Originally posted by Darkslash
Perhaps I was too succinct... I specifically meant marriage/family system of raising successive generations.
Ah, I see...I was getting a slightly different message...

Anyways, I happen to find a culture's system of decent, lineage, and marriage to be pretty fascinating. By contrast, many other cultures have lineage and decent systems that are easily more complex than ours. I actually find that many cultures have family systems that are more successful than ours in certain aspects, too (ours placing the focus on the nuclear family). For instance, in many tribal cultures, there are no such things as orphans. Every child is a part of a lineage or clan and is raised by their extended family instead of just a parent or two...such a system tends to make raising children and passing down cultural traits, morals, etc more successful. I also find marriage fascinating...especially how polygamous relationships benefit the community as a whole in many cultures.

If you look at marriage and family in America, it seems that while the basic family ideal (which the focus of society is mainly on the nuclear family) has stayed the same (correct me if I'm wrong)...marriage has had changes here and there. Some aspects of marriage, such as arranged marriages, have been defined by a person's specific cultural background and then changed in later generations as the idea of marriage changed through the generations. But the concept of marriage in society as a whole has changed over time, too. Evidence in this would be such things as Anti-miscegenation laws being passed in some states in the last 200 years and later repealed as society came to accept interracial marriage. Even though the idea of interracial marriage is widely accepted by society today, it seems that about 50 years ago and before that anti-miscegenation was pretty common in society.