It seems to me that most when a society stresses the importance of the competitive, strong individual, family values begin to break down. In a Capitalist society, we are encouraged to move away from our family home and get an apartment of our own. This of course is economically beneficial because now you have two place to equip with electrical appliances, furniture, etc.

We are encouraged to live separately from our families and no longer live in villages with other supporting relatives. In the past, husbands would form bonds with brothers, cousins, uncles, etc. Within those relations, he could meet many of his social, emotional needs. The wife didn't have to be everything.

The same with the wife. If she wanted intellectual stimulation, she could visit the more literate members of the family. If she needed emotional support, she had mothers, sisters, cousins and aunts. She didn't expect her husband to provide for all of her needs.

Childcare, too, takes its toll. Its up to mom and dad alone. Before, grandparents, aunts and uncles shared the responsibility. All of this extended family helped to bind marriages and create healthy relationships.

Today, we are lucky if we can gather our familiy members from the four corners of the world to sit down and eat a meal together. The social structures have changed. Now people live in little cells completely isolated from families and friends and have become little worker robots. Small towns with many related generations are far more condusive to marriage than large urban environments but regardless of geographic location, it is the extended family relations that create the social pressure to bind most marriages.

Sometimes this is good, sometimes its not. Those same social pressures can convince a battered woman to return home or in other cultures, honour killings to occur.