Different people define it in different ways. Sociologists cannot accept the same meaning. For our purposes, we have defined marriage as a legally recognized social contract between two persons, which is traditionally based on sexual intercourse and affects the permanence of the union.
In formulating a comprehensive definition, we must also consider variations such as whether a formal legal union is necessary (think of a common law marriage and its equivalents), or whether more than two people can participate.
Other changes in the definition of marriage include whether spouses are of the opposite sex or of the same sex, and how one of the traditional expectations of marriage (having children) can be understood today. Based on Simel's distinction between social and contact forms and content (see Chapter 6), we can analyze the family as a social form that exists within five different materials or interests in sexual activity, economic cooperation, reproduction, child socialization, and emotion.
As we expect from Simmel's analysis, some or all of these substances are expressed in a variety of family types: nuclear families, polygamous families, extended families, same-parent families, single-parent families, zero-child families, etc., however, coincidentally in the form of family adoption it will not be; Instead, these forms are determined by cultural traditions, social structures, economic pressures, and historical changes.
They are subject to intense moral and political debate about the definition of family, "family decline" or policy options that best serve the well-being of children. In these discussions, sociology demonstrates its practical side as a discipline that can provide the real knowledge needed to make evidence-based decisions on political and moral issues related to the family.
Sociologists are interested in the relationship between the marriage organization and the family organization, because, historically, marriages form a family, and society-built families are the most basic social unit. Both marriage and family play an acceptable status role in society.
