My current thoughts on the matter (which may or may not contradict any previous thoughts of mine on the matter).

The attitude towards marriage probably varied with the grades and with other elements of position in society. For the gentry equivalent (alpha grades who were essential to the Federation running but who had little or no real political power), like Blake, marriage was probably a respected institution. OTOH, I get the impression people like Avon don't share that idea (my guess on Avon is that he was an alpha whose work brought him enough in contact with the corrupt element [as opposed to Blake's segment which seems to have been sheltered from ugly truths] without having a share of their power).

So, advantages of marriage:

1) Probably conducive to the kind of stability the Federation liked in the ruled. Hostages to fortune and all that.

2) Literal hostages. If people know their misbehaviors may come back and hit their family, they are less likely to commit them. And let's not talk about people who _have_ misbehaved . . . .

3) Inheritance. There would have been two kinds, basic wealth and money or business based elements of the power structure, and citizenship.

Going right to citizenship, this also had two elements. First, to what extent did a minor (before grade testing) enjoy their parents grade privileges? Second, when was a child a citizen by birth?

Giving an example on the second, consider some stereotypes about 'welfare moms' and how those might have played in the Federation. Would a delta grade who had a child out of wedlock or whatever receive any kind of state help? Unlikely. More likely, her child's citizenship (until adulthood or testing) would depend on her ability to support. If she was no longer able to support her child, the child was probably sent into state care and listed as a noncitizen (types of noncitizens in the Federation include slaves and [I would guess] ranks applied to inhabitants of worlds that were second or third class Federation members [Horizon, for example]).

In practical terms, that could mean a variety of ugly fates. Probably the best case scenario would be something like lasting in the system long enough to eventually enlist as a Federation trooper, regaining some citizen status even if it did carry a 'possible cannon fodder' label attached. Being shipped off to a newly colonized world might be a possibility, which might stretch to cover something decent or might be simple slavery. Then there are the more direct kinds of slavery. Newly colonized worlds might have places for child labors, but Earth would have had machines for that kind of thing. The ugly fact is that a lot of these kids might have would up accesible to people who liked kids for the wrong reasons.

And that is assuming the sunny alternatives. Check mortality rates in 19th century orphanages for the other possibility.

For other grades, there may or may not have been losses of privilege or status. For someone like Servalan, or any of the ruling class, I doubt there'd be a problem. But I doubt Morag's career would have survived single motherhood unscathed (one can just see Servalan always making cutting comments and somehow working it into every job performance review).

The first case, inherited status, is less clear. A child born to a pair of alphas probably enjoyed alpha status. What happened if one parent had lower rank than the other? Did it work differently if an alpha male married a beta female than if an alpha female married a beta male? We're talking social custom (which can be as unbreakable as law in some societies) as well as law, here. If an alpha or beta grade had a mistress a grade or two lower (under circumstances considered socially acceptable or even legally recognized) who had a child, what then? Did the high grade father have discretion in what privileges were handed over or was the child limited to the mother's status? What about the welfare mom we mentioned? Did a father acknowledging paternity make a difference?

Right, right, cut to the chase. The core of this is, with some variations, marriage had social advantages and would have been one of several ways of clarifying who was a citizen and what kind of citizen they were.

Did these considerations operate at Gan's level of society? Did they operate uniformly or did gammas and deltas frequently feel they didn't need to bother, especially when there were no children?

And do we have evidence that Gan wasn't speaking respectfully of what's-her-name? Shrinker used the same phrase when trying _not_ to antagonize Avon, after all.

Oh, and the Federation may have had reasons for _discouraging_ marriage in some circles as well. Getting back to the family connections thing, the whole reason the Chinese testing for status system never quite took off in Japan was because clan loyalties tended to outweigh it (well, maybe not the _whole_ reason). Clans can provide a rival loyalty I imagine the Federation wanted to discourage.

Then there are the people you don't want to have hostages to fortune because you really don't want them thinking that far ahead.

Ellynne ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.