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Cyprus Family and Marriage
The structure of the family was affected by the postwar
changes. The family was traditionally the most important
institution in Cypriot society. Especially in village
life, people
thought of themselves primarily as members of families,
and rarely,
according to sociologist Peter Loizos, spoke of
"themselves as
individuals in the existential sense." Others have noted
that Greek
Cypriots traditionally identified themselves first as
members of
families, then according to their places of origin, and
lastly as
citizens of a nation.
The typical traditional Greek Cypriot households
consisted of
a father, a mother, and their unmarried children. At
marriage, the
parents gave their children a portion of land, if
available, along
with money and household items. Traditionally, the
bridegroom
provided the house and the bride's family the furniture
and linens.
This was the dowry, the allocation of an equal portion of
the
parents' property to the children, male or female, at the
time of
marriage, rather than after the death of the parents.
Until the
1950s, this transfer of property at marriage was agreed to
orally
by the parties involved; more recently the so-called dowry
contract
has been introduced. A formal agreement specifying the
amount of
property to be given to the couple, the dowry contract is
signed by
all parties and enforced by religious authorities. At the
engagement, for example, a priest will ask if such a
contract has
been considered.
After World War II, it became the bride's obligation to
provide
the house. Ownership of a house, given the scarcity of
land
(especially after the invasion of 1974) and the
considerable
expense of building, became a great advantage for a single
woman
seeking to marry. For this reason, a great part of the
wages of a
working woman went to the construction of a house, for a
"good
marriage" was as important at the beginning of the 1990s
as it was
in the past.
Traditionally all marriages were arranged, generally
through
the mediation of a matchmaker. The latter, although
unrelated to
either family, knew them well enough to be confident that
their
children were well suited. Opportunities for the young
themselves
to meet were rare and restricted: at church, in the
presence of
their parents, and at the village fountain and during the
"Sunday
afternoon walks," where girls and boys strolled
separately. Couples
were matched with a few qualities in mind, and in larger
settlements were often relative strangers. Love was not
seen as a
good reason for marriage, for romantic love was not highly
esteemed
in traditional Cypriot society. Divorce and separation
were
virtually unknown, because through the system of marriage
and
dowry, kinship and economic ties were so rigidly defined
that
neither partner could opt out of a marriage without
devastating
social consequences.
Urbanization and modernization have altered Greek
Cypriot
attitudes toward marriage. The expansion of the school
system has
meant that boys and girls meet from an early age and are
exposed to
modern ideas about social and sexual relations. The great
increase
in the number of women in the work force also has
liberated them
from strict parental control.
Even at the beginning of the 1990s, however, economic
considerations remained a decisive factor in matters of
sexual
morality and marriage settlements. In farming communities,
for
example, where daughters were financially dependent on
parents, the
latter could still regulate premarital behavior. Among the
lower
middle class of wage earners, where there was little
property to
divide among the children, parents still retained
considerable
authority over their daughters, for a "good name" was
thought to
increase the chances of a marriage bringing upward social
mobility.
Among affluent urban classes, where girls associated with
boys of
similar economic background, parents relaxed their
vigilance
considerably, and more typically modern Western attitudes
toward
sexual morality emerged.
In traditional Cypriot society, full manhood was
attained
through marriage and becoming the main support for a
family.
Similarly, it was only through marriage that a woman could
realize
what was seen as her main purpose in life, becoming a
mother and
homemaker. Remaining single reduced a woman to the
marginal role of
looking after aged parents and being on the periphery of
her
married siblings' lives.
The great importance of a separate "dwelling unit" for
the
nuclear family has always been recognized as a
prerequisite for the
couple's economic independence. Accordingly, the head of
the family
has been seen as morally justified in pursuing the
interest of his
dependents in all circumstances. This principle of
symferon,
that is, self-interest, overrides every other
consideration. Acting
in accordance with the principle of symferon, Greek
Cypriot
parents do all in their power to equip their children for
the
future. In present-day Cyprus, this involves providing the
best
possible education for sons, and securing a house as well
as an
acceptable education for daughters.
In traditional Cypriot villages, houses were built
close to one
another, encouraging the close contact and cooperation
that were
necessary for survival in a context of general poverty.
The closely
knit community of families provided a sense of belonging
and
security, but also greatly restricted individuals within
accepted
norms and boundaries in all aspects of life. Urbanization
had a
liberating effect. As people became wage earners, the
selfsufficiency of the nuclear family grew at the expense of
community
interdependence.
Despite changes in its structure, however, the family
remained
strong in Greek Cypriot society. In the period 1985-89,
the
country's marriage rate was 9.5 per thousand, the highest
in
Europe. The period saw a rising trend in the marriage age
for men
and women, about one year older for both than in earlier
years. In
1988 the mean age at marriage was 28.7 for grooms, and
25.2 for
brides. Grooms and brides in rural areas still tended to
marry
younger than their urban counterparts. On the other hand,
the
divorce rate had almost doubled from 42 per thousand in
1980 to 68
per thousand in 1988. The number of extramarital births
remained
very low by European standards; in 1988 only seventy-two
children
were born out of wedlock, a mere 0.7 percent of the total
number of
births.
Data as of January 1991
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