Marriage, Cohabitation and LAT Relationships

Abstract

As long as we know, marriages have always existed in Europe. When Christianity came the rituals also came or changed. In, for example, Iceland, these new rituals were only to some extent accepted for hundreds of years. In most other countries marriage the Christian way became also a concern for the states. And the few existing non-marital cohabitation couples were “deviants” in the meaning that they did not follow the rules of the social institution of marriage. Many of these were based upon poverty. During the 1960’s many of the traditional way couples lived were questioned, especially by activists, and changes came in some countries and in the beginning of the 1970s in other countries. The three Scandinavian countries were first with the changes. Cohabitation rapidly came as a social institution along marriage. To start with people in these new cohabitations were actively against the social institution of marriage and were in that sense “deviant”. Soon many became followers and they were certainly not in opposition to the societal values. These changes will be discussed with a theoretical background on what marriage has meant and means today together with a view on a follower of the changes and cohabitation, namely LAT relationships.