Socio-Cultural Dimensions Of Marriage In Rural India

This book is an outcome of empiric study cross-culturally carried out in early part of 1980?s in rural areas of South Central India viz, Andhra Pradesh. The theme of the study focusses on Nuptiality (Marriage) and particularly on age at marriage and its determinants, decision making on marriage, inter-generational changes in marriage patterns etc. Although most aspects of this study cover both husbands and wife as a unit, the last but one chapter is extended further to the marriageable children/brothers of the main respondents, which enhances the predictability of the findings for the immediate future and also for the next two decades or even more. The determinants of age at marriage considered here cover several important cultural, socio-economic, demographic, decision-making and modernization variables. This work will be found as of great utility and the implications of the findings can be beneficial for (i) policy formulations by health, social welfare and planning departments, (ii) evolving educational strategies for improving the quality of future married life and (iii) strengthening health and population education programmes in developing countries. It also can serve as a reference book for administrators, planners, policy makers, educationists and teachers. More than anything else it very well serves as a source book for further research to students of social sciences, health, demography and population studies. Added to these academic values, it also contributes to the existing empirical data for developing wider generalisations, when such literature on a wider scale is made available from different cultural, ecological and differentially developing regions. Such efforts could enhance the understanding of society and its change over time.