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During the age of empires (1800–1900), marriage was a key transition in the life course worldwide, a rite of passage everywhere with major cultural significance. This volume presents an overview of the period with essays on Courtship and Ritual; Religion, State and Law; Kinship and Social Networks; the Family Economy; Love and Sex; the Breaking of Vows; and Representations of Marriage. Using this framework, this volume explores global trends in marriage. In nineteenth-century Western Europe, marriage was increasingly regarded as the only way to reach happiness and self-fulfilment. In the United States former slaves obtained the right to marry, leading to a convergence in marriage patterns between the black and white populations. In Latin America, marriage remained less common, but marriage rates were nevertheless on the rise. In African and Asian societies, European colonial powers tried to change indigenous marriage customs like polygamy and arranged marriages, but had limited success. Across the globe, in a time of turbulent political and economic change, marriage and the family remained crucial institutions, the linchpins of society that they had been for centuries.
Over the past two and a half centuries, the global population has witnessed significant improvements in health and longevity, with life expectancy at birth more than doubling in many regions. This transformation ranks among the greatest achievements in human history. This volume brings together studies that reveal the complexity behind this transformation and provide a broad exploration of how these histories of health have evolved across different social and geographic contexts. The contributions explore how mortality and morbidity were recorded, understood, and experienced, focusing on the roles of social class, migration status, and sex, as well as demographic shifts and local conditions in shaping patterns of infant, childhood, and adult mortality. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that the history of health cannot be understood as a straightforward narrative of continuous linear progress. Instead, they demonstrate it is a multifaceted process marked by societal challenges, unequal access to resources, and ongoing efforts by individuals and communities to adapt and survive in a changing world.
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Endogamy, the custom forbidding marriage outside one's social class, is central to social history. This study considers the factors determining who married whom, whether partner selection changed over the past three hundred years and regional differences between Europe and South America.