ABSTRACT
A new family begins when two people get married; or so it is believed in some regions. In other cultures and places marriage signals the expansion of an existing family, as a stem sprouting from a growing tree buttressed by deep ancestral roots. In spite of differences in the way marriage is seen by different communities from East to West, it is clear that the worldwide changes permeating social life at the dawn of the twenty-first century have also, inevitably, involved the meaning and structure of family and marriage everywhere.
