-
2350 BCE
First Wedding
The first recorded evidence of marriage was in Mesopotamia in 2350 BCE. At this time, the institution of marriage had little to do with love or religion. -
1000
Hunter-Gatherer Period
The hunter-gatherer period established informal marriages. It was a time when small nomadic groups of 5 to 80 people would depend on each other for survival. These groups could be related by blood or informal relationships. -
1300
Agricultural Families
From 1300-1500, hunter-gatherers found good land and animals within one space and grew their own food. Couples began to have more kids so that they could have more help on the farm. Polygamy was common because more people were needed on the farm to help. -
First Interracial Marriage
In Matoaka (now the US) Pocahontas and John Rolfe got married. Pocahontas was 18 years old and John was 29 years old. The next year, they gave birth to a son named Thomas. -
Urban Industrial Families
In the 1800s, men worked in the workforce, and women depended on men for money. It was more common for children to move away after they got married because they were able to provide for themselves. -
Polygamy within the LTS Community
The practice of pleural marriage began in the early 1840s within the Church of the Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints. Plural marriage is the marriage of one man with two or more women. -
Ellen Richards Swallow
Ellen Richards Swallow laid the foundation for the science of home economics. She was the founder of the home economics movement. Richards was the first woman in the US accepted to MIT and the first American woman to obtain a degree in chemistry. -
Contemporary Families
Women began working in the 1960s and 70s, and more dual-income households arose. Fewer children were being born in this time period. -
Interracial Marriage Legalization
In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled that there were no longer laws against the marriage of people of different races. -
Family Medical Leave Act
The US passed the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993; it granted certain types of men and women up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave for the birth of a child, the placement of a child in adoption or foster care, to care for a spouse, child, or parent with a health condition, and personal illness or injury. -
Sources
https://sciencehistory.org/education/scientific-biographies/ellen-h-swallow-richards/#:~:text=Home%20Economics,-
https://www.inceco.com/en/news-insights/family-matrimonial-history-marriage#:~:text=It%20is%20widely%20agreed%20that,B.C.%20in%20the%20Far%20East.
https://prezi.com/rpotx6qrt6ru/history-of-the-family-timeline/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_in_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20first%20recorded%20%22interracial%22%20marriage,Maryland%20General%20Assembly%20in%201691.