While the thrill of mastering a 
spiny Alpine road in the BMW built 
for it remains as potent as ever, 
we recognize that these are value- 
conscious times. 
We are therefore pleased to an- 
nounce that a BMW bought in 
Europe is now substantially less ex- 
pensive than one bought in the 
United States. 
Further, if you imagine that the 
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clouded by 42-page forms, rest 
assured. Because your BMW dealer 
here at home handles everything. 
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gram, Montvale, New Jersey 07645 
Please send me more informa- 
tion on your 1981 European Delivery 
Program. 
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one-third of all marriages continue to 
occur within a single clan, a stable 
proportion. Surprisingly, and in con- 
trast to so many other groups in the 
modernizing societies of the Middle 
East, even the Druse age at first mar- 
riage has remained fairly constant dur- 
ing the last four decades, averaging 
about twenty-one for brides and 
twenty-eight for grooms. In spite of 
the many changes that have taken 
place in Lebanon during the last few 
decades, the basic structural features 
of Druse society have remained amaz- 
ingly resilient and express little 
change. During the same period the 
frequency of divorce also remained 
low, affecting an estimated less than 
one in ten couples. 
Initially, the use of the marriage 
contract among the Druse would ap- 
pear to be much different from that 
envisioned by its proponents in the 
West. In the Middle East, it is a long- 
established safeguard for women, who 
occupy an unquestionably inferior po- 
sition in relation to their husbands. 
It establishes a penalty the husband 
must pay should he divorce his wife 
and helps perpetuate the marriage in 
spite of the wife’s subservient position. 
It also at least partly compensates wid- 
ows for the economic and personal 
loss incurred by the death of a spouse. 
On the other hand, advocates of the 
use of the contract in the West see 
it as an innovation to help couples 
overcome the traditional subordina- 
tion of women within a marriage re- 
lationship by achieving an acceptable 
consensus about important individual 
concerns. 
A closer look reveals, however, that 
both approaches actually seek the 
same end — the cultivation between 
men and women of enduring, emo- 
tionally satisfying relationships that 
create a buffer against life’s stresses. 
That a mechanism like the marriage 
contract has emerged from two very 
different cultures suggests that it may 
indeed be a useful tool. In our society, 
where the persistent quest for “some- 
thing better” often results in personal 
relationships that are numerous, brief, 
and unsatisfying, no workable alter- 
native should be overlooked. 
Paul D. Starr is associate professor 
of sociology at Auburn University. 
Nura S. Alamuddin holds graduate 
degrees in anthropology from the 
American University of Beirut and 
the London School of Economics. 
12 
