Dysfunction of Love Marriages

Arranged marriage seems more functional in the institution of marriage than romantic love marriages are. While there are more “romantic love” marriages today, 88% of 166 societies around the world have love marriages, they don’t seem to function within the parameters of what marriage is about.  An example of the dysfunction is the high divorce rate in the United States where mostly love marriages take place. Whereas, an example of a place where marriage is functional is in India, where the predominant type of marriage is arranged marriage.

Marriage is a “group’s approved mating arrangements, usually marked by a ritual of some sort to indicate the couples new public status”.  The institution of marriage should function to contribute to the socialization of children, economic production, care of the sick and aged, sexual control, and Reproduction. In the United States, marriage doesn’t strictly follow those rules; marriage is more of a way to make the individual happy or those in the nuclear family, a wife, husband, and children. In arranged marriage cultures, like India, these guidelines don’t just apply to the nuclear family, but to the entire extended family. It is said that when someone gets their marriage arranged they aren’t just marrying their husband or wife; they are marrying their entire extended family. All of the guidelines are pretty strictly followed and the divorce rate has stayed very low even as India’s population grows.

            In arranged marriages, decisions affect the extended family as well as those who are married, so every decision whether it is economic or otherwise has to benefit everyone in some way. In love marriages that is not expected, the decisions made by the married couple will usually only affect those closest to them, like their kids. Due to the idea the extended family is not included in the decision making process within love marriages, the elders of the family usually get left out and aren’t respected or cared for as much as they would be in an arranged marriage. In the US, marriage has become more relaxed, if people get married at all it may or may not last and kids play a very small role in the decision of whether their parents will stay together or not. It is very common, as well, for people to not get married at all. They may still have kids but they do not contribute much economic production to society and can inhibit the socialization of their children by emotionally damaging them.

A functionalist might argue that arranged marriages are more functional to society and the institution of marriage than love marriages. They might say that the functions of a marriage are followed pretty closely by those who are in an arranged marriage, as everyone is accounted for and marriage is built less on just attraction and built more on economic functionality and status. Divorce, a dysfunction of the marriage institution, is more common in love marriages because of who is considered getting married to whom and why. If dysfunction exists primarily in one type of marriage, it must not be functional to society.