1. One example of an ancient marriage from the text is that of Tibet. Prior to the Chinese occupation, a quarter of marriages involved brothers sharing one wife. Individuals didn’t live in couples but rather in clusters with groups of brothers and sisters raising children together. This is different from the “one man, one woman idea” of marriage because in this situation there were two men and one woman living together.
2. Women who seek higher education tend to postpone marriage until their late 20s, into early 30s. This is due to the amount of time it takes to receive their degrees. These women also prefer to seek employment after obtaining their degree before settling down into a relationship or marriage.
Lower and middle class women are also a bit leery toward getting married young due to their lack of economic stability. These women would rather find a steady job before marriage. It is their attempt to economically secure themselves and their relationship.
3. List all the wedding traditions in the clip.
- Groom couldn’t see bride in her wedding dress before wedding
- Traditional “white” wedding gown with veil
- The groom is wearing a traditional Yamaka
- Taking pictures in the park.
- Drinking the wine from the churches cup.
- Putting the ring on the woman’s finger.
- Breaking of the glass at the end of the ceremony.
- There was a best man/maid of honor.
- Veiling of the bride.
- Traditional salute of bride (the kiss)
Best Man/Maid of Honor:
Traditionally, the best man accompanied the groom as he went to steal his bride away from her family. He stood at his right side for the ceremony to help guard the bride and groom, just in case the bride’s family tried to steal her back. The maid of honor was used as a decoy for the bride. She dressed similar to the bride to confuse anyone who had something against the bride or to confuse any evil spirits that may have wanted to come upon the bride.
Today, we assign these roles to important individuals in our lives such as brother or best-friend for the best-man role and sister or best-friend for the maid of honor role. We want the individual closest to us standing beside us as we make one of the biggest, life altering decisions ever. For my wedding, I chose to have my sister stand beside me as my maid of honor. A tradition I was more than happy to oblige by.
Interesting post Kammie, especially the information about protecting the bride from being reclaimed by her family. Can you imagine? And you nicely described how these roles have evolved to present day. I always say in class that a huge difference between cohabitation and marriage is that when you marry you stand up in front of your friends and family to announce your relationship,as opposed to when you cohabit, you might have family or friends help you move in, but their is not this announcing aspect.
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