Glossary

adultery: sexual relations with someone other than one’s spouse. In some ancient societies, adultery was considered a crime. Many modern cultures consider it to be grounds for divorce.

annulment: a declaration stating that a marriage is invalid. Religious groups and governments can annul marriages for various reasons. For example, if spouses are found to be close relatives, their marriage might be annulled.

betrothal: a promise that two people will be married

bride-price: a payment made by the groom’s family to the bride’s family. Traditionally, the bride-price was made to compensate a father for the loss of his daughter’s labor.

divorce: the act of legally dissolving a marriage

double standard: a set of rules that applies differently or more strictly to one group than to another. For example, society frequently condemns women, but not men for sexual promiscuity.

dowry: property, money, or goods that a bride’s family gives to a groom or to his family at the start of a marriage. A dowry helps ensure that a bride begins married life with some financial security. Dowry traditions vary by culture.

engagement: a promise or contract for a future marriage

eugenics: an attempt to improve human society by encouraging certain people to have children and by preventing other people from having children. Twentieth-century US miscegenation laws, which made it a crime for a black person to marry a white person, were based on eugenics. They reflected the erroneous idea that blacks are inferior to whites and that a mixed-race couple would have “inferior” children.

gender: the behavioral, cultural, and psychological norms, feelings, and practices that identify a person as masculine or feminine. Gender is distinct from a person’s biological sex, which is determined by reproductive body parts.

heterosexual: a person who feels sexual desire toward those of the opposite sex

homosexual: a person who feels sexual desire toward those of the same sex

honor killing: the murder of a family member who is thought to have disgraced or shamed the family. In some cultures, a girl or woman who has premarital sex or who weds someone of a different religion might be killed for dishonoring the family. Typically, male relatives carry out honor killings.

illegitimate child: an offspring born to parents who are not married to one another. In earlier eras in many cultures, illegitimate children had no legal standing within a family and could not inherit wealth, title, or property. US law no longer makes a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children.

impotence: the inability of a man to engage in sexual intercourse with and thereby impregnate a woman. In earlier eras in many cultures, impotence was considered grounds for divorce.

infertile: when a woman is incapable of becoming pregnant or a man is incapable of impregnating a woman

legitimate child: an offspring born to a married couple. In earlier eras and in many cultures, only legitimate children had full legal standing within a family. They could inherit wealth, title, and property.

levirate marriage: the forced marriage of a widow to the brother of her dead husband. Common in some ancient cultures, the marriage prevented the widow from marrying a new husband who was not related by blood to the old one. The goal of levirate marriages was to keep wealth within the same family.

LGBTQ+: an abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and others

marriage equality: the right to legal marriage for same-sex couples, including all legal benefits and protections provided to married heterosexual couples

miscegenation: marriage or sexual relations between people of different races. In the twentieth century, many US states prohibited miscegenation, especially between a white person and an African American person.

monogamy: being in a marriage or a sexual relationship with only one person at a time. Monogamy is the norm in Western cultures in the twenty-first century.

plural marriage: a general term for marriage to more than one person at a time

polyamory: a lifestyle that allows for open sexual and intimate relationships with more than one partner at a time

polyandry: marriage of a woman to more than one husband at one time

polygamy: a general term for marriage to more than one person at a time

polygyny: marriage of a man to more than one wife at a time. Many ancient societies allowed a man to have more than one wife, and the practice continues in the twenty-first century in some parts of the world.

transgender: having a sense of gender identity that does not correspond to a person's anatomy or to the sexual designation a person was given at birth