The Book of Ruth is included in the third division, or the Writings (Ketuvim), of the Hebrew Bible. In most Christian canons it is treated as one of the historical books and placed between Judges and 1 Samuel.
Onan was a figure detailed in the Book of Genesis chapter 38, as the second son of Judah who married the daughter of Shuah the Canaanite. Onan had an older brother Er and a younger brother, Shelah as well. After being commanded by his father, Judah, to perform his duty as a husband's brother according to the custom of levirate marriage with the late Er's wife Tamar, Onan instead refused to perform his duty as a levirate and "spilled his seed on the ground whenever he went in" because "the offspring would not be his", and was thus put to death by Yahweh. This act is detailed as retribution for being "displeasing in the sight of Lord". Onan's crime is often misinterpreted to be masturbation but it is universally agreed among biblical scholars that Onan's death is attributed to his refusal to fulfill his obligation of levirate marriage with Tamar by committing coitus interruptus.
Halizah is, under the biblical system of levirate marriage known as yibbum, the process by which a childless widow and a brother of her deceased husband may avoid the duty to marry.
Yibbum is the form of levirate marriage found in Judaism. As specified by Deuteronomy 25:5–10, the brother of a man who died without children is permitted and encouraged to marry the widow. However, if either of the parties refuses to go through with the marriage, both are required to go through a ceremony known as halizah, involving a symbolic act of renunciation of their right to perform this marriage.
In Catholic canon law, affinity is an impediment to marriage of a couple due to the relationship which either party has as a result of a kinship relationship created by another marriage or as a result of extramarital intercourse. The relationships that give rise to the impediment have varied over time. Marriages and sexual relations between people in an affinity relationship are regarded as incest.
Sororate marriage is a type of marriage in which a husband engages in marriage or sexual relations with the sister of his wife, usually after the death of his wife or if his wife has proven infertile. The opposite is levirate marriage.
Dower is a provision accorded traditionally by a husband or his family, to a wife for her support should she become widowed. It was settled on the bride by agreement at the time of the wedding, or as provided by law.
Lobolo or lobola in Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Silozi, Shona and northern and southern Ndebele, sometimes referred to as "bride wealth" or "bride price" is a property in livestock or kind, which a prospective husband, or head of his family, undertakes to give to the head of a prospective wife's family in gratitude of letting the husband marry their daughter and for them brides family for raising her.
Yevamot is a tractate of the Talmud that deals with, among other concepts, the laws of Yibbum, and, briefly, with conversion to Judaism. This tractate is the first in the order of Nashim.
A surrogate marriage describes the arrangement where a woman is infertile or dies young and her family substitutes another woman to bear children for the husband. Surrogate marriage, also referred to as woman-to-man marriage, is a distinctive practice prevalent among certain African communities, notably the Igbo people of Nigeria. This unique form of marriage involves a woman marrying one or more men with the primary objective of producing children through the bride on behalf of the female-husband. The practice is rooted in the cultural context of inheritance and social dynamics. In surrogate marriage, the emphasis is not on sexual relationships between the women involved but rather on the role of the bride as a child-bearer for the female-husband's lineage. The practice addresses the cultural significance of children in these societies and aims to ensure the continuity of family lines. Surrogate marriage allows women, who may be childless or have reached the end of their childbearing age, to fulfill their obligation to produce offspring for their family. Historically, surrogate marriage evolved within the Igbo society as a means of addressing various factors, including the importance of children, patterns of inheritance, and economic considerations. The inheritance structure is such that children are primarily recognized through their cultural father, the one who pays the bride price, rather than a biological father. This belief influences the concept of lineage and ownership within the marriage arrangement. Scholars have conducted extensive research on surrogate marriage, exploring its motivations, evolution, and contemporary significance. The practice has been documented among various African communities, and studies estimate that a significant percentage of African married women may be involved in woman-to-man marriages.
Niyoga was a Hindu practice, primarily followed during the ancient period. It was permitted for the widows or wives who had no child by their spouse to procreate a child with another man. The basic purpose of niyoga is to ensure the continuation of the family lineage and to mitigate the financial and social precariousness that a childless widow would have faced in society. Niyoga was forbidden in the Kali age by Brhaspati and other smrti writers. It has been held that niyoga has nothing to do with polyandry. Sir Henry Maine thinks that the Niyoga is of a later date than the Levirate, but J. D. Mayne justified regarding the Levirate as merely an enlarged form of the Niyoga, that came into effect after a man's death. The Niyoga system, which enabled a woman to choose and invite a male with the desirable seed, and bear children.
Widow inheritance is a cultural and social practice whereby a widow is required to marry a male relative of her late husband, often his brother. The practice is more commonly referred as a levirate marriage, examples of which can be found in ancient and biblical times.
Posthumous marriage is a marriage in which at least one of the participating members is deceased.
In Chinese tradition, a Ghost Marriage is a marriage in which one or both parties are deceased. In mainland China, the practice of Ghost Marriage involves two deceased individuals. In Taiwan and South East Asia, this practice involves with one deceased and one living.
Dosa ben Harkinas was of the first generation of the Jewish Tanna sages, proceeding from the era of the Zugot. Contemporary to Yochanan ben Zakai, he was active during the era of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, and lived to a ripe old age, even after the destruction of the Second Temple. He died approximately 60 years after the destruction of the temple.
The Custom of Paris was one of France's regional custumals of civil law. It was the law of the land in Paris and the surrounding region in the 16th–18th centuries and was applied to French overseas colonies, including New France. First written in 1507 and revised in 1580 and 1605, the Custom of Paris was a compilation and systematization of Renaissance-era customary law. Divided into 16 sections, it contained 362 articles concerning family and inheritance, property, and debt recovery. It was the main source of law in New France from the earliest settlement, but other provincial customs were sometimes invoked in the early period.
In South Africa, ukungenwa is a traditional custom whereby a widowed woman automatically becomes her brother-in-law's wife, or is regarded as inherited by her brother-in-law. The practice occurs mainly in conservative rural parts of South Africa, in particular the Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal.
Widow conservation was a practice in Protestant Europe in the early modern age, when the widow of a parish vicar would marry her husband's successor to the vicarage to ensure her economic support. The practice was common in Scandinavia (Änkekonservering/Enkekonservering) and Protestant parts of Germany. It is related to other forms of widow inheritance, including the levirate marriage known in the Old Testament as yibbum.
During the British Colonial regime, the position of a non-Buddhist husband and Myanmar Buddhist wife was very unfavorable. While there is no provision in the Dhammathats that a Buddhist woman cannot marry another religious man, in this period, the Buddhist woman who married a non-Buddhist man almost lost her rights to divorce, inheritance, succession and their child's legal status. Almost all matters of divorce, inheritance, succession, partition and guardianship of children were decided by a foreign judge.
Kandyan law is the customary law that originated in the Kingdom of Kandy, which is applicable to Sri Lankans who are Buddhist and from the former provinces of the Kandyan Kingdom before the 1815 Kandyan Convention. It is one of three customary laws which are still in use in Sri Lanka. The other two customary laws are the Thesavalamai and the Muslim law. At present, Kandyan law governs aspects of marriage, adoption, transfer of property, and inheritance, as codified in 1938 in the Kandyan Law Declaration and Amendment Ordinance.
