New research shows that in pre-industrial Finland, Sami men were expected to marry women 15 years younger than them to help reproduce more offspring for themselves.
SamuliHelle, an ecologist at the University of Turku in Finland, said, “The Sami only marry once in their lifetime, and after studying the effect of the age difference between the couple in a Sami marriage on the family’s ability to produce offspring, we found that if you marry a woman 14.6 years younger than you are, the younger wife will successfully produce more children for her husband, and they offspring all live to be at least 18 years old.”
In an effort to eliminate the impact of modern medical advances on child survival, the researchers arrived at these results by looking at the church records of 700 couples who lived in Utsjoki, Inari and Enontekio between the 17th and 19th centuries. However, only 10 percent of the 700 couples had the optimal age difference between husband and wife. 700 of the couples included men who married women 20 years older and women who married husbands 25 years older than themselves, with an overall average age difference of 3 years. helle says that the increasing number of Sami marriages that do not exhibit the optimal age difference may be related to their marital customs and domestication. It may be related to social factors such as their marriage practices and the ability to raise a family with reindeer (the Sami generally rely on reindeer for sustenance).
But ultimately a woman’s age at childbearing is the biggest factor in the survival rate of her offspring. A research paper published in BiologyLetters states that younger women, in general, produce more healthy children. Marrying an older woman, or marrying a man much older than yourself, is the most detrimental to successful childbearing.
Other studies in Sweden have shown that the ideal fertility match is for a man to marry a woman 6 years younger than he is. But cultural restrictions on marriage have changed. hele notes that “wealth, in (Sami) marriage, is a most important factor. Love plays almost no role.”
In fact, it doesn’t matter how much of an age difference there is as long as both partners feel happy and healthy is the most important good. After all, reproduction of offspring is as a result of marriage, but also not the ultimate purpose, the purpose of marriage is multifaceted, but happy is the ultimate and most willing to see the results of each person, in order to be happy chasing their own happy marriage on it. In this premise age is not the gap!