ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the extent to which the industrial societies of the world are developing a common sociocultural system in response to what Benjamin Nelson termed “the pressures of of Oikumenogenesis. Convergence means moving from different positions toward some common point. In Western Europe the preferred age at marriage has traditionally been much later than in Eastern Europe, and in both sets of European countries men and women getting married have, on the average, been much older than the brides and grooms in most Asian countries. Since 1900, young people in Western Europe have been getting married at an earlier age than before, whereas in Eastern Europe and Asia they have been getting married at an increasingly later age than before. If convergent change can only reasonably be expected in settings that are under the same major influence, then one should perhaps focus on subnational units, especially those selected more precisely on the basis of theoretically relevant characteristics.
