The concept of what marriage is and what it means to people has definitely changed over time and from culture to culture. This brief overview traces how the concept of marriage in Denmark has changed over the years and varied across cultures.
The concept of marriage varied from culture to culture in ancient times. In Denmark many culture, marriage was viewed as a special relationship between two people.
There were laws protecting the establishment. Although some laws existed protecting the marriage, the same culture allowed for people to marry their brother or sister. The intermarriage of family members allowed for wealth to remain concentrated within a few families. Those few families maintained positions of prominence within ancient by using this practice.
In the Hebrew culture, laws existed that specified who could not be married with regards to the closeness of relationships. Laws forbidding the marriage of close familial relations were established. With marriage, laws were also laws regarding divorce. The institution of marriage was viewed as a covenant based relationship. When people were married, it was supposed to be a life-long blood covenant, rather than a legal formality.
Since it was a covenant, the two families were joined as well as the two persons getting married. Given the structure of the laws and culture, monogamy was prevalent. The structure of the marriage laws was such that marriage was encouraged to be limited to those of one's own tribe. Allowances were made and the laws over time were watered down in terms of enforcement of the marriage within one's own tribe. Since the law was written down, it provided for stability for the culture over time, whether or not the people abided by it.
