The Importance of Being Monogamous: Marriage and Nation Building in Western Canada to 1915
Sarah Carter
"Sarah Carter provides a detailed analysis of marriage as a diverse social institution in nineteenth-century Western Canada. She charts the ascendancy of Christian, lifelong, heterosexual, monogamous marriage as an instrument to shape and institutionalize the gender order as the foundation of this new region of the nation. It took great effort to impose the monogamous model of marriage on a varied population of Aboriginal people and newcomers such as the Mormons, each with their own definitions of marriage, including polygamy and flexible attitudes toward divorce. The work concludes with an explanation of the negative consequences for women, particularly Aboriginal women, that arose as a result of the imposition of monogamous marriage."--Jacket.
Award History
0 wins · 1 total
| Award | Year | Result | Category / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cundill History PrizeMajor | 2008 | Longlist | Secondary source |
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies
This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.
01 Central figures
None extracted with sufficient confidence.
02 Central places
- Western Canada90%
03 Suggested argument
The imposition of Christian lifelong heterosexual monogamous marriage in nineteenth-century Western Canada served to institutionalize the gender order, and its enforcement produced negative consequences for women, especially Aboriginal women.
Model confidence 62%
04 Reading orientation
65 / 100 academicAcademic
An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.
Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 78%.