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African Women and Poligamy

Decent Essays

Ethnocentrism comes natural to all people. People believe the way they are raised and are currently living is the best, most correct way to live. People need to learn to look at the situation from another person’s or cultural perspective. This is true for polygamy in Africa. Most Americans hear about polygamy and think it as a way to repress women. Most people do not think about how it is part of their culture and it was created for a reason other than to just repress women. Africans openly practices polygamy. The women and the men do not see an issue with is type of marriage situation. The women see it as a way to help out the women with all the work that they have to accomplish in one day. (Braham, 2009). When asked about love, the African men referred to sex, not the emotional part of love that Americans refer to (Braham, 2009). Americans will take the practices of other cultures and put them into context of American culture. That is not a correct representation of the situation. Put into the context of the African women it makes sense to practice polygamy. Polygamy is not a situation that most Americans would be willing to accept. Americans marry for love, and American women would be jealous of the other wives their husband might have. They think of their husband as their friend and companion. Americans instead will marry and then get divorced and remarry creating the same kind of extended family that the Africans create with polygamy. Yet, Americans

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