Marriage Patterns,Trends,and Timing in Urban Khartoum,1940-1975: Theory and Evidence

This article focuses on the relationship between marital timing on the one hand and marriage and residential types on the other within the context of urbanization in a developing country. We develop a framework that recognizes the complex nature of the changing socio-economic and socio-cultural factors under periods of rapid social change and socio-economic differentiation. We demonstrate both theoretically and in terms of an empirical example that marital timing could change independent of changes in marriage forms and extended residence. The role of education in influencing positively marital timing need not be mediated through the dissolution of traditional marriage types and residential forms, and ages at first marriage could rise independent of changes in these institutions.