outside party, a matchmaker . Some people want to marry a person that is older or younger than they. This may impact marital stability and partners with more than a 10-year gap in age tend to experience social disapproval In addition, older women (older than 35) have increased health risks when getting pregnant. Some people want to marry

5368-404: The handfasting custom in England. In February 1539 Marie Pieris , a French lady-in-waiting to Mary of Guise , the consort of James V of Scotland , was married by handfasting to Lord Seton at Falkland Palace . This ceremony was recorded in the royal accounts for the payment to an apothecary for his work on the day of "Lord Seytounis handfasting". The Scottish Hebrides , particularly in

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5456-498: The hands of a couple together during the wedding ceremony. The verb to handfast in the sense of "to formally promise, to make a contract" is recorded for Late Old English , especially in the context of a contract of marriage. The derived handfasting as for a ceremony of engagement or betrothal, is recorded in Early Modern English . The term was presumably loaned into English from Old Norse handfesta "to strike

5544-443: The hands of you and your beloved are wrapped in ribbon as you 'tie the knot'." By the 2010s, "handfasting ceremonies" were on offer by commercial wedding organizers and had mostly lost their neopagan association (apart from occasional claims that attributes the ceremony to the "ancient Celts"). The term "handfasting ribbon" appears from about 2005. Temporary marriage Marriage , also called matrimony or wedlock ,

5632-423: The husband had freedom to engage in outside sexual liaisons. The Codex Theodosianus ( C. Th. 9.7.3) issued in 438 CE imposed severe penalties or death on same-sex relationships, but the exact intent of the law and its relation to social practice is unclear, as only a few examples of same-sex relationships in that culture exist. Same-sex unions were celebrated in some regions of China, such as Fujian . Possibly

5720-419: The imbalance in the sex ratios, the higher male infant mortality, the shorter life span of males, the loss of males in wartime, etc. – that often women were left without financial support from husbands. To correct this condition, females had to be killed at birth, remain single, become prostitutes, or be siphoned off into celibate religious orders. Polygynous systems have the advantage that they can promise, as did

5808-459: The laws recognize cohabitation in lieu of institutional marriage for taxation and social security benefits. This is the case, for example, in Australia. Cohabitation may be an option pursued as a form of resistance to traditional institutionalized marriage. However, in this context, some nations reserve the right to define the relationship as marital, or otherwise to regulate the relation, even if

5896-424: The legal status of married women, leniency towards violence within marriage, customs such as dowry and bride price , marriageable age , and criminalization of premarital and extramarital sex . Individuals may marry for several reasons, including legal , social , libidinal , emotional , financial , spiritual , cultural , economic , political , religious , sexual , and romantic purposes. In some areas of

5984-521: The media and the general public is a core function of the SPF. Pagans still face prejudice in Scotland, so the SPF works to counter what they see as misrepresentations of their faith. Engagement with interfaith groups has formed a key role in the SPF's outreach strategy. The SPF also exists to serve the Neopagan community of Scotland. They serve as a resource for Neopagans looking for celebrants in handfasting ceremonies or other religious rituals. The SPF

6072-475: The mere act of propagation till after the birth of the offspring." In The Future of Marriage in Western Civilization (1936), he rejected his earlier definition, instead provisionally defining marriage as "a relation of one or more men to one or more women that is recognized by custom or law". The anthropological handbook Notes and Queries (1951) defined marriage as "a union between a man and

6160-547: The number of Pagans in the UK, since Pagans use a large variety of write-in labels to identify their religion when there is no Pagan option and are sometimes suspicious of government forms. They hope that getting a more accurate count will enable them to better campaign for including Paganism in Religious Education curricula in the UK. In the 2011 Census , over 5,194 people identified themselves as Pagan in Scotland. The Scottish Census has confirmed that there will be

6248-443: The number of spouses, as in bi-gamy (two spouses, generally illegal in most nations), and poly-gamy (more than one spouse). Societies show variable acceptance of polygamy as a cultural ideal and practice. According to the Ethnographic Atlas , of 1,231 societies noted, 186 were monogamous; 453 had occasional polygyny; 588 had more frequent polygyny, and 4 had polyandry. However, as Miriam Zeitzen writes, social tolerance for polygamy

6336-508: The organisation are activists for environmental and ecological causes as they see protecting the environment as a religious duty. The SPF is also committed to creating a welcoming space within Scottish paganism for LGBTQIA+ people. The SPF was involved in the campaign to legalise same-sex marriage in Scotland as part of the Faith in Marriage coalition. The first pagan same-sex wedding in the UK

6424-591: The practice of Nikah mut'ah , a fixed-term marriage contract. The Islamic prophet Muhammad sanctioned a temporary marriage – sigheh in Iran and muta'a in Iraq – which can provide a legitimizing cover for sex workers. The same forms of temporary marriage have been used in Egypt, Lebanon and Iran to make the donation of a human ova legal for in vitro fertilisation ; a woman cannot, however, use this kind of marriage to obtain

6512-537: The relation has not been registered with the state or a religious institution. Conversely, institutionalized marriages may not involve cohabitation. In some cases, couples living together do not wish to be recognized as married. This may occur because pension or alimony rights are adversely affected; because of taxation considerations; because of immigration issues, or for other reasons. Such marriages have also been increasingly common in Beijing . Guo Jianmei, director of

6600-400: The same household may experience radically different life conditions, and internal hierarchy. Several studies have suggested that the wive's relationship with other women, including co-wives and husband's female kin, are more critical relationships than that with her husband for her productive, reproductive and personal achievement. In some societies, the co-wives are relatives, usually sisters,

6688-402: The society, the belief in "high gods" to support human morality, and monogamy. In the countries which do not permit polygamy, a person who marries in one of those countries a person while still being lawfully married to another commits the crime of bigamy . In all cases, the second marriage is considered legally null and void. Besides the second and subsequent marriages being void, the bigamist

6776-501: The validity of handfasting, it was expected to be solemnised by a church wedding fairly soon afterwards. Penalties might follow for those who did not comply. Ideally the couple were also supposed to refrain from intercourse until then. Complaints by preachers suggest that they often did not wait, but at least until the early 1600s the common attitude to this kind of anticipatory behaviour seems to have been lenient. Handfasting remained an acceptable way of marrying in England throughout

6864-421: The world, arranged marriage , forced marriage , polygyny marriage , polyandry marriage , group marriage , coverture marriage , child marriage , cousin marriage , sibling marriage , teenage marriage , avunculate marriage , incestuous marriage , and bestiality marriage are practiced and legally permissible, while others areas outlaw them to protect human rights . Female age at marriage has proven to be

6952-521: The world; being most common in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa , with more than half of the girls in some countries in those regions being married before 18. The incidence of child marriage has been falling in most parts of the world. In developed countries, child marriage is outlawed or restricted. Girls who marry before 18 are at greater risk of becoming victims of domestic violence , than those who marry later, especially when they are married to

7040-476: Was also known in England as "troth-plight". Gifts were often exchanged, especially rings: a gold coin broken in half between the couple was also common. Other tokens recorded include gloves, a crimson ribbon tied in a knot, and even a silver toothpick. Handfasting might take place anywhere, indoors or out. It was frequently in the home of the bride, but according to records handfastings also took place in taverns, in an orchard and even on horseback. The presence of

7128-412: Was appropriated into modern Celtic neopaganism and Wicca for wedding ceremonies from at least the late 1960s, apparently first used in print by Hans Holzer . Handfasting was mentioned in the 1980 Jim Morrison biography No One Here Gets Out Alive and again in the 1991 film The Doors , where a version of the real 1970 handfasting ceremony of Morrison and Patricia Kennealy was depicted (with

7216-452: Was as binding as any vow taken in church before a priest. During handfasting, the man and woman, in turn, would take the other by the right hand and declare aloud that they there and then accepted each other as husband and wife. The words might vary but traditionally consisted of a simple formula such as "I (Name) take thee (Name) to my wedded husband/wife, till death us depart, and thereto I plight thee my troth". Because of this, handfasting

7304-485: Was conducted in 2015 by Louise Park, the presiding officer of the SPF. Handfasting (Neopaganism) Handfasting is a traditional practice that, depending on the term's usage, may define an unofficiated wedding (in which a couple marries without an officiant , usually with the intent of later undergoing a second wedding with an officiant), a betrothal (an engagement in which a couple has formally promised to wed, and which can be broken only through divorce), or

7392-420: Was generally recognized as such. While it is a relatively new practice to grant same-sex couples the same form of legal marital recognition as commonly granted to mixed-sex couples, there is some history of recorded same-sex unions around the world. Ancient Greek same-sex relationships were like modern companionate marriages, unlike their different-sex marriages in which the spouses had few emotional ties, and

7480-403: Was less binding, as the couple took hands only to declare their intention to marry each other at some future date. The latter was closer to a modern engagement and could, in theory, be ended with the consent of both parties – but only providing intercourse had not occurred. If intercourse did take place, then the sponsalia de futuro "was automatically converted into de iure marriage". Despite

7568-485: Was not addressed until its rejection in later passages. They do explicitly prohibit polygyny today. Polyandry is notably more rare than polygyny, though less rare than the figure commonly cited in the Ethnographic Atlas (1980) which listed only those polyandrous societies found in the Himalayan Mountains. More recent studies have found 53 societies outside the 28 found in the Himalayans which practice polyandry. It

7656-406: Was prevented through the social practice of impartible inheritance (the dis-inheriting of most siblings, some of whom went on to become celibate monks and priests). Group marriage (also known as multi-lateral marriage ) is a form of polyamory in which more than two persons form a family unit, with all the members of the group marriage being considered to be married to all the other members of

7744-481: Was typical of human reproductive patterns until the shift to sedentary farming communities approximately 10,000 to 5,000 years ago in Europe and Asia, and more recently in Africa and the Americas. As noted above, Anthropologist Jack Goody 's comparative study of marriage around the world utilizing the Ethnographic Atlas found that the majority of Sub-Saharan African societies that practice extensive hoe agriculture show

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