Theory on the social determinants of the first marriage are not well known. Anthropologists have given attention to kinship and marriage, but demographers are concerned with understanding the relation between marriage and fertility. The age at which marriage occurs in a nuclear family systems tends to be late, because the economic situation has to be strengthened to be able to set up a separate household. In an extended family system, where the formation of a new separate household is not a condition, marriage occurs early. In a Hindu society where the kinship system is very strong, marriage is considered as one of the sixteen classical stages in a person's life. One of the ways that a person is considered mature is through his marriage.
