And what constitutes a 'successful' marriage or life partnership is also quite culturally relative. Jaza's culture defines stability and a lack of divorce as successful, and if these are the benchmarks of success, than traditional Mongolian society is superior. Sam and defenders of Western values, of course, would vehemently disagree and state that even if divorce is easier, and more mistakes are made in a society characterized by autonomy, this is innately 'better.' But even our own cultural critics bemoan the current state of the family, and measure its success based upon the divorce rate -- at least, if a family is poor. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, for example, in his essay "Defining Deviancy Down" automatically assumes that having a two-parent family is 'better' for children [at least, poor, minority children], as defined by certain standards of success and social factors, such as the prevalence of crime: "in 1965, having reached...
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