So...

[ShadowHM]

Some folks see marriage as a powerful, spiritual bond.

Isn't 'some' a lovely word? "Some like oysters. Others prefer snails." :P

It is not like you to make fatuous comments, Occhi. So when I read that, I got an immediate mental image of my Great-Aunt Harriet saying "Some people have standards!" with that lovely edge that meant "And the ones I’m looking at clearly don't!"

Were you really suggesting that if it is not a spiritual bond it is not a powerful one?

My carping at you aside:

It struck me that the places cited as ones where arranged (and presumably thus at least initially loveless) marriages are common are also some of the places where the extended family is much stronger as a societal influence than some others where the nuclear family is the basic building block. I then began to wonder about where and how that 'powerful spiritual bond' notion began to be fostered. Is there a relationship between the need for emphasising that bond and the breakdown of the extended family as the foundation of society? Is there a relationship between the desire of the church to be a powerful influence on people’s lives and the emphasis placed on the spiritual nature of a marriage as opposed to the more secular bonding that arranged marriages create between families?