SOC244H5 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Bride Burning, The Marriage Market, Dowry Death
Document Summary
Economic, legal, and historical aspects of marriage. Marriage, relationship is a social construction (it is constructed by society, the concept of love is constructed by society, which is dominant in western society) Who will marry (who will remain single?) Structural functionalist view on marriage: society is like the human body, so social institutions work together like organs to help support the body, they highlight the positive things of marriage, ex. Love and support, status (economic, social status, citizenship: economics (division of labor, wealth, sex, children, identity. Focus on conflict of power, how is is distributed. Exchange theory: walks away from structural functionalism: you look at social life in general as a cost-benefit analysis. According to exchange theorists, people would not get married costs outweighed the benefits. This is different from the other two because it focuses more on the individual. That"s an example of macro and micro level theories: this is a micro, because it focuses on individuals.
