Matrimonial Behaviour in Canada and Ukraine: The Enduring Hold of Culture
Author(s)
Romaniuc, Anatole; Chuiko, Liubov
Abstract
The study compares a century-long matrimonial experience in Canada and Ukraine in terms of such criteria as intensity (universality), timing (age), stability and integrity of marriage. The study reveals a culture of early and universal marriage in Ukraine and that of marriage at more mature ages and one that is not nearly as universal in Canada, thus confirming the existence of Hajnal’s Western and Eastern marriage pattern divide. Perhaps the most striking feature which appears from this comparative study is the tenacity of matrimonial culture in the face of the many unsettling events the two countries have experienced over the century. How is it that an early and universal marriage custom took such a strong hold in Ukraine, a country that suffered from the overpopulation and acute fragmentation of family holdings, whereas in Canada, a country of immigration and abundance of land, late and less-than-universal marriage prevailed? And why do the traditional marriage patterns continue more or less in our day? To solve this conundrum, the study examines the prevailing inheritance customs, types of households, parental responsibility, kinship solidarity, aversion toward illegitimacy. The importance of institutional support for matrimonial culture is illustrated by the example of Canadian Ukrainians. Theoretical questions are raised as to the demographic and matrimonial responses to the modernity exigencies, and as to the role of normative and rational imperatives in shaping the individual conduct in the matters of matrimony.
