Ancient Greek Culture Of Arranged Marriages

Arranged Marriages have been around since time can remember. An arranged marriage is a marital union between a man and a woman who were selected to be wedded together by a third party. Historically, arrange marriages were the main way to marry. In certain parts of the world, it is still the primary approach. There are two types of arrange marriages. The first is a traditional marriage where the children can, with strong objections, refuse to marry their soon to be spouse. In a forced marriage, the children have no say in the matter. Bread Givers shows an excellent representation of the pressures on children from their parents to be married against their will.

The marriage of an Athenian woman and man is hard to define exactly because there has not been an exact word translated that is equivalent to the word, “marriage.” The Athenians have words that translate as physical acts for a marriage for the sake of having a child, they also have words that translate as “cohabit” or “live together.” This leads to the conclusion that our traditional connotation of marriage as a bond is not the way it was in Athens. The reasons for a man and a woman to be joined in marriage were nor for love, as we would expect, it would be for profitable and more pragmatic reasons. Usually most beneficial to the male’s in the bride’s life. Since the women were not supposed to be unattended they are assumed to have accepted what was decided for them in terms of a husband. “…A husband normally addresses his wife as “woman.” The Greek word for woman, is

Reading the Aristotle's work On a Good Wife from Oikonomikos that was written in c. 330 BCE, one may see the reflection of the leading ideas, opinions, and rules in the Ancient Greek society. This work concentrates its attention on the guidelines for the young wives and husbands, their chords, values, and relationships. Reading through a long list of the requirements the wife should meet in order to acquire the respect and understanding of the husband, it becomes clear that the wives were expected to accomplish all the monotonous routine work and keep away from complaints. The author puts a strong emphasis on the importance of the reciprocity of the appropriate treatment in order to make the patriarchal way of life seem more democratic and

In Classical Greece, roles played by males and females in society were well-defined as well as very distinct from each other. Expectations to uphold these societal norms were strong, as a breakdown within the system could destroy the success of the oikos (the household) and the male’s reputation—two of the most important facets of Athenian life. The key to a thriving oikos and an unblemished reputation was a good wife who would efficiently and profitably run the household. It was the male’s role, however, to ensure excellent household management by molding a young woman into a good wife. Women were expected to enter the marriage as a symbolically empty vessel; in other words, a

Through the matriarchal religion, the culture of the pre-Greek inhabitants differed from the Greeks in a way that the mother was the head of the family unlike the male dominated culture of the Greeks. The pre-Greek tribes saw motherhood as the most sacred, mysterious and miraculous event, and the pre-Greeks valued the female children than the male and the most favored was the last female child since she will keep the family line longer (Rosenburg, 1984). And as stated by Rosenburg, 1984: “The life of the family centered upon the mother, the hearth, and the home. Mother love was a humane and pacifying influence, creating an aura of honor, trust, hospitality, generosity, concern, and reverence

Marriage is described as two people as partners in a personal relationship. There are two typical ideas of marriage that we know today. The first one that comes to mind is the one we all know, based on love, but there is another one that some may not even know of and its arranged marriages. Arranged marriage is not typically in our culture we know but in different cultures arranged marriages are their normal marriage. Throughout this essay, I will discuss the importance of realizing cultural diversity and how we apply the perspectives we gain from cross-cultural comparison to our own experience using central concepts about marriage to compare and contrast marriage in several cultures.

ReferencesAugust, P. (2005, October). Arranged Marriages in the Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arranged_marriageBowman, H. & Spanier, G. (1978). Modern Marriage. McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Marriage practices vary across cultures. Every culture has its own way of conducting marriage according to their traditions and customs. Most cultures share common customs and practices, while some cultures have unique practices. Marriage refers to a social union agreed upon by the couples to unit as spouses. The union of couples implies sexual relations, permanence in union, and procreation. This research paper focuses on comparing marriage practices in American and Indian culture. There is significant difference between the two cultures in marriage practices.

     Marriage is looked at as a life long venture. If a man wants to marry a certain woman he has to ask both his and her parents for their permission. If both parents agree then a priest is told. On the morning of the ceremony the priest prays asking for a sign as to whether a couple should marry or not. To get the sign that he is looking for he holds two roots in his hand. If the roots moved together in his hand then it was O.K for a couple to marry. But if the roots did not move or moved together and one died then the marriage would be forbidden. When the roots came together with no problem, the ceremony went on. The priest prayed over the couple and warned them about being unfaithful because if they did then they would go to a “bad place” when they died.1 Divorce did happen but was a rare occurrence. All that had to be done was the dividing of blankets. Priests were allowed to marry but the woman had to be of utmost character. She must be a virgin. She could not be a widow or divorced. Also this marriage has to be approved by seven counselors. Once a couple is married then they can focus on having children.

Allison Glazebrook and Kelly Olson’s chapter, “Greek and Roman Marriage" the authors discuss marriage practices in Ancient Greece and Rome and highlight the importance of wives in a family structure and society. They do so by looking at what was required for a legitimate marriage over the course of these civilizations’ history. In both cultures, Glazebrook and Olson especially look at how women and girls’ bodies were policed and defined. From an early age, girls were taught that their role in life would be remain sexually available to their husbands and produce heirs. From a modern perspective, girls in ancient civilizations married extremely young. However, this chapter address the “scientific” justification society gave to promote this practice

The groom’s choice in bride was largely determined by the amount of dowry the bride would bring with her. Although the wedding was a happy ceremony, it was only the beginning of a woman’s loss of independence. Not only did women possess no independent status in the eyes of the law; she always remained under the supervision of a male. If her husband died, she was returned to her father’s or brother’s home where they would take charge of her. After the wedding, the wife’s duties were centered on the management of the home. She would overlook the slaves, mend and make clothing for her family, usually done by spinning or knitting, weave rugs and baskets for the home, or just fold and refold the clothing kept in the family chest. The wife was also responsible for maintaining her attractiveness for her husband. A proper Athenian wife would adorn herself with jewelry and use rouge upon her husband’s arrival home. Sometimes she might spend an entire evening sitting next to the couch where her husband lay reclining. Most importantly the Athenian women were seen as “fine upstanding matrons” fit to bear a race of excellent athletes” (Everyday Life in Ancient Greece, pg. 86). An Athenian man married primarily to have children. These children were expected to care for him in his old age, but more importantly to bury him with the “full appropriate rites” (Daily Life in Greece, pg. 57). Moreover, Athenian men married to have male children in order to perpetuate the family

The primary role of free women in Athens was to marry and bear children. Athenian women, often married young, usually between the ages of twelve and eighteen, while husbands were often thirty years or older, when they were married. Marriages, unlike in other greek-city states, were highly emphasized in Athens, due to the economic and social rewards gained through beneficial unions. Women, particularly those belonging to the aristocracy, often had no choice of who they married, having their closest male relative choose the most beneficial partner. Similar to many other cultures, Athenian women married with a dowry, which was controlled by a male relative. “At marriage a woman became the legal dependent on her husband, having the the same (and no more) rights as the children she would produce.” (Backman, 112) If a

Similar to the lives of women in other ancient civilisations, Ancient Greek women’s lack of independence was largely a result of the patriarchal ideology of their society. Although contemporary evidence suggests that ancient depictions of women lack some credibility in their assertions, the weight of evidence reveals that while Greek women were socially and economically secure in marriage, the ideal image valued by Greek culture, one of humility and domesticity, meant that women exerted little legal, political and social influence. Despite doubts about their accuracy, ancient evidence shows that women, in accordance with the bigoted Greek society’s idealised view, enjoyed a degree of responsibility within their household, but had little independence in the wider community.

Marriage is a ritual that marks a change in status for a man and a woman and the acceptance by society of the new family that is formed (Rosman & Rubel, 1981). Marriage, like other customs, is governed by rules (Rosman & Rubel, 1981). Anthropology has represented marriage as the definitive ritual and universally translatable regulative ideal of human societies (BORNEMAN, 1996). Marriage also the act of joining two persons of opposite sex together to become as husband and wife. Many people in the society have different opinions or outright misconception of the meaning of marriage. While some people see it as a union between a man and woman, others take it to mean an agreement made between a man

Marriage is a union that has been around for as long as humans have walked the earth. The human race depends upon the union of its members, and as such, the subject of marriage has been an issue that receives more intense scrutiny and attention than many would likely believe. In today's day and age, with humanity continuing to move in a modern direction, many argue that marriage is a union that should be entered into freely and should be based exclusively on the love between two people. However, I argue that arranged marriage, which has taken place throughout the ages and throughout the world, is a union that offers its observers a marriage based in support, longevity and love, and is an institution that should not be frowned upon.