[PapaBear3625]

Marriages in traditional cultures do work much better when both partners marry young, females from 14 or so (after puberty, but not much) and males from 16, if the new couple is becoming part of the young man's father's household. The young man has little or no opportunity or resources to begin to support a nuclear family on his own but will continue in the work he has been doing since he was small, be it farming or his father's trade.

That sounds like a workable system. The fact of life is that teens get horny, and it seems better for them to exert that enthusiasm within the confines of marriage, rather than a succession of "hook ups". Living with their parents also provides extra help in caring for babies.

I've been telling my daughters "get married soon after finishing college, because if you wait until 30, the good guys will already be taken".

[arthurus]

My own youngest daughter married late, 26, and gave up a very well paid job to do so because she wanted to have children and to raise those children, She is 33 now, has two and all are living with her in-laws on some acres in Maryland. She loves it and does not miss the vanished income. She has chickens and a vegetable garden and is loving the cultural regression. I wish I could see the kids a bit more often, though.