MARRIAGE

ALEX KOTLOWITZ, author, November 15, 2002
CZIKOWSKY: About two decades ago, the number of teen births began an upwards growth in annual numbers. Now, those births are becoming teenagers. Why should we not expect them to view teenage motherhood as the norm to which they are accustomed?
KOTLOWITZ: One of the issues, of course, is the lack of role models. And that was clearly evident in one part of our filming (“Let’s Get Married”), when this young lay minister was counseling a young couple who had a child and was considering marriage. And as it runs out, this young lay minister, who was only 22, was in exactly the same situation. I thought that moment in the film spoke volumes to the lack of role models. But the encouraging news, at least on the teenage pregnancy front, is that the level of teenage pregnancy seems to have leveled off, if not declined, in the past ten years.

STEPHANIE COONTZ, author, June 28, 2005
CZIKOWSKY: Stone Age marriages? How can you tell?
COONTZ: Of course we don’t know for sure, and it was very cheeky of me to wander into this territory. But I teach at The Evergreen State College, where we are always team-teaching in interdisciplinary courses, and I’ve worked with several anthropologists in the past so when I decided I had to answer some of the things I was hearing about why marriage was invented I took a deep breath and plunged in. I spent six months reviewing the archeology and anthropology and when I had some idea of what I wanted to say I sent it to four of the world’s top experts, who patiently corrected a lot of my mistakes. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I think I’ve summed up a good deal of the research and at least made a case for the idea of marriage was above all invented not so much for the benefit of individual men or women but in order to get in-laws. And by the way, if you get the book (“Marriage: A History”) or simply are leafing through it, check out the story of the invention of marriage as told by the Piegan or Blackfoot Indians. It is my new favorite myth about marriage.

RICHARD MORIN, Washington Post Polling Director, June 5, 2006
CZIKOWSKY: What are your thoughts on the apparent disconnect between the number of African American males who feel marriage is important and between the reality that the marriage rate is relatively low?
MORIN: We asked Black men why they thought the marriage rate was so low. Here is what they said: 49 percent said a “big reason” was Black men don’t feel they can support a family. 42 percent said it was because Black men were less likely to value marriage.
44 percent said a big reason was because Black women are reluctant to marry men who have less education and lower incomes than they do.
70 percent said it was because too many young Black men are in prison or have been killed.