title: Marriage

text: In some parts of the world, women and girls accused of having sexual relations outside marriage are at risk of becoming victims of honor killings committed by their families. In 2011 several people were sentenced to death by stoning after being accused of adultery in Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Mali and Pakistan. Practices such as honor killings and stoning continue to be supported by mainstream politicians and other officials in some countries. In Pakistan, after the 2008 Balochistan honour killings in which five women were killed by tribesmen of the Umrani Tribe of Balochistan, Pakistani Federal Minister for Postal Services Israr Ullah Zehri defended the barbaric practice; he said: "These are centuries-old traditions, and I will continue to defend them. Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid."


title: Marriage

text: An issue that is a serious concern regarding marriage and which has been the object of international scrutiny is that of sexual violence within marriage. Throughout much of the history, in most cultures, sex in marriage was considered a 'right', that could be taken by force (often by a man from a woman), if 'denied'. As the concept of human rights started to develop in the 20th century, and with the arrival of second-wave feminism, such views, and laws, have become less widely held.


title: Marriage

text: The legal and social concept of marital rape has developed in most industrialized countries in the mid- to late 20th century; in many other parts of the world it is not recognized as a form of abuse, socially or legally. Several countries in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia made marital rape illegal before 1970, and other countries in Western Europe and the English-speaking Western world outlawed it in the 1980s and 1990s. In England and Wales, marital rape was made illegal in 1991. Although marital rape is being increasingly criminalized in developing countries too, cultural, religious, and traditional ideologies about "conjugal rights" remain very strong in many parts of the world; and even in many countries that have adequate laws against rape in marriage these laws are rarely enforced.


title: Marriage

text: Apart from the issue of rape committed against one's spouse, marriage is, in many parts of the world, closely connected with other forms of sexual violence: in some places, like Morocco, unmarried girls and women who are raped are often forced by their families to marry their rapist. Because being the victim of rape and losing virginity carry extreme social stigma, and the victims are deemed to have their "reputation" tarnished, a marriage with the rapist is arranged. This is claimed to be in the advantage of both the victim – who does not remain unmarried and does not lose social status – and of the rapist, who avoids punishment. In 2012, after a Moroccan 16-year-old girl committed suicide after having been forced by her family to marry her rapist and enduring further abuse by the rapist after they married, there have been protests from activists against this practice which is common in Morocco.


title: Marriage

text: In some societies, the very high social and religious importance of marital fidelity, especially female fidelity, has as result the criminalization of adultery, often with harsh penalties such as stoning or flogging; as well as leniency towards punishment of violence related to infidelity (such as honor killings). In the 21st century, criminal laws against adultery have become controversial with international organizations calling for their abolition. Opponents of adultery laws argue that these laws are a major contributor to discrimination and violence against women, as they are enforced selectively mostly against women; that they prevent women from reporting sexual violence; and that they maintain social norms which justify violent crimes committed against women by husbands, families and communities. A Joint Statement by the United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice states that "Adultery as a criminal offence violates women's human rights". Some human rights organizations argue that the criminalization of adultery also violates internationally recognized protections for private life, as it represents an arbitrary interference with an individual's privacy, which is not permitted under international law.


title: Marriage

text: The laws surrounding heterosexual marriage in many countries have come under international scrutiny because they contradict international standards of human rights; institutionalize violence against women, child marriage and forced marriage; require the permission of a husband for his wife to work in a paid job, sign legal documents, file criminal charges against someone, sue in civil court etc.; sanction the use by husbands of violence to "discipline" their wives; and discriminate against women in divorce.


title: Marriage

text: Such things were legal even in many Western countries until recently: for instance, in France, married women obtained the right to work without their husband's permission in 1965, and in West Germany women obtained this right in 1977 (by comparison women in East Germany had many more rights). In Spain, during Franco's era, a married woman needed her husband's consent, referred to as the "permiso marital", for almost all economic activities, including employment, ownership of property, and even traveling away from home; the "permiso marital" was abolished in 1975.


title: Marriage

text: An absolute submission of a wife to her husband is accepted as natural in many parts of the world, for instance surveys by UNICEF have shown that the percentage of women aged 15–49 who think that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances is as high as 90% in Afghanistan and Jordan, 87% in Mali, 86% in Guinea and Timor-Leste, 81% in Laos, 80% in Central African Republic. Detailed results from Afghanistan show that 78% of women agree with a beating if the wife "goes out without telling him [the husband]" and 76% agree "if she argues with him".


title: Marriage

text: Throughout history, and still today in many countries, laws have provided for extenuating circumstances, partial or complete defenses, for men who killed their wives due to adultery, with such acts often being seen as crimes of passion and being covered by legal defenses such as provocation or defense of family honor.


title: Marriage

text: While international law and conventions recognize the need for consent for entering a marriage – namely that people cannot be forced to get married against their will – the right to obtain a divorce is not recognized; therefore holding a person in a marriage against their will (if such person has consented to entering in it) is not considered a violation of human rights, with the issue of divorce being left at the appreciation of individual states.


title: Marriage

text: In the EU, the last country to allow divorce was Malta, in 2011. Around the world, the only countries to forbid divorce are Philippines and Vatican City, although in practice in many countries which use a fault-based divorce system obtaining a divorce is very difficult. The ability to divorce, in law and practice, has been and continues to be a controversial issue in many countries, and public discourse involves different ideologies such as feminism, social conservatism, religious interpretations.


title: Marriage

text: In recent years, the customs of dowry and bride price have received international criticism for inciting conflicts between families and clans; contributing to violence against women; promoting materialism; increasing property crimes (where men steal goods such as cattle in order to be able to pay the bride price); and making it difficult for poor people to marry. African women's rights campaigners advocate the abolishing of bride price, which they argue is based on the idea that women are a form of property which can be bought. Bride price has also been criticized for contributing to child trafficking as impoverished parents sell their young daughters to rich older men. A senior Papua New Guinea police officer has called for the abolishing of bride price arguing that it is one of the main reasons for the mistreatment of women in that country. The opposite practice of dowry has been linked to a high level of violence (see Dowry death) and to crimes such as extortion.


title: Marriage

text: Historically, and still in many countries, children born outside marriage suffered severe social stigma and discrimination. In England and Wales, such children were known as bastards and whoresons.


title: Marriage

text: There are significant differences between world regions in regard to the social and legal position of non-marital births, ranging from being fully accepted and uncontroversial to being severely stigmatized and discriminated.


title: Marriage

text: The 1975 European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock protects the rights of children born to unmarried parents. The convention states, among others, that: "The father and mother of a child born out of wedlock shall have the same obligation to maintain the child as if it were born in wedlock" and that "A child born out of wedlock shall have the same right of succession in the estate of its father and its mother and of a member of its father's or mother's family, as if it had been born in wedlock."


title: Marriage

text: While in most Western countries legal inequalities between children born inside and outside marriage have largely been abolished, this is not the case in some parts of the world.


title: Marriage

text: The legal status of an unmarried father differs greatly from country to country. Without voluntary formal recognition of the child by the father, in most cases there is a need of due process of law in order to establish paternity. In some countries however, unmarried cohabitation of a couple for a specific period of time does create a presumption of paternity similar to that of formal marriage. This is the case in Australia. Under what circumstances can a paternity action be initiated, the rights and responsibilities of a father once paternity has been established (whether he can obtain parental responsibility and whether he can be forced to support the child) as well as the legal position of a father who voluntarily acknowledges the child, vary widely by jurisdiction. A special situation arises when a married woman has a child by a man other than her husband. Some countries, such as Israel, refuse to accept a legal challenge of paternity in such a circumstance, in order to avoid the stigmatization of the child (see Mamzer, a concept under Jewish law). In 2010, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of a German man who had fathered twins with a married woman, granting him right of contact with the twins, despite the fact that the mother and her husband had forbidden him to see the children.


title: Marriage

text: The steps that an unmarried father must take in order to obtain rights to his child vary by country. In some countries (such as the UK – since 2003 in England and Wales, 2006 in Scotland, and 2002 in Northern Ireland) it is sufficient for the father to be listed on the birth certificate for him to have parental rights; in other countries, such as Ireland, simply being listed on the birth certificate does not offer any rights, additional legal steps must be taken (if the mother agrees, the parents can both sign a "statutory declaration", but if the mother does not agree, the father has to apply to court).


title: Marriage

text: Children born outside marriage have become more common, and in some countries, the majority. Recent data from Latin America showed figures for non-marital childbearing to be 74% for Colombia, 69% for Peru, 68% for Chile, 66% for Brazil, 58% for Argentina, 55% for Mexico. In 2012, in the European Union, 40% of births were outside marriage, and in the United States, in 2013, the figure was similar, at 41%. In the United Kingdom 48% of births were to unmarried women in 2012; in Ireland the figure was 35%.


title: Marriage

text: During the first half of the 20th century, unmarried women in some Western countries were coerced by authorities to give their children up for adoption. This was especially the case in Australia, through the forced adoptions in Australia, with most of these adoptions taking place between the 1950s and the 1970s. In 2013, Julia Gillard, then Prime Minister of Australia, offered a national apology to those affected by the forced adoptions.


title: Marriage

text: Some married couples choose not to have children. Others are unable to have children because of infertility or other factors preventing conception or the bearing of children. In some cultures, marriage imposes an "obligation" on women to bear children. In northern Ghana, for example, payment of bridewealth signifies a woman's requirement to bear children, and women using birth control face substantial threats of physical abuse and reprisals.


title: Marriage

text: Religions develop in specific geographic and social milieux. Religious attitudes and practices relating to marriage vary, but have many similarities.


title: Marriage

text: The Baháʼí Faith encourages marriage and views it as a mutually strengthening bond. A Baháʼí marriage is contingent on the consent of all living parents.


title: Marriage

text: Modern Christianity bases its views on marriage upon the teachings of Jesus and the Paul the Apostle. Many of the largest Christian denominations regard marriage as a sacrament, sacred institution, or covenant.


title: Marriage

text: The first known decrees on marriage were during the Roman Catholic Council of Trent (twenty-fourth session of 1563), decrees that made the validity of marriage dependent on the wedding occurring in the presence of a priest and two witnesses. The absence of a requirement of parental consent ended a debate that proceeded from the 12th century. In the case of a civil divorce, the innocent spouse had and has no right to marry again until the death of the other spouse terminates the still valid marriage, even if the other spouse was guilty of adultery.


title: Marriage

text: The Christian Church performed marriages in the narthex of the church prior to the 16th century, when the emphasis was on the marital contract and betrothal. Subsequently, the ceremony moved inside the sacristy of the church.


title: Marriage

text: Christians often marry for religious reasons, ranging from following the biblical injunction for a "man to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one", to accessing the Divine grace of the Roman Catholic Sacrament.


title: Marriage

text: Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, as well as many Anglicans and Methodists, consider marriage termed "holy matrimony" to be an expression of divine grace, termed a "sacrament" and "mystery" in the first two Christian traditions. In Western ritual, the ministers of the sacrament are the spouses themselves, with a bishop, priest, or deacon merely witnessing the union on behalf of the Church and blessing it. In Eastern ritual churches, the bishop or priest functions as the actual minister of the Sacred Mystery; Eastern Orthodox deacons may not perform marriages. Western Christians commonly refer to marriage as a vocation, while Eastern Christians consider it an ordination and a martyrdom, though the theological emphases indicated by the various names are not excluded by the teachings of either tradition. Marriage is commonly celebrated in the context of a Eucharistic service (a nuptial Mass or Divine Liturgy). The sacrament of marriage is indicative of the relationship between Christ and the Church.


title: Marriage

text: The Roman Catholic tradition of the 12th and 13th centuries defined marriage as a sacrament ordained by God, signifying the mystical marriage of Christ to his Church.


title: Marriage

text: The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.


title: Marriage

text: For Catholic and Methodist Christians, the mutual love between husband and wife becomes an image of the eternal love with which God loves humankind. In the United Methodist Church, the celebration of Holy Matrimony ideally occurs in the context of a Service of Worship, which includes the celebration of the Eucharist. Likewise, the celebration of marriage between two Catholics normally takes place during the public liturgical celebration of the Holy Mass, because of its sacramental connection with the unity of the Paschal mystery of Christ (Communion). Sacramental marriage confers a perpetual and exclusive bond between the spouses. By its nature, the institution of marriage and conjugal love is ordered to the procreation and upbringing of offspring. Marriage creates rights and duties in the Church between the spouses and towards their children: "[e]ntering marriage with the intention of never having children is a grave wrong and more than likely grounds for an annulment". According to Roman Catholic legislation, progeny of annulled relationships are considered legitimate. Civilly remarried persons who civilly divorced a living and lawful spouse are not separated from the Church, but they cannot receive Eucharistic Communion.


title: Marriage

text: Divorce and remarriage, while generally not encouraged, are regarded differently by each Christian denomination, with certain traditions, such as the Catholic Church, teaching the concept of an annulment. For example, the Reformed Church in America permits divorce and remarriage, while connexions such as the Evangelical Methodist Church Conference forbid divorce except in the case of fornication and do not allow for remarriage in any circumstance. The Eastern Orthodox Church allows divorce for a limited number of reasons, and in theory, but usually not in practice, requires that a marriage after divorce be celebrated with a penitential overtone. With respect to marriage between a Christian and a pagan, the early Church "sometimes took a more lenient view, invoking the so-called Pauline privilege of permissible separation (1 Cor. 7) as legitimate grounds for allowing a convert to divorce a pagan spouse and then marry a Christian."


title: Marriage

text: The Catholic Church adheres to the proscription of Jesus in "Matthew", 19: 6 that married spouses who have consummated their marriage "are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” Consequently, the Catholic Church understands that it is wholly without authority to terminate a sacramentally valid and consummated marriage, and its "Codex Iuris Canonici" (1983 Code of Canon Law) confirms this in Canons 1055–7. Specifically, Canon 1056 declares that "the essential properties of marriage are unity and "indissolubility"; in [C]hristian marriage they acquire a distinctive "firmness" by reason of the sacrament." Canon 1057, §2 declares that marriage is "an "irrevocable" covenant". Therefore, divorce of such a marriage is a metaphysical, moral, and legal impossibility. However, the Church has the authority to annul a presumed "marriage" by declaring it to have been invalid from the beginning, i. e., declaring it not to be and never to have been a marriage, in an annulment procedure, which is basically a fact-finding and fact-declaring effort.


title: Marriage

text: For Protestant denominations, the purposes of marriage include intimate companionship, rearing children, and mutual support for both spouses to fulfill their life callings. Most Reformed Christians did not regard marriage to the status of a sacrament "because they did not regard matrimony as a necessary means of grace for salvation"; nevertheless it is considered a covenant between spouses before God. In addition, some Protestant denominations (such as the Methodist Churches) affirmed that Holy Matrimony is a "means of grace, thus, sacramental in character".


title: Marriage

text: Since the 16th century, five competing models have shaped marriage in the Western tradition, as described by John Witte, Jr.:


title: Marriage

text: Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) believe that "marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children." Their view of marriage is that family relationships can endure beyond the grave. This is known as 'eternal marriage' which can be eternal only when authorized priesthood holders perform the sealing ordinance in sacred temples.


title: Marriage

text: With respect to religion, historic Christian belief emphasizes that Christian weddings should occur in a church as Christian marriage should begin where one also starts their faith journey (Christians receive the sacrament of baptism in church in the presence of their congregation). Catholic Christian weddings must "take place in a church building" as holy matrimony is a sacrament; sacraments normatively occur in the presence of Christ in the house of God, and "members of the faith community [should be] present to witness the event and provide support and encouragement for those celebrating the sacrament." Bishops never grant permission "to those requesting to be married in a garden, on the beach, or some other place outside of the church" and a dispensation is only granted "in extraordinary circumstances (for example, if a bride or groom is ill or disabled and unable to come to the church)." Marriage in the church, for Christians, is seen as contributing to the fruit of the newlywed couple regularly attending church each Lord's Day and raising children in the faith.


title: Marriage

text: Although many Christian denominations do not currently perform same-sex marriages, many do, such as the Presbyterian Church (USA), some dioceses of the Episcopal Church, the Metropolitan Community Church, Quakers, United Church of Canada, and United Church of Christ congregations, and some Anglican dioceses, for example. Same-sex marriage is recognized by various religious denominations.


title: Marriage

text: Islam also commends marriage, with the age of marriage being whenever the individuals feel ready, financially and emotionally.


title: Marriage

text: In Islam, polygyny is allowed while polyandry is not, with the specific limitation that a man can have no more than four legal wives at any one time and an unlimited number of female slaves as concubines who may have rights similar wives, with the exception of not being free unless the man has children with them, with the requirement that the man is able and willing to partition his time and wealth equally among the respective wives and concubines (this practice of concubinage, as in Judaism, is not applicable in contemporary times and has been deemed by scholars as invalid due to shifts in views about the role of slavery in the world).


title: Marriage

text: For a Muslim wedding to take place, the bridegroom and the guardian of the bride ("wali") must both agree on the marriage. Should the guardian disagree on the marriage, it may not legally take place. If the "wali" of the girl is her father or paternal grandfather, he has the right to force her into marriage even against her proclaimed will, if it is her first marriage. A guardian who is allowed to force the bride into marriage is called "wali mujbir".


title: Marriage

text: From an Islamic (Sharia) law perspective, the minimum requirements and responsibilities in a Muslim marriage are that the groom provide living expenses (housing, clothing, food, maintenance) to the bride, and in return, the bride's main responsibility is raising children to be proper Muslims. All other rights and responsibilities are to be decided between the husband and wife, and may even be included as stipulations in the marriage contract before the marriage actually takes place, so long as they do not go against the minimum requirements of the marriage.


title: Marriage

text: In Sunni Islam, marriage must take place in the presence of at least two reliable witnesses, with the consent of the guardian of the bride and the consent of the groom. Following the marriage, the couple may consummate the marriage. To create an 'urf marriage, it is sufficient that a man and a woman indicate an intention to marry each other and recite the requisite words in front of a suitable Muslim. The wedding party usually follows but can be held days, or months later, whenever the couple and their families want to; however, there can be no concealment of the marriage as it is regarded as public notification due to the requirement of witnesses.


title: Marriage

text: In Shia Islam, marriage may take place without the presence of witnesses as is often the case in temporary Nikah mut‘ah (prohibited in Sunni Islam), but with the consent of both the bride and the groom. Following the marriage, they may consummate their marriage.


title: Marriage

text: In Judaism, marriage is based on the laws of the Torah and is a contractual bond between spouses in which the spouses dedicate to be exclusive to one another. This contract is called Kiddushin. Though procreation is not the sole purpose, a Jewish marriage is also expected to fulfill the commandment to have children. The main focus centers around the relationship between the spouses. Kabbalistically, marriage is understood to mean that the spouses are merging into a single soul. This is why a man is considered "incomplete" if he is not married, as his soul is only one part of a larger whole that remains to be unified.


title: Marriage

text: The Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) describes a number of marriages, including those of Isaac, Jacob and Samson. Polygyny, or men having multiple wives at once, is one of the most common marital arrangements represented in the Hebrew Bible; another is that of concubinage (pilegesh) which was often arranged by a man and a woman who generally enjoyed the same rights as a full legal wife (other means of concubinage can be seen in Judges 19-20 where mass marriage by abduction was practiced as a form of punishment on transgressors). Today Ashkenazi Jews are prohibited to take more than one wife because of a ban instituted on this by Gershom ben Judah (Died 1040).


title: Marriage

text: Among ancient Hebrews, marriage was a domestic affair and not a religious ceremony; the participation of a priest or rabbi was not required.


title: Marriage

text: Betrothal ("erusin"), which refers to the time that this binding contract is made, is distinct from marriage itself ("nissu'in"), with the time between these events varying substantially.


title: Marriage

text: In biblical times, a wife was regarded as personal property, belonging to her husband; the descriptions of the Bible suggest that she would be expected to perform tasks such as spinning, sewing, weaving, manufacture of clothing, fetching of water, baking of bread, and animal husbandry. However, wives were usually looked after with care, and men with more than one wife were expected to ensure that they continue to give the first wife food, clothing, and marital rights.


title: Marriage

text: Since a wife was regarded as property, her husband was originally free to divorce her for any reason, at any time. Divorcing a woman against her will was also banned by Gershom ben Judah for Ashkenazi Jews. A divorced couple were permitted to get back together, unless the wife had married someone else after her divorce.


title: Marriage

text: Hinduism sees marriage as a sacred duty that entails both religious and social obligations. Hindu Dharma has prescribed four Purusarthas, that is Dharma, Artha (Wealth), Kama (Desires) and Moksha. The purpose of the marriage sanskar is to fulfill the Purushartha of ‘Kama’ and then gradually advance towards ‘Moksha’. Old Hindu literature in Sanskrit gives many different types of marriages and their categorization ranging from "Gandharva Vivaha" (instant marriage by mutual consent of participants only, without any need for even a single third person as witness) to normal (present day) marriages, to "Rakshasa Vivaha" ("demoniac" marriage, performed by abduction of one participant by the other participant, usually, but not always, with the help of other persons). In the Indian subcontinent, arranged marriages, the spouse's parents or an older family member choose the partner, are still predominant in comparison with so-called love marriages until nowadays. The Hindu Widow's Remarriage Act 1856 empowers a Hindu widow to remarry.


title: Marriage

text: The Buddhist view of marriage considers marriage a secular affair and thus not a sacrament. Buddhists are expected to follow the civil laws regarding marriage laid out by their respective governments. Gautama Buddha, being a kshatriya was required by Shakyan tradition to pass a series of tests to prove himself as a warrior, before he was allowed to marry.


title: Marriage

text: In a Sikh marriage, the couple walks around the "Guru Granth Sahib" holy book four times, and a holy man recites from it in the kirtan style. The ceremony is known as 'Anand Karaj' and represents the holy union of two souls united as one.


title: Marriage

text: Wiccan marriages are commonly known as handfastings and is a celebration held by Wiccans. Handfastings is an ancient Celtic ritual which the hands are tied together to symbolize the binding of two lives. It is commonly used in Wicca and Pagan ceremonies, but it has become more mainstream and comes up in both religious and secular vows and readings. Although handfastings vary for each Wiccan they often involve honoring Wiccan gods. Wicca has a common marriage vow "for as long as love lasts" instead of the traditional Christian "till death do us part". The first Wicca marriage took place in 1960, between Frederic Lamond and his wife, Gillian. Wicca's are not limited to the traditional marriages regardless of gender and how long they are willing to commit themselves to a lifelong relationship.


title: Marriage

text: Sex is considered a pious and sacred activity for the Wiccans. In some traditions sex is ritualized in performing in the form of the Great Rite, whereby a High Priest and High Priestess invoke the God and Goddesses to possess them before performing sexual intercourse with one another. It is to raise magical energy for the use of spell work. It is said that it is used symbolically, using the athame to symbolize the penis and the chalice to symbolize the vagina.


title: Marriage

text: Marriages are correlated with better outcomes for the couple and their children, including higher income for men, better health and lower mortality. Part of these effects is due to the fact that those with better expectations get married more often. According to a systematic review on research literature, a significant part of the effect seems to be due to a true causal effect. The reason may be that marriages make particularly men become more future-oriented and take an economic and other responsibility of the family. The studies eliminate the effect of selectivity in numerous ways. However, much of the research is of low quality in this sense. On the other hand, the causal effect might be even higher if money, working skills and parenting practices are endogenous. Married men have less drug abuse and alcohol use and are more often at home during nights.


title: Marriage

text: Marriage, like other close relationships, exerts considerable influence on health. Married people experience lower morbidity and mortality across such diverse health threats as cancer, heart attacks, and surgery. Research on marriage and health is part of the broader study of the benefits of social relationships.


title: Marriage

text: Social ties provide people with a sense of identity, purpose, belonging, and support. Simply being married, as well as the quality of one's marriage, have been linked to diverse measures of health.


title: Marriage

text: The health-protective effect of marriage is stronger for men than women. Marital status—the simple fact of being married—confers more health benefits to men than women.


title: Marriage

text: Women's health is more strongly impacted than men's by marital conflict or satisfaction, such that unhappily married women do not enjoy better health relative to their single counterparts. Most research on marriage and health has focused on heterosexual couples; more work is needed to clarify the health impacts of same-sex marriage.


title: Marriage

text: In most societies, the death of one of the partners terminates the marriage, and in monogamous societies, this allows the other partner to remarry, though sometimes after a waiting or mourning period.


title: Marriage

text: In some societies, a marriage can be annulled, when an authority declares that a marriage never happened. Jurisdictions often have provisions for void marriages or voidable marriages.


title: Marriage

text: A marriage may also be terminated through divorce. Countries that have relatively recently legalized divorce are Italy (1970), Portugal (1975), Brazil (1977), Spain (1981), Argentina (1987), Paraguay (1991), Colombia (1991), Ireland (1996), Chile (2004) and Malta (2011). As of 2012, the Philippines and the Vatican City are the only jurisdictions which do not allow divorce (this is currently under discussion in Philippines). After divorce, one spouse may have to pay alimony. Laws concerning divorce and the ease with which a divorce can be obtained vary widely around the world. After a divorce or an annulment, the people concerned are free to remarry (or marry).


title: Marriage

text: A statutory right of two married partners to mutually consent to divorce was enacted in western nations in the mid-20th century. In the United States, no-fault divorce was first enacted in California in 1969 and the final state to legalize it was New York in 1989.


title: Marriage

text: About 45% of marriages in Britain and, according to a 2009 study, 46% of marriages in the U.S. end in divorce.


title: Marriage

text: Many cultures have legends concerning the origins of marriage. The way in which a marriage is conducted and its rules and ramifications have changed over time, as has the institution itself, depending on the culture or demographic of the time.


title: Marriage

text: The first recorded evidence of marriage ceremonies uniting a man and a woman dates back to approximately 2350 BC, in ancient Mesopotamia. Wedding ceremonies, as well as dowry and divorce, can be traced back to Mesopotamia and Babylonia.


title: Marriage

text: According to ancient Hebrew tradition, a wife was seen as being property of high value and was, therefore, usually, carefully looked after. Early nomadic communities in the middle east practiced a form of marriage known as "beena", in which a wife would own a tent of her own, within which she retains complete independence from her husband; this principle appears to survive in parts of early Israelite society, as some early passages of the Bible appear to portray certain wives as each owning a tent as a personal possession (specifically, Jael, Sarah, and Jacob's wives).


title: Marriage

text: The husband, too, is indirectly implied to have some responsibilities to his wife. The Covenant Code orders "If he take him another; her food, her clothing, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish(or lessen)". If the husband does not provide the first wife with these things, she is to be divorced, without cost to her. The Talmud interprets this as a requirement for a man to provide food and clothing to, and have sex with, each of his wives. However, "duty of marriage" is also interpreted as whatever one does as a married couple, which is more than just sexual activity. And the term diminish, which means to lessen, shows the man must treat her as if he was not married to another.


title: Marriage

text: As a polygynous society, the Israelites did not have any laws that imposed marital fidelity on men. However, the prophet Malachi states that none should be faithless to the wife of his youth and that God hates divorce. Adulterous married women, adulterous betrothed women, and the men who slept with them, however, were subject to the death penalty by the biblical laws against adultery According to the Priestly Code of the Book of Numbers, if a pregnant woman was suspected of adultery, she was to be subjected to the Ordeal of Bitter Water, a form of trial by ordeal, but one that took a miracle to convict. The literary prophets indicate that adultery was a frequent occurrence, despite their strong protests against it, and these legal strictness's.


title: Marriage

text: In ancient Greece, no specific civil ceremony was required for the creation of a heterosexual marriage – only mutual agreement and the fact that the couple must regard each other as husband and wife accordingly. Men usually married when they were in their 20s and women in their teens. It has been suggested that these ages made sense for the Greeks because men were generally done with military service or financially established by their late 20s, and marrying a teenage girl ensured ample time for her to bear children, as life expectancies were significantly lower. Married Greek women had few rights in ancient Greek society and were expected to take care of the house and children. Time was an important factor in Greek marriage. For example, there were superstitions that being married during a full moon was good luck and Greeks married in the winter in honor of Hera. Inheritance was more important than feelings: a woman whose father dies without male heirs could be forced to marry her nearest male relative – even if she had to divorce her husband first.


title: Marriage

text: There were several types of marriages in ancient Roman society. The traditional ("conventional") form called "conventio in manum" required a ceremony with witnesses and was also dissolved with a ceremony. In this type of marriage, a woman lost her family rights of inheritance of her old family and gained them with her new one. She now was subject to the authority of her husband. There was the free marriage known as "sine manu". In this arrangement, the wife remained a member of her original family; she stayed under the authority of her father, kept her family rights of inheritance with her old family and did not gain any with the new family. The minimum age of marriage for girls was 12.


title: Marriage

text: Among ancient Germanic tribes, the bride and groom were roughly the same age and generally older than their Roman counterparts, at least according to Tacitus:


title: Marriage

text: The youths partake late of the pleasures of love, and hence pass the age of puberty unexhausted: nor are the virgins hurried into marriage; the same maturity, the same full growth is required: the sexes unite equally matched and robust, and the children inherit the vigor of their parents.


title: Marriage

text: Where Aristotle had set the prime of life at 37 years for men and 18 for women, the Visigothic Code of law in the 7th century placed the prime of life at 20 years for both men and women, after which both presumably married. Tacitus states that ancient Germanic brides were on average about 20 and were roughly the same age as their husbands. Tacitus, however, had never visited the German-speaking lands and most of his information on Germania comes from secondary sources. In addition, Anglo-Saxon women, like those of other Germanic tribes, are marked as women from the age of 12 and older, based on archaeological finds, implying that the age of marriage coincided with puberty.


title: Marriage

text: From the early Christian era (30 to 325 CE), marriage was thought of as primarily a private matter, with no uniform religious or other ceremony being required. However, bishop Ignatius of Antioch writing around 110 to bishop Polycarp of Smyrna exhorts, "[I]t becomes both men and women who marry, to form their union with the approval of the bishop, that their marriage may be according to God, and not after their own lust."


title: Marriage

text: In 12th-century Europe, women took the surname of their husbands and starting in the second half of the 16th century parental consent along with the church's consent was required for marriage.


title: Marriage

text: With few local exceptions, until 1545, Christian marriages in Europe were by mutual consent, declaration of intention to marry and upon the subsequent physical union of the parties. The couple would promise verbally to each other that they would be married to each other; the presence of a priest or witnesses was not required. This promise was known as the "verbum." If freely given and made in the present tense (e.g., "I marry you"), it was unquestionably binding; if made in the future tense ("I will marry you"), it would constitute a betrothal.


title: Marriage

text: In 1552 a wedding took place in Zufia, Navarre, between Diego de Zufia and Mari-Miguel following the custom as it was in the realm since the Middle Ages, but the man denounced the marriage on the grounds that its validity was conditioned to "riding" her (""si te cabalgo, lo cual dixo de bascuence (...) balvin yo baneça aren senar içateko""). The tribunal of the kingdom rejected the husband's claim, validating the wedding, but the husband appealed to the tribunal in Zaragoza, and this institution annulled the marriage. According to the Charter of Navarre, the basic union consisted of a civil marriage with no priest required and at least two witnesses, and the contract could be broken using the same formula. The Church in turn lashed out at those who got married twice or thrice in a row while their formers spouses were still alive. In 1563 the Council of Trent, twenty-fourth session, required that a valid marriage must be performed by a priest before two witnesses.


title: Marriage

text: One of the functions of churches from the Middle Ages was to register marriages, which was not obligatory. There was no state involvement in marriage and personal status, with these issues being adjudicated in ecclesiastical courts. During the Middle Ages marriages were arranged, sometimes as early as birth, and these early pledges to marry were often used to ensure treaties between different royal families, nobles, and heirs of fiefdoms. The church resisted these imposed unions, and increased the number of causes for nullification of these arrangements. As Christianity spread during the Roman period and the Middle Ages, the idea of free choice in selecting marriage partners increased and spread with it.


title: Marriage

text: In Medieval Western Europe, later marriage and higher rates of definitive celibacy (the so-called "European marriage pattern") helped to constrain patriarchy at its most extreme level. For example, Medieval England saw marriage age as variable depending on economic circumstances, with couples delaying marriage until the early twenties when times were bad and falling to the late teens after the Black Death, when there were labor shortages; by appearances, marriage of adolescents was not the norm in England. Where the strong influence of classical Celtic and Germanic cultures (which were not rigidly patriarchal) helped to offset the Judaeo-Roman patriarchal influence, in Eastern Europe the tradition of early and universal marriage (often in early adolescence), as well as traditional Slavic patrilocal custom, led to a greatly inferior status of women at all levels of society.


title: Marriage

text: The average age of marriage for most of Northwestern Europe from 1500 to 1800 was around 25 years of age; as the Church dictated that both parties had to be at least 21 years of age to marry without the consent of their parents, the bride and groom were roughly the same age, with most brides in their early twenties and most grooms two or three years older, and a substantial number of women married for the first time in their thirties and forties, particularly in urban areas, with the average age at first marriage rising and falling as circumstances dictated. In better times, more people could afford to marry earlier and thus fertility rose and conversely marriages were delayed or forgone when times were bad, thus restricting family size; after the Black Death, the greater availability of profitable jobs allowed more people to marry young and have more children, but the stabilization of the population in the 16th century meant fewer job opportunities and thus more people delaying marriages.


title: Marriage

text: The age of marriage was not absolute, however, as child marriages occurred throughout the Middle Ages and later, with just some of them including:


title: Marriage

text: As part of the Protestant Reformation, the role of recording marriages and setting the rules for marriage passed to the state, reflecting Martin Luther's view that marriage was a "worldly thing". By the 17th century, many of the Protestant European countries had a state involvement in marriage.


title: Marriage

text: In England, under the Anglican Church, marriage by consent and cohabitation was valid until the passage of Lord Hardwicke's Act in 1753. This act instituted certain requirements for marriage, including the performance of a religious ceremony observed by witnesses.


title: Marriage

text: As part of the Counter-Reformation, in 1563 the Council of Trent decreed that a Roman Catholic marriage would be recognized only if the marriage ceremony was officiated by a priest with two witnesses. The Council also authorized a Catechism, issued in 1566, which defined marriage as "The conjugal union of man and woman, contracted between two qualified persons, which obliges them to live together throughout life."


title: Marriage

text: In the early modern period, John Calvin and his Protestant colleagues reformulated Christian marriage by enacting the Marriage Ordinance of Geneva, which imposed "The dual requirements of state registration and church consecration to constitute marriage" for recognition.


title: Marriage

text: In England and Wales, Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act 1753 required a formal ceremony of marriage, thereby curtailing the practice of Fleet Marriage, an irregular or a clandestine marriage. These were clandestine or irregular marriages performed at Fleet Prison, and at hundreds of other places. From the 1690s until the Marriage Act of 1753 as many as 300,000 clandestine marriages were performed at Fleet Prison alone. The Act required a marriage ceremony to be officiated by an Anglican priest in the Anglican Church with two witnesses and registration. The Act did not apply to Jewish marriages or those of Quakers, whose marriages continued to be governed by their own customs.


title: Marriage

text: In England and Wales, since 1837, civil marriages have been recognized as a legal alternative to church marriages under the Marriage Act 1836. In Germany, civil marriages were recognized in 1875. This law permitted a declaration of the marriage before an official clerk of the civil administration, when both spouses affirm their will to marry, to constitute a legally recognized valid and effective marriage, and allowed an optional private clerical marriage ceremony.


title: Marriage

text: In contemporary English common law, a marriage is a voluntary contract by a man and a woman, in which by agreement they choose to become husband and wife. Edvard Westermarck proposed that "the institution of marriage has probably developed out of a primeval habit".


title: Marriage

text: Since the late twentieth century, major social changes in Western countries have led to changes in the demographics of marriage, with the age of first marriage increasing, fewer people marrying, and more couples choosing to cohabit rather than marry. For example, the number of marriages in Europe decreased by 30% from 1975 to 2005. As of 2000, the average marriage age range was 25–44 years for men and 22–39 years for women.


title: Marriage

text: The mythological origin of Chinese marriage is a story about Nüwa and Fu Xi who invented proper marriage procedures after becoming married. In ancient Chinese society, people of the same surname are supposed to consult with their family trees prior to marriage to reduce the potential risk of unintentional incest. Marrying one's maternal relatives was generally not thought of as incest. Families sometimes intermarried from one generation to another. Over time, Chinese people became more geographically mobile. Individuals remained members of their biological families. When a couple died, the husband and the wife were buried separately in the respective clan's graveyard. In a maternal marriage, a male would become a son-in-law who lived in the wife's home.


title: Marriage

text: The New Marriage Law of 1950 radically changed Chinese marriage traditions, enforcing monogamy, equality of men and women, and choice in marriage; arranged marriages were the most common type of marriage in China until then. Starting October 2003, it became legal to marry or divorce without authorization from the couple's work units. Although people with infectious diseases such as AIDS may now marry, marriage is still illegal for the mentally ill.


title: Cassowary

text: Cassowaries (, ) are flightless birds of the genus Casuarius in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bones) and are native to the tropical forests of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and East Indonesia), Aru Islands (Maluku), and northeastern Australia.


title: Cassowary

text: Three species are extant: The most common, the southern cassowary, is the third-tallest and second-heaviest living bird, smaller only than the ostrich and emu. The other two species are represented by the northern cassowary and the dwarf cassowary; the northern cassowary is the most recently discovered and the most threatened. A fourth but extinct species is represented by the pygmy cassowary.


title: Cassowary

text: Cassowaries feed mainly on fruit, although all species are truly omnivorous and take a range of other plant foods, including shoots and grass seeds, in addition to fungi, invertebrates, and small vertebrates. Cassowaries are very wary of humans, but if provoked, they are capable of inflicting serious, even fatal, injuries to both dogs and people. The cassowary has often been labeled "the world's most dangerous bird".


title: Cassowary

text: The genus "Casuarius" was erected by French scientist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his published in 1760. The type species is the southern cassowary ("Casuarius casuarius"). The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus had introduced the genus "Casuarius" in the sixth edition of his published in 1748, but Linnaeus dropped the genus in the important tenth edition of 1758 and put the southern cassowary together with the common ostrich and the greater rhea in the genus "Struthio". As the publication date of Linnaeus's sixth edition was before the 1758 starting point of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, Brisson, and not Linnaeus, is considered the authority for the genus.


title: Cassowary

text: Cassowaries (from ) are part of the ratite group, which also includes the emu, rheas, ostriches, and kiwi, as well as the extinct moas and elephant birds. These species are recognised:


title: Cassowary

text: Most authorities consider the taxonomic classification above to be monotypic, but several subspecies of each have been described, and some of them have even been suggested as separate species, e.g., "C. (b) papuanus". The taxonomic name "C. (b) papuanus" also may be in need of revision to "Casuarius (bennetti) westermanni". Validation of these subspecies has proven difficult due to individual variations, age-related variations, the scarcity of specimens, the stability of specimens (the bright skin of the head and neck—the basis of describing several subspecies—fades in specimens), and the practice of trading live cassowaries for thousands of years, some of which are likely to have escaped or been deliberately introduced to regions away from their origin.


title: Cassowary

text: The evolutionary history of cassowaries, as of all ratites, is not well known. Genetic evidence suggests that their closest living relatives are emus, and that the dwarf cassowary is more closely related to the Northern Cassowary than either is to the Southern cassowary. A fossil species was reported from Australia, but for reasons of biogeography, this assignment is not certain, and it might belong to the prehistoric "Emuarius", which was a genus of cassowary-like primitive emus.


title: Cassowary

text: Typically, all cassowaries are shy birds that are found in the deep forest. They are adept at disappearing long before a human knows they were there. The southern cassowary of the far north Queensland rain forests is not well studied, and the northern and dwarf cassowaries even less so. Females are larger and more brightly coloured than the males. Adult southern cassowaries are tall, although some females may reach , and weigh .


title: Cassowary

text: All cassowaries' feathers consist of a shaft and loose barbules. They do not have rectrices (tail feathers) or a preen gland. Cassowaries have small wings with five or six large remiges. These are reduced to stiff, keratinous quills, resembling porcupine quills, with no barbs. The furcula and coracoid are degenerate, and their palatal bones and sphenoid bones touch each other. These, along with their wedge-shaped body, are thought to be adaptations to ward off vines, thorns, and saw-edged leaves, allowing them to run quickly through the rainforest.


title: Cassowary

text: Cassowaries have three-toed feet with sharp claws. The second toe, the inner one in the medial position, sports a dagger-like claw that may be long. This claw is particularly fearsome, since cassowaries sometimes kick humans and other animals with their powerful legs. Cassowaries can run at up to through the dense forest and can jump up to . They are good swimmers, crossing wide rivers and swimming in the sea.


title: Cassowary

text: All three species have a keratinous, skin-covered casque on their heads that grows with age. The casque's shape and size, up to , is species-dependent. "C. casuarius" has the largest and "C. bennetti" the smallest (tricorn shape), with "C. unappendiculatus" having variations in between. Contrary to earlier findings, the hollow inside of the casque is spanned with fine fibres that are believed to have an acoustic function.


title: Cassowary

text: Several functions for the casque have been proposed. One is that they are a secondary sexual characteristic. Other suggested functions include being used to batter through underbrush, as a weapon in dominance disputes, or for pushing aside leaf litter during foraging. The latter three are disputed by biologist Andrew Mack, whose personal observation suggests that the casque amplifies deep sounds.


title: Cassowary

text: Earlier research indicates the birds lower their heads when running "full tilt through the vegetation, brushing saplings aside and occasionally careening into small trees. The casque would help protect the skull from such collisions". Cassowaries eat fallen fruit, and consequently spend much time under trees where seeds the size of golfballs or larger fall from heights up to ; the wedge-shaped casque may protect the head by deflecting falling fruit.


title: Cassowary

text: The casques also may play a role in either sound reception or acoustic communication. This is related to a discovery that at least the dwarf cassowary and southern cassowary produce very-low-frequency sounds, which may aid in communication in dense rainforest. The "boom" vocalisation that cassowaries produce is the lowest-frequency bird call known, and is at the lower limit of human hearing. A cooling function for the very similar casques of guineafowl has been proposed.


title: Cassowary

text: Cassowaries are solitary birds except during courtship, egg-laying, and sometimes around ample food supplies. The male cassowary defends a territory of about for himself. Female cassowary have larger territories, overlapping those of several males. While females move among satellite territories of different males, they appear to remain within the same territories for most of their lives, mating with the same, or closely related, males over the course of their lives.


title: Cassowary

text: Courtship and pair-bonding rituals begin with the vibratory sounds broadcast by females. Males approach and run with their necks parallel to the ground while making dramatic movements of their heads, which accentuate the frontal neck region. The female approaches drumming slowly. The male crouches on the ground, and the female either steps on the male's back for a moment before crouching beside him in preparation for copulation, or she may attack. This is often the case with the females pursuing the males in ritualistic chasing behaviours that generally terminate in water. The male cassowary dives into water and submerges himself up to his upper neck and head. The female pursues him into the water, where he eventually drives her to the shallows, where she crouches making ritualistic motions of her head. The two may remain in copulation for extended periods of time. In some cases, another male may approach and run off the first male. He will climb onto her to copulate, as well.


title: Cassowary

text: Males are far more tolerant of one another than females, which do not tolerate the presence of other females.


title: Cassowary

text: The cassowary breeding season starts in May to June. Females lay three to eight large, bright green or pale green-blue eggs in each clutch into a heap of leaf litter prepared by the male. The eggs measure about – only ostrich and emu eggs are larger.


title: Cassowary

text: The male incubates those eggs for 50–52 days, removing or adding litter to regulate the temperature, then protects the chicks, which stay in the nest for about 9 months. He defends them fiercely against all potential predators, including humans. The young males later go off to find a territory of their own.


title: Cassowary

text: The female does not care for the eggs or the chicks, but rather moves on within her territory to lay eggs in the nests of several other males. Young cassowaries are brown and have buffy stripes. They are often kept as pets in native villages (in New Guinea), where they are permitted to roam like barnyard fowl. Often they are kept until they become nearly grown and someone gets hurt. Mature cassowaries are placed beside native houses in cribs hardly larger than the birds themselves. Garbage and other vegetable food is fed to them, and they live for years in such enclosures; in some areas, their plumage is still as valuable as shell money. Caged birds are regularly bereft of their fresh plumes.


title: Cassowary

text: Cassowaries are predominantly frugivorous, but omnivorous opportunistically when small prey is available. Besides fruits, their diet includes flowers, fungi, snails, insects, frogs, birds, fish, rats, mice, and carrion. Fruit from at least 26 plant families has been documented in the diet of cassowaries. Fruits from the laurel, podocarp, palm, wild grape, nightshade, and myrtle families are important items in the diet. The cassowary plum takes its name from the bird.


title: Cassowary

text: Where trees are dropping fruit, cassowaries come in and feed, with each bird defending a tree from others for a few days. They move on when the fruit is depleted. Fruit, even items as large as bananas and apples, is swallowed whole. Cassowaries are a keystone species of rain forests because they eat fallen fruit whole and distribute seeds across the jungle floor via excrement.


title: Cassowary

text: Cassowaries feed on the fruit of several hundred rainforest species and usually pass viable seeds in large, dense scats. They are known to disperse seeds over distances greater than a kilometre, thus playing an important role in the ecosystem. Germination rates for seeds of the rare Australian rainforest tree "Ryparosa" were found to be much higher after passing through a cassowary's gut (92% versus 4%).


title: Cassowary

text: Adult cassowaries have no natural enemies other than humans, but their chicks are vulnerable to large pythons, monitor lizards, New Guinea singing dogs, and Papuan eagles. Adult males aggressively defend their chicks.


title: Cassowary

text: As for eating the cassowary, it is supposed to be quite tough. Australian administrative officers stationed in New Guinea were advised that it "should be cooked with a stone in the pot: when the stone is ready to eat, so is the cassowary".


title: Cassowary

text: Cassowaries are native to the humid rainforests of New Guinea, nearby smaller islands, East Nusa Tenggara, the Maluku Islands, and northeastern Australia. They do, however, venture out into palm scrub, grassland, savanna, and swamp forest. Whether some island populations are natural or the result of human trade in young birds is unclear. They can also be easily spotted in some national parks such as Mellwraith Range National Park, Paluma Range National Park, and Jardine National Park in Australia.


title: Cassowary

text: The southern cassowary is endangered in Queensland. Kofron and Chapman, when they assessed the decline of this species, found that of the former cassowary habitat, only 20–25% remains. Habitat loss and fragmentation is the primary cause of decline. They then studied 140 cases of cassowary mortality, and found that motor-vehicle strikes accounted for 55% of the deaths, and dog attacks produced another 18%. Remaining causes of death included hunting (five cases), entanglement in wire (one case), the removal of cassowaries that attacked humans (four cases), and natural causes (18 cases), including tuberculosis (four cases). The cause for 14 cases was indicated as "for unknown reasons".


title: Cassowary

text: Hand feeding cassowaries poses a significant threat to their survival because it lures them into suburban areas. There, the birds are more susceptible to encounters with vehicles and dogs. Contact with humans encourages cassowaries to take food from picnic tables. Feral pigs also are a significant threat to their survival. They destroy nests and eggs of cassowaries, but their worst effect is as competitors for food, which may be catastrophic for the cassowaries during lean times.


title: Cassowary

text: In February 2011, Cyclone Yasi destroyed a large area of cassowary habitat, endangering 200 of the birds – about 10% of the total Australian population.


title: Cassowary

text: The Mission Beach community in far north Queensland holds an annual Cassowary Festival in September, where funds are raised to map the bird's habitat.


title: Cassowary

text: The cassowary has solitary habits and breeds less frequently in zoos than other ratites such as ostrich and emu. Unlike other ratites, it lives exclusively in tropical rainforest, and reproducing this habitat carefully is essential. Unlike the emu, which will live with other sympatric species, such as kangaroos, in "mixed Australian fauna" displays, the cassowary does not cohabit well among its own kind. Individual specimens must even be kept in separate enclosures, due to their solitary and aggressive nature. Territoriality is one of their most important characteristics.


title: Cassowary

text: The double-wattled cassowary ("C. casuarius") is the most popular species in captivity, and it is fairly common in European and American zoos, where it is known for its unmistakable appearance. only Weltvogelpark Walsrode in Germany has all three species of cassowaries in its collection: single-wattled cassowary ("Casuarius unappendiculatus") and Bennett's cassowary ("Casuarius bennetti"). If subspecies are recognised, Weltvogelpark Walsrode has "C. b. westermanni" and "C. u. rufotinctus".


title: Cassowary

text: There is evidence that the cassowary may have been domesticated by humans thousands of years before the chicken. Some New Guinea Highlands societies capture cassowary chicks and raise them as semi-tame poultry, for use in ceremonial gift exchanges and as food. They are the only indigenous Australasian animal known to have been partly domesticated by people prior to European arrival and colonization. The Maring people of Kundagai sacrificed cassowaries ("C. bennetti") in certain rituals. The Kalam people considered themselves related to cassowaries, and did not classify them as birds, but as kin.


title: Cassowary

text: Studies on Pleistocene/early Holocene cassowary remains in Papua suggest that indigenous people at the time preferred to harvest eggs rather than adults. They seem to have regulated their consumption of these birds, possibly even collecting eggs and rearing young birds as one of the earliest forms of domestication.


title: Cassowary

text: Cassowaries have a reputation for being dangerous to people and domestic animals. During World War II, American and Australian troops stationed in New Guinea were warned to steer clear of them. In his 1958 book "Living Birds of the World", ornithologist Ernest Thomas Gilliard wrote:


title: Cassowary

text: The inner or second of the three toes is fitted with a long, straight, murderous nail which can sever an arm or eviscerate an abdomen with ease. There are many records of natives being killed by this bird.


title: Cassowary

text: This assessment of the danger posed by cassowaries has been repeated in print by authors, including Gregory S. Paul and Jared Diamond. A 2003 historical study of 221 cassowary attacks showed that 150 had been against humans; 75% of these had been from cassowaries that had been fed by people, 71% of the time the bird had chased or charged the victim, and 15% of the time they kicked. Of the attacks, 73% involved the birds expecting or snatching food, 5% involved defending their natural food sources, 15% involved defending themselves from attack, and 7% involved defending their chicks or eggs. Only one human death was reported among those 150 attacks.


title: Cassowary

text: The first documented human death caused by a cassowary was on April 6, 1926. In Australia, 16-year-old Phillip McClean and his brother, age 13, came across a cassowary on their property and decided to try to kill it by striking it with clubs. The bird kicked the younger boy, who fell and ran away as his older brother struck the bird. The older McClean then tripped and fell to the ground. While he was on the ground, the cassowary kicked him in the neck, opening a wound that may have severed his jugular vein. The boy died of his injuries shortly thereafter.


title: Cassowary

text: Cassowary strikes to the abdomen are among the rarest of all, but in one case, a dog was kicked in the belly in 1995. The blow left no puncture, but severe bruising occurred. The dog later died from an apparent intestinal rupture.


title: Cassowary

text: Another human death due to a cassowary was recorded in Florida on April 12, 2019. The bird's owner, a 75-year-old man who had raised the animal, was apparently clawed to death after he fell to the ground.


title: The Help (film)

text: The Help is a 2011 period drama film written and directed by Tate Taylor and based on Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast, including Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, and Allison Janney. The film and novel recount the story of a young white woman and aspiring journalist Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan. The story focuses on her relationship with two black maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, during the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi. In an attempt to become a legitimate journalist and writer, Skeeter decides to write a book from the point of view of the maids, exposing the racism they face as they work for white families. Black domestic workers in 1960s America were referred to as "the help", hence the title of the journalistic exposé, the novel and the film.


title: The Help (film)

text: DreamWorks Pictures acquired the screen rights to Stockett's novel in March 2010 and quickly commissioned the film with Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan, and Brunson Green as producers. The film's casting began later that month, with principal photography following four months after in Mississippi. The film is an international co-production between companies based in the United States, India, and the United Arab Emirates.


title: The Help (film)

text: "The Help" premiered at Beverly Hills on August 9, 2011 and went into general theatrical release in North America on August 10 by Touchstone Pictures. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $216million worldwide and receiving positive reviews from critics, who mostly praised the acting (particularly that of Davis, Spencer and Chastain), though the film's depiction of race drew some criticism as having a white savior narrative. "The Help" received four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress for Davis, and Best Supporting Actress for both Chastain and Spencer, with the latter winning the award. The film also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.


title: The Help (film)

text: In 1963, Aibileen Clark is an African-American maid in Jackson, Mississippi. She works for socialite Elizabeth Leefolt, caring for her daughter Mae Mobley, whom Elizabeth neglects. Aibileen's best friend and fellow maid Minny Jackson works for Mrs. Walters, whose daughter Hilly Holbrook leads the women's socialite group and is president of the city's Junior League chapter.


title: The Help (film)

text: Elizabeth and Hilly's mutual best friend Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a recent graduate of Ole Miss and an aspiring writer, is uncomfortable with her town's racist attitudes toward their maids, including Hilly's insistence on installing separate bathrooms for the help due to the belief that they carry "different diseases". Skeeter lives with her parents at Longleaf, their cotton plantation. Skeeter learns that her mother Charlotte fired Constantine, the maid who raised her, and decides to write a book of interviews with African-American maids working for white families.


title: The Help (film)

text: Minny is soon fired by Hilly for using the guest bathroom during a storm and rendered unemployable due to Hilly's lies, but finds a job as a housemaid for Celia Foote, a housewife ostracized by the socialites. Celia treats Minny with respect and they become friends, but keeps Minny's employment secret from Celia's husband Johnny, Hilly's former beau. Celia suffers a miscarriage, and she reveals to Minny that she never told Johnny about the pregnancy, including two previous miscarriages she had.


title: The Help (film)

text: Skeeter reaches out to Aibileen, who eventually agrees to be interviewed, as does Minny. Elaine Stein, Skeeter's editor at Harper & Row, tells her that stories of two maids are not enough, but fear of retribution prevents other maids from coming forward. Aibileen tells Skeeter about her struggle to cope with the death of her only son, and believes the book will help her find closure.


title: The Help (film)

text: Hilly refuses to advance money to her replacement maid, Yule May, who is struggling to send her twin sons to college. Yule May discovers a lost ring under a sofa and pawns it, but is later brutally arrested as Hilly watches. This incident and the local assassination of Medgar Evers inspire more maids to tell Skeeter their stories.


title: The Help (film)

text: Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny fear the maids' stories will be recognized. Minny reveals the "terrible awful" as a form of insurance: after her termination, Minny brought Hilly her famous chocolate pie but revealedafter Hilly had finished two slicesthat she had baked her own excrement into it; Hilly later forced her mother into a nursing home for laughing at her during the incident. The inclusion of this in the book prompts Hilly to crusade in denial that the book is about people in Jackson.


title: The Help (film)

text: Skeeter confronts her mother about having fired Constantine after a lifetime of service, and Charlotte confesses that during a Daughters of America luncheon, she fired Constantine to save face because Constantine's daughter Rachel embarrassed Charlotte by disobeying her orders to enter through the kitchen. Rachel took Constantine to Chicago, where she later died. Charlotte feels guilty that she was not brave enough to stand up for someone who had served her for two decades and helped raise her daughter.


title: The Help (film)

text: The book is published anonymously and is a success. Minny reveals the "terrible awful" to Celia, who finally sees what a manipulative bully Hilly is, and writes a check to one of Hilly's charity groups, made out to "Two Slice Hilly". Incensed, Hilly threatens to sue Skeeter for libel, but backs down when Skeeter reminds her that she would have to publicly admit the pie story was about her. Charlotte intervenes, showing that she knows about the "terrible awful", and orders Hilly off the property, reconciling the grudge between her and her daughter. She lets her know how proud she is of the book and job offer in New York City, telling Skeeter that sometimes courage skips a generation.


title: The Help (film)

text: Johnny tells Minny he knows she has been working at his house, and how thankful he is for her friendship with Celia, how it saved her life, and that she has permanent job security. This kindness gives Minny the courage to take her children and leave her abusive husband.


title: The Help (film)

text: Seeking revenge for helping Skeeter, Hilly pressures Elizabeth to fire Aibileen, framing her for theft of silverware. Aibileen stands up to Hilly, who breaks down and storms out, and Elizabeth orders Aibileen to leave. Aibileen bids farewell to Mae, pleading with Elizabeth to give her daughter a chance; seeing her daughter's reaction to Aibileen's departure moves Elizabeth to tears. Aibileen reflects on the ordeal and finds closure, officially retiring from help work and looking to her own future as a writer.


title: The Help (film)

text: In December 2009, "Variety" reported that Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan, and Mark Radcliffe would produce a film adaptation of "The Help", under their production company 1492 Pictures. Brunson Green of Harbinger Productions also co-produced. The film was written and directed by Tate Taylor, who optioned film rights to the book before its publication. The novel's film rights were obtained by DreamWorks in March 2010. Reliance Entertainment and Participant Media co-produced the film.


title: The Help (film)

text: The first casting news for the production came in March 2010, when it was reported that Stone was attached to play the role of Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan. Other actors were since cast, including Davis as Aibileen; Howard as Hilly Holbrook, Jackson's racist, town ringleader; Janney as Charlotte Phelan, Skeeter's mother; and Lowell as Stuart Whitworth, Skeeter's boyfriend and a senator's son. Leslie Jordan appears as the editor of the fictional local newspaper, "The Jackson Journal". Mike Vogel plays the character Johnny Foote. Octavia Spencer portrays Minny. Spencer inspired the character of Minny in Stockett's novel and voiced her in the audiobook version.


title: The Help (film)

text: Filming began in July 2010 and extended through October. The town of Greenwood, Mississippi, was chosen to portray 1960s-era Jackson, and producer Green said he had expected to shoot "95 percent" of the film there. Parts of the film were also shot in the real-life Jackson, as well as in nearby Clarksdale and Greenville. One of the few real locations in the book "and" the film is Brent's Drugs, which dates to 1946. Other locations that can still be found in Jackson include the New Capitol Building and the Mayflower Cafe downtown. Scenes set at the "Jackson Journal" office were shot in Clarksdale at the building which formerly housed the "Clarksdale Press Register" for forty years until April 2010.


title: The Help (film)

text: "The Help" was the most significant film production in Mississippi since "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (2000) "Honestly, my heart would be broken if it were set anywhere but Mississippi," Stockett wrote in an e-mail to reporters. In order to convince producers to shoot in Greenwood, Tate Taylor and others had previously come to the town and scouted locations; at his first meeting with DreamWorks executives, he presented them with a photo album of potential filming spots in the area. The state's tax incentive program for filmmakers was also a key enticement in the decision.


title: The Help (film)

text: Two soundtracks were released for The Help: an original soundtrack and an original score. Geffen Records released the soundtrack album on August 4, 2011. It remained authentic to the 60s period. The 12-track collection, collated by music supervisor Jennifer Hawks, features songs from the likes of Johnny Cash, Frankie Valli and Ray Charles. As a collective, the songs spotlight the peak of the fight for equality in the United States during the civil rights movement. Mary J. Blige's "The Living Proof" is the only original track. She composed it after a second viewing of the film. In an interview with Fandom Entertainment in 2011, Blige said she was "moved in so many ways". Her raw emotions inspired her to compose the lone song for the film. The score album, featuring original cues composed and conducted by Thomas Newman was released by Varèse Sarabande on September 6, 2011.


title: The Help (film)

text: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributed "The Help" worldwide through the studio's Touchstone Pictures banner. On October 13, 2010, Disney gave the film a release date of August 12, 2011. On June 30, 2011, the film's release date was rescheduled two days earlier to August 10, 2011.


title: The Help (film)

text: The film was released by Touchstone Home Entertainment on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and digital download on December 6, 2011. The release was produced in three different physical packages: a three-disc combo pack (Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Copy); a two-disc combo pack (Blu-ray and DVD); and a single-disc DVD. It was also released as a digital download option in both standard and high definition. The DVD version includes two deleted scenes and "The Living Proof" music video by Mary J. Blige. The digital download version includes the same features as the DVD version, plus one additional deleted scene. Both the two-disc and three-disc combo packs include the same features as the DVD version, as well as "The Making of 'The Help': From Friendship to Film", "In Their Own Words: A Tribute to the Maids of Mississippi", and three deleted scenes with introductions by director Taylor.


title: The Help (film)

text: "The Help" earned $169,708,112 in North America and $46,931,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $216,639,112.


title: The Help (film)

text: In North America, on its opening day (Wednesday, August 10, 2011), it topped the box office with $5.54million. It then added $4.33million on Thursday, declining only 21 percent, for a two-day total of $9.87million. On its first weekend, the film grossed $26million, coming in second place behind "Rise of the Planet of the Apes". However, during its second weekend, the film jumped to first place with $20million, declining only 23 percent, the smallest drop among films playing nationwide. The film crossed the $100million mark on its 21st day of release, becoming one of only two titles in August 2011 that achieved this. On its fourth weekend (Labor Day three-day weekend), it became the first film since "Inception" (2010), to top the box-office charts for three consecutive weekends. Its four-day weekend haul of $19.9million was the fourth largest for a Labor Day weekend. Notably, "The Help" topped the box office for 25 days in a row. This was the longest uninterrupted streak since "The Sixth Sense" (35 days), which was also a late summer release, in 1999.


title: The Help (film)

text: To promote the film, TakePart hosted a series of three writing contests. Rebecca Lubin, of Mill Valley, California, who has been a nanny for nearly two decades won the recipe contest. Darcy Pattison's "11 Ways to Ruin a Photograph" won "The Help" Children's Story Contest with her story about a tenacious young girl who refuses to take a good photograph while her father is away "soldiering". After being chosen by guest judge and children's-book author Lou Berger, the story was professionally illustrated. The final contest was about "someone who inspired you". Genoveva Islas-Hooker charmed guest judge Doc Hendley (founder of Wine to Water) with her story, A Heroine Named Confidential. A case manager for patients with HIV, Islas-Hooker was consistently inspired by one special individual who never gave up the fight to live.


title: The Help (film)

text: "The Help" received mostly positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 76% of 232 professional critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 7.00/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Though arguably guilty of glossing over its racial themes, "The Help" rises on the strength of its castparticularly Viola Davis, whose performance is powerful enough to carry the film on its own." Metacritic, a review aggregator which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 62 based on 41 reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a rare "A+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Help (film)

text: Tom Long from "The Detroit News" remarked about the film: "Appealling, entertaining, touching and perhaps even a bit healing, "The Help" is an old-fashioned grand yarn of a film, the sort we rarely get these days." Connie Ogle of "Miami Herald" gave the film three out of four stars and said it "will make you laugh, yes, but it can also break your heart. In the dog days of August moviegoing, that's a powerful recommendation."


title: The Help (film)

text: A more mixed review from Karina Longworth of "The Village Voice" said: "We get a fairly typical Hollywood flattening of history, with powerful villains and disenfranchised heroes." Rick Groen of "The Globe and Mail", giving the film two out of four stars, said: "Typically, this sort of film is an earnest tear-jerker with moments of levity. Instead, what we have here is a raucous rib-tickler with occasional pauses for a little dramatic relief." Referring to the film as a "big, ole slab of honey-glazed hokum", "The New York Times" noted that "save for Ms. Davis's, however, the performances are almost all overly broad, sometimes excruciatingly so, characterized by loud laughs, bugging eyes and pumping limbs."


title: The Help (film)

text: Some of the negative reviews criticized the film for its inability to match the quality of the book. Chris Hewitt of the "St. Paul Pioneer Press" said about the film: "Some adaptations find a fresh, cinematic way to convey a book's spirit but "The Help" doesn't."


title: The Help (film)

text: Many critics praised the performances of Davis and Spencer. Wilson Morales of Blackfilm.com gave the movie three out of four stars and commented, "With powerful performances given by Viola Davis and scene stealer Octavia Spencer, the film is an emotionally moving drama that remains highly entertaining." David Edelstein of "New York" magazine commented, ""The Help" belongs to Viola Davis."


title: The Help (film)

text: Ida E. Jones, the national director of the Association of Black Women Historians, released an open statement criticizing the film, stating "[d]espite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, "The Help" distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers." The ABWH accused both the book and the film of insensitive portrayals of African-American vernacular, a nearly uniform depiction of black men as cruel or absent, and a failure to acknowledge the sexual harassment many black women endured in their white employers' homes. Jones concluded: "The Association of Black Women Historians finds it unacceptable for either this book or this film to strip black women's lives of historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment."


title: The Help (film)

text: Roxane Gay of literary web magazine "The Rumpus" argues the film might be offensive to African Americans, saying the film uses racial Hollywood tropes like the Magical Negro character. In 2014, the movie was one of several discussed by Keli Goff in "The Daily Beast" in an article concerning white savior narratives in film.


title: The Help (film)

text: At the 84th Academy Awards, Octavia Spencer won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in this film. The film also received three other Academy Award nominations: Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award for Best Actress for Viola Davis, and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Jessica Chastain.


title: The Help (film)

text: "The Help" focuses on maids during the Civil Rights Movement in 1963. It brings light to Medgar Evers, an African-American activist and NAACP leader, who worked toward gaining rights for African-Americans at the time, as well as aiding in the fight to end segregation. In the film, Skeeter and the two maids are seen watching Evers' address. The moment where the news of Evers' assassination is transmitted drives Skeeter to interview the maids for their stories.


title: The Help (film)

text: In the original novel, Pascagoula, the Phelan family's maid, is the one watching the Medgar Evers address, introducing her into the narrative, whereas, in the film, Skeeter is at the forefront, placing her as the primary audience of civil rights news. This aspect of the narrative has brought forth some criticism towards the film. In an interview with "The New York Times", Viola Davis mentioned that she regretted playing the role of Aibileen: "I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn't the voices of the maids that were heard."


title: The Help (film)

text: Film historian Alison Graham writes about this in her article "We Ain't Doin' Civil Rights", commenting that "The (con)fusion of fictional and historical events begin to operate under a different narrative license."


title: The Help (film)

text: In criticizing the film, Valerie Smith claims in "Black Women's Memories and "The Help"" that the trivialization of systemic racism during the 1960s in the film makes the plot "more accessible to contemporary readers and viewers".


title: The Help (film)

text: Viola Davis has repeatedly expressed regret over starring in "The Help", claiming she feels like she "betrayed myself and my people" and that the film was "created in the filter and the cesspool of systemic racism". Bryce Dallas Howard has also mentioned that she would not agree to star in the film today, acknowledging that it was "told through the perspective of a white character and was created by predominantly white storytellers".


title: The Help (film)

text: After Jessica Chastain's Oscar Best Actress win in 2022, there was much interest in the fact that five of the leading actresses - Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Allison Janney, and Chastain - won competitive Oscars since starring in "The Help". Additionally, Mary Steenburgen and Sissy Spacek won competitive Oscars in 1980, Cicely Tyson won an Honorary Academy Award in 2018, and Aunjanue Ellis was also nominated for a competitive Oscar in 2022.


title: The Help (film)

text: Jessica credited Tate Taylor: "I think that's actually a testament to [director] Tate Taylor and his incredible skills at casting...I think you can see that in the careers that the women have had since his films, when you look back at what we've made and put out in 2011, many of us were at the very, very beginning of our careers. So yeah, I thank Tate Taylor for that." Bryce Dallas Howard is the remaining leading lady who has yet to win an Oscar.


title: Cult

text: In modern English, cult is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This sense of the term is controversial and weakly defined—having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia—and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study.


title: Cult

text: An older sense of the word involves a set of religious devotional practices that are conventional within their culture, related to a particular figure, and often associated with a particular place. References to the "cult" of a particular Catholic saint, or the imperial cult of ancient Rome, for example, use this sense of the word.


title: Cult

text: While the literal and original sense of the word remains in use, a derived sense of "excessive devotion" arose in the 19th century. Then, beginning in the 1930s, cults became an object of sociological study within the context of the study of religious behavior. Since the 1940s, the Christian countercult movement has opposed some sects and new religious movements, labeling them "cults" because of their unorthodox beliefs. Since the 1970s, the secular anti-cult movement has opposed certain groups and, as a reaction to acts of violence, frequently charged those cults with practicing mind control. Scholars and the media have disputed some of the claims and actions of anti-cult movements, leading to further public controversy.


title: Cult

text: Sociological classifications of religious movements may identify a cult as a social group with socially deviant or novel beliefs and practices, although this is often unclear. Other researchers present a less-organized picture of cults, saying that they arise spontaneously around novel beliefs and practices. Groups labelled as "cults" range in size from local groups with a few followers to international organizations with millions of adherents.


title: Cult

text: In the English-speaking world, the term "cult" often carries derogatory connotations. In this sense, it has been considered a subjective term, used as an "ad hominem" attack against groups with differing doctrines or practices. As such, religion scholar Megan Goodwin has defined the term "cult", when it is used by the layperson, as often being shorthand for a "religion I don't like".


title: Cult

text: In the 1970s, with the rise of secular anti-cult movements, scholars (though not the general public) began to abandon the use of the term "cult". According to "The Oxford Handbook of Religious Movements", "by the end of the decade, the term 'new religions' would virtually replace the term 'cult' to describe all of those leftover groups that did not fit easily under the label of church or sect."


title: Cult

text: Sociologist Amy Ryan (2000) has argued for the need to differentiate those groups that may be dangerous from groups that are more benign. Ryan notes the sharp differences between definitions offered by cult opponents, who tend to focus on negative characteristics, and those offered by sociologists, who aim to create definitions that are value-free. The movements themselves may have different definitions of religion as well. George Chryssides also cites a need to develop better definitions to allow for common ground in the debate. Casino (1999) presents the issue as crucial to international human rights laws. Limiting the definition of religion may interfere with freedom of religion, while too broad a definition may give some dangerous or abusive groups "a limitless excuse for avoiding all unwanted legal obligations."


title: Cult

text: A "new religious movement" (NRM) is a religious community or spiritual group of modern origins (since the mid-1800s), which has a peripheral place within its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations. In 1999, Eileen Barker estimated that NRMs, of which some but not all have been labelled as cults, number in the tens of thousands worldwide, most of which originated in Asia or Africa; and that the great majority of which have only a few members, some have thousands and only very few have more than a million. In 2007, religious scholar Elijah Siegler commented that, although no NRM had become the dominant faith in any country, many of the concepts which they had first introduced (often referred to as "New Age" ideas) have become part of worldwide mainstream culture.


title: Cult

text: Sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) found that cults based on charismatic leadership often follow the routinization of charisma.


title: Cult

text: The concept of a "cult" as a sociological classification, however, was introduced in 1932 by American sociologist Howard P. Becker as an expansion of German theologian Ernst Troeltsch's "church–sect typology". Troeltsch's aim was to distinguish between three main types of religious behaviour: churchly, sectarian, and mystical.


title: Cult

text: Becker further bisected Troeltsch's first two categories: "church" was split into "ecclesia" and "denomination"; and "sect" into "sect" and "cult". Like Troeltsch's "mystical religion", Becker's "cult" refers to small religious groups that lack in organization and emphasize the private nature of personal beliefs. Later sociological formulations built on such characteristics, placing an additional emphasis on cults as deviant religious groups, "deriving their inspiration from outside of the predominant religious culture." This is often thought to lead to a high degree of tension between the group and the more mainstream culture surrounding it, a characteristic shared with religious sects. According to this sociological terminology, "sects" are products of religious schism and therefore maintain a continuity with traditional beliefs and practices, whereas "cults" arise spontaneously around novel beliefs and practices.


title: Cult

text: In the early 1960s, sociologist John Lofland, living with South Korean missionary Young Oon Kim and some of the first American Unification Church members in California, studied their activities in trying to promote their beliefs and win new members. Lofland noted that most of their efforts were ineffective and that most of the people who joined did so because of personal relationships with other members, often family relationships. Lofland published his findings in 1964 as a doctoral thesis entitled "The World Savers: A Field Study of Cult Processes", and in 1966 in book form by Prentice-Hall as "". It is considered to be one of the most important and widely cited studies of the process of religious conversion.


title: Cult

text: Sociologist Roy Wallis (1945–1990) argued that a cult is characterized by "epistemological individualism," meaning that "the cult has no clear locus of final authority beyond the individual member." Cults, according to Wallis, are generally described as "oriented towards the problems of individuals, loosely structured, tolerant [and] non-exclusive," making "few demands on members," without possessing a "clear distinction between members and non-members," having "a rapid turnover of membership" and as being transient collectives with vague boundaries and fluctuating belief systems. Wallis asserts that cults emerge from the "cultic milieu".


title: Cult

text: J. Gordon Melton stated that, in 1970, "one could count the number of active researchers on new religions on one's hands." However, James R. Lewis writes that the "meteoric growth" in this field of study can be attributed to the cult controversy of the early 1970s. Because of "a wave of nontraditional religiosity" in the late 1960s and early 1970s, academics perceived new religious movements as different phenomena from previous religious innovations.


title: Cult

text: In 1978, Bruce Campbell noted that cults are associated with beliefs in a divine element in the individual; it is either "soul", "self", or "true self". Cults are inherently ephemeral and loosely organized. There is a major theme in many of the recent works that show the relationship between cults and mysticism. Campbell, describing "cults" as non-traditional religious groups based on belief in a divine element in the individual, brings two major types of such to attention—mystical and instrumental—dividing cults into either occult or metaphysical assembly. There is also a third type, the service-oriented, as Campbell states that "the kinds of stable forms which evolve in the development of religious organization will bear a significant relationship to the content of the religious experience of the founder or founders."


title: Cult

text: Dick Anthony, a forensic psychologist known for his criticism of brainwashing theory of conversion, has defended some so-called cults, and in 1988 argued that involvement in such movements may often have beneficial, rather than harmful effects, saying that "[t]here's a large research literature published in mainstream journals on the mental health effects of new religions. For the most part, the effects seem to be positive in any way that's measurable."


title: Cult

text: In their 1996 book "Theory of Religion", American sociologists Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge propose that the formation of cults can be explained through the rational choice theory. In "The Future of Religion" they comment that, "in the beginning, all religions are obscure, tiny, deviant cult movements." According to Marc Galanter, Professor of Psychiatry at NYU, typical reasons why people join cults include a search for community and a spiritual quest. Stark and Bainbridge, in discussing the process by which individuals join new religious groups, have even questioned the utility of the concept of "conversion", suggesting that "affiliation" is a more useful concept.