This reinterpretation of the Mediterranean Marriage Pattern is based on an
anthropological-historical study of patrician marriages in the fifteenth-century city-state of
Ragusa. In a comparison of marriage in Ragusa and Florence, it is argued that age at marriage is
related to the order in which siblings are betrothed That order is that sisters should become
betrothed before brothers. Using computer simulation, it is shown that this does significantly
delay the age at which brothers can become betrothed This interpretation is related to considera
tions of honor, dowry, the economics of householding, and ties of patronage between affines.
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