<P> In Mormonism, a couple may seal their marriage "for time and for all eternity" through a "sealing" ceremony conducted within LDS Temples . The couple is then believed to be bound to each other in marriage throughout eternity if they live according to their covenants made in the ceremony . Mormonism also allows living persons to act as proxies in the sealing ceremony to "seal" a marriage between ancestors who have been dead for at least one year and who were married during their lifetime . According to LDS theology, it is then up to the deceased individuals to accept or reject this sealing in the spirit world before their eventual resurrection . A living person can also be sealed to his or her deceased spouse, with another person (of the same sex as the deceased) acting as proxy for that deceased individual . </P> <P> One society that traditionally did without marriage entirely was that of the Na of Yunnan province in southern China . According to anthropologist Cia Hua, sexual liaisons among the Na took place in the form of "visits" initiated by either men or women, each of whom might have two or three partners each at any given time (and as many as two hundred throughout a lifetime). The nonexistence of fathers in the Na family unit was consistent with their practice of matrilineality and matrilocality, in which siblings and their offspring lived with their maternal relatives . In recent years, the Chinese state has encouraged the Na to acculturate to the monogamous marriage norms of greater China . Such programs have included land grants to monogamous Na families, conscription (in the 1970s, couples were rounded up in villages ten or twenty at a time and issued marriage licenses), legislation declaring frequent sexual partners married and outlawing "visits", and the withholding of food rations from children who could not identify their fathers . Many of these measures were relaxed in favor of educational approaches after Deng Xiaoping came into power in 1981 . See also the Mosuo ethnic minority of China and their practice of walking marriage . </P> <Ul> <Li> Arranged marriage--A marriage that is at some level arranged by someone other than those being married . Cf Matchmaking . <Ul> <Li> Heqin--An arranged marriage for political alliance during Medieval China . </Li> <Li> Shim - pua marriage--A Taiwanese tradition of arranged marriage, in which a poor family (burdened by too many children) would sell a young daughter to a richer family for labour, and in exchange, the poorer family would be married into the richer family, through the daughter . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Avunculate marriage--Marrying one's own uncle or aunt . Cf . inbreeding and incest . </Li> <Li> Beena marriage--A form of marriage used in pre-Islamic Arabia, in which a wife would own a tent of her own, within which she retained complete independence from her husband, a form of matriarchy . </Li> <Li> Boston marriage--A marriage - like relationship between two women, not necessarily sexual; also historic lesbian relationships . </Li> <Li> Celestial marriage--A marriage performed in a Latter Day Saint (Mormon) temple . </Li> <Li> Child marriage--A practice in which the one or both spouses are prepubescents, while not necessarily below the legal marriageable age . Cf . teen marriage . </Li> <Li> Civil marriage--A marriage performed, recorded, and recognized by a government official; such a marriage may be performed by a religious body and recognized by the state, or entirely secular . </Li> <Li> Common - law marriage--A form of interpersonal status that is legally recognized in some jurisdictions as a marriage even though no legally recognized marriage ceremony is performed, no contract is explicitly entered into, and no registry is made of the union . Cf customary law . </Li> <Li> Cousin marriage--Marriage between first cousins . Cf . inbreeding and incest . </Li> <Li> Covenant marriage--A marriage in which the couple agrees to obtain pre-marital counseling before marrying, and accept more limited grounds for divorce . </Li> <Li> Customary marriage--A marriage according to the customary law of a particular social group, which may or may not be recognised by the state . Cf Common - law marriage . </Li> <Li> Endogamy--A marriage within the boundaries of the domestic group, between members of the same group . </Li> <Li> Exchange marriage--Two (or more) brothers and an equal number of sisters marry . An element of alliance theory much studied by anthropologists such as Claude Lévi - Strauss . Also known as sister exchange, bride exchange, etc . Cf Sororate marriage . <Ul> <Li> Watta satta--A form of marriage exchange in Pakistan and Afghanistan, involving two simultaneous marriages of a brother - sister pair from two households . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Exogamy or Intermarriage--Marriage between people belonging to different groups or backgrounds . <Ul> <Li> Inter-caste marriage--Marriage between persons from different castes . Cf Hypergamy . </Li> <Li> Interracial marriage--Marriage between two people of differing races . </Li> <Li> Interreligious marriage--Marriage (either religious or civil) between partners professing different religions . </Li> <Li> Royal intermarriage--Marriage between members of different royal families, dynasties, or houses . </Li> <Li> Transnational marriage--Marriage to persons from different countries . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Female husband marriage--A marriage in which a female takes a wife; see e.g. the Nandi people; also known in the anthropological literature as woman - to - woman or female - to - female marriage . </Li> <Li> Female - led marriage--A monogamous, heterosexual marriage in which both partners agree that the woman will act as the leader, principal partner and ultimate authority of the relationship, commonly referred to as an FLR . </Li> <Li> Flash marriage--the English translation of a recent Chinese expression, denoting a speedy marriage between couples who don't really know one another . Cf . Las Vegas wedding and Nikah' urfi . </Li> <Li> Fleet Marriage--The best - known example of an irregular or a clandestine marriage taking place in England before the Marriage Act 1753 . </Li> <Li> Forced marriage--A marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without his / her consent or against his / her will . <Ul> <Li> Marriage by abduction--Also known as marriage by capture or bride kidnapping . A form of forced marriage in which a woman who is kidnapped and raped by a man is thereafter regarded as his wife . </Li> <Li> Raptio is a Latin term referring to the large scale abduction of women, usually in warfare, either for marriage or for rape </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Group marriage--A form of polygamous marriage in which more than one man and more than one woman form a family unit, and all members of the marriage share parental responsibility for any children arising from the marriage . <Ul> <Li> Line marriage--A form of group marriage in which the family unit continues to add new spouses of both sexes over time so that the marriage does not end . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Handfasting--A traditional European ceremony of marriage or betrothal, commonly practiced by Neopagans today, which may or may not result in a legally recognized marriage . Cf Jumping the broom . </Li> <Li> Hollywood marriage--A marriage between Hollywood celebrities or a marriage that is of short duration and quickly ends in separation or divorce . </Li> <Li> Human - animal marriage--A marriage between a human and a non-human animal . A trope in fiction and mythology . </Li> <Li> Hypergamy--Marriage for the purpose of upward mobility . </Li> <Li> Lavender marriage--A marriage between a man and a woman in which one, or both, parties are, or are assumed to be, homosexual . </Li> <Li> Love marriage--A marriage where the basis for the marriage is love . Cf . sham marriage and forced marriage . </Li> <Li> Marriage of convenience--A marriage intended to serve some pragmatic purpose, not a love marriage . Cf . sham marriage . </Li> <Li> Marry - your - rapist law, a marriage between a rapist and his victim, usually to avoid punishment and loss of honour </Li> <Li> Mixed - orientation marriage--A marriage where one spouse has a different sexual orientation than the other spouse . </Li> <Li> Monogamy--Marriage with one spouse exclusively for life or for a period of time . Cf . serial monogamy </Li> <Li> Morganatic marriage--A marriage which can be contracted in certain countries, usually between persons of unequal social rank, which prevents the passage of the husband's titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage . </Li> <Li> Muslim marriage--One of several types . See Islamic marital jurisprudence </Li> <Li> Naked marriage--the English translation of a recent Chinese slang term, denoting a marriage begun without many possessions or wealth . </Li> <Li> Nikah' urfi--a type of informal marriage in some Islamic traditions, see Islamic marital jurisprudence . Cf . Las Vegas wedding . </Li> <Li> Open marriage--A marriage in which the partners agree that each is free to engage in extramarital sexual relationships, without regarding this as sexual infidelity . </Li> <Li> Plaçage--A recognized extralegal system in which white French and Spanish and later Creole men entered into the equivalent of common - law marriages with women of African, Indian and white (European) Creole descent . Cf . concubinage </Li> <Li> Polygamy--Plural marriage: <Ul> <Li> Bigamy--One person having two spouses . In English, the word usually denotes a crime, i.e. a sham marriage . </Li> <Li> Polyandry--The marriage of one wife to several husbands . Fraternal polyandry is a variant in which the husbands are brothers (see Polyandry in Tibet .) </Li> <Li> Polygyny--The marriage of one husband to several wives . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Posthumous marriage--A marriage which occurs after one or both parties is deceased . <Ul> <Li> Ghost marriage in Sudan--The marriage of a woman to a man who died before he could marry, using the man's brother as a stand - in . Cf Proxy marriage </Li> <Li> Ghost marriage in China </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Proxy marriage--Marriage ceremony during which the wedding couple is not in the same physical location . </Li> <Li> Putative marriage--An apparently valid marriage, entered into in good faith on part of at least one of the partners, which is invalid because of an impediment . Cf . void marriage . </Li> <Li> Remarriage--Entering into a new marriage, after the end of the previous one, e.g. by death or divorce . Cf . serial monogamy . </Li> <Li> Same - sex marriage--A marriage between spouses of the same sex . </Li> <Li> Self - marriage--A marriage by a person to himself or herself . </Li> <Li> Self - uniting marriage--A marriage in which the two partners dispense with the presence of a third - party officiant . </Li> <Li> Sexless marriage or mariage blanc--A marriage in which there is no sex (and, in the latter case, perhaps never was) between the two partners . Cf . marriage of convenience . </Li> <Li> Sham marriage--Marriage as a pretext to commit fraud . Cf . green card marriage and voidable marriage . </Li> <Li> Shared Earning / Shared Parenting Marriage--A type of marriage popular in various countries where the partners choose at the outset of the marriage to share the work of childraising, earning money, housework and recreation time in nearly equal fashion across all four domains . Also known as peer marriage . </Li> <Li> Shotgun marriage--A marriage hastily arranged, often with the implication of the bride's unintended pregnancy . </Li> <Li> Sororate marriage--A marriage in which a man marries his wife's sister, usually after the wife is dead or has proved infertile . </Li> <Li> Teen marriage--A practice in which the one or both spouses are teenagers below age of majority, while not necessarily below the legal marriageable age . Cf . child marriage . </Li> <Li> Trial marriage--A situation were the couples agree to stay together without formalising or legalising the relationship as they wait to see whether it is going to work out . </Li> <Li> Walking marriage--A practice of a matrifocal group in which the husband spends the nights with his wife, but he departs in the morning to work in his mother's household . </Li> <Li> Widow inheritance--Also known as bride inheritance . A cultural and social practice whereby a widow is required to marry a male relative of her late husband, often his brother . <Ul> <Li> Levirate marriage--is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother's widow, and the widow is obliged to marry her deceased husband's brother . </Li> <Li> Sudanese ghost marriage </Li> <Li> Yibbum, according to Jewish Torah law, the brother of a man who died without children has an obligation to marry the widow . </Li> <Li> Widow conservation--an obsolete form of marriage in early Protestant Europe, when the widow of a parish vicar was remarried to her husband's successor to ensure her economic support . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Wedlease / Temporary marriage--A contract entailing a brief, fixed - term marital status: <Ul> <Li> Nikah mut'ah </Li> <Li> Nikah Misyar </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Yogic marriage--A tradition of Hindu marriage done within Shavite Sadhus and Sadhvis, to enable them to get positive energy </Li> </Ul> <Li> Arranged marriage--A marriage that is at some level arranged by someone other than those being married . Cf Matchmaking . <Ul> <Li> Heqin--An arranged marriage for political alliance during Medieval China . </Li> <Li> Shim - pua marriage--A Taiwanese tradition of arranged marriage, in which a poor family (burdened by too many children) would sell a young daughter to a richer family for labour, and in exchange, the poorer family would be married into the richer family, through the daughter . </Li> </Ul> </Li>

The practice of marrying only one person and getting married only once during a lifetime is called