The Gift Of A Bride

According to Hinduism the female was created by Brahman as part of the duality in creation, to provide company to men and facilitate procreation, progeny and continuation of family linage. The Vedas suggest that a woman’s primary duty is to help her husband in performing obligatory duties and enable him to continue his family tradition. Her primary duty is to give birth to his children and take care of them. Hinduism is a predominantly male dominated religion. Woman play a secondary role. The situation is gradually changing. It is difficult to draw generalizations about the status of present day Hindu women because of society is complex. In general, life in cities is much different from life in the rural areas. Those who live abroad live in different conditions than those who live in the country. Yet, we have ample indications that women are still subject to many restrictions and disabilities in rural area as well as urban areas. The financial independence of woman and the education levels of the family play an important role in this regard. Women in urban areas face numerous challenges in their professions and personal lives. But overall, life is better for them compared to the past. Love marriage outside of the caste or community are scorned and sometimes the couples are killed or excommunicated by the elders in the family or village. Widows can now have a life of their own and even remarry. They draw a lot of sympathy. But

In the story “The Wedding Gift” the protagonist is Kezia Barnes. She is an orphan taken in at the age of fourteen by the Barclay’s as a worker. In the beginning of the story Kezia is well-mannered, naive and very quiet. In the text it says, “She was a meek little thing, as become an orphan brought up as a house help in the Barclay’s home.” The Barclay’s behavior towards Kezia is that they treat her, as if she is less of a human in the house. An example of this is when the Barclays’s fixed an arrange marriage for Kezia with someone much older than her, for their own good. Although, Kezia was not very fond of the decision. She remained quiet. As the story evolves, Kezia becomes rebellious. During their journey to Bristol Creek, due to a brutal

It is foolish to think following the community's beliefs and traditions is better than what one believes in. In the novel “The hero's walk” by Anita Rau Badami when family traditions are broken, many harsh consequences are made. In the Sripathi family, decisions made causes society. guilt and female rights to be an issue.

Men and women have different views on kinship. Tiv men think that blood is thicker than water. “Here people looked for little in marriage. A man would turn to his sixteenth cousin twice removed before he turned to his wife. Here the important ties were between blood relatives” (122). However, women viewed kinship to be through relationships. In her time with the Tivs, Bowmen was given the kinship title of mother. “You feed Ihugh, therefore you are his mother.” Udama corrected me firmly but quite patiently now that she saw I meant no insult. “Listen, Redwoman, if a woman dies, do her children become motherless? Is not the woman who feeds them and cares for them their mother? Therefore these are not merely matters of birth. They are matters of deed as well.” . . . I wrestled with the implications of this dual aspect of kinship, by birth and by deed (118).

The behavior of men towards women in a patriarchal society is described by Manju when she describes society in India by stating, “In Indian society stress is given to create female persona for different stages, docile daughters, chase and obedient wives and sacrificing mothers. The only domain ascribed to female is to fit in this good daughter, good wife and good mother criteria. Husband and wife are considered soul mates. But man assumes himself superior to woman, and he never tries to create emotional bonding with his wife, to understand her wishes or act according to her consent” (234). The rest of this paper will analyze the effects that male dominance had on the women.

As a married couple, being parents and having a child or children, the mother and father need to share their responsibilities with their new roles in the family. Judaism believes that each parent can contribute different areas on how to help and teach their other immediate family members, such as being parents and child or children. Compare to a family of Hinduism, women are seen inferior to men, thus men making the majority of the decisions. Men are seen as the individuals who makes all the decision for the families. When Women are seen as the individuals where they do not make the decision for the family, need to depend on her husband, be a house wife in which she is in the house to clean, cook, take care of her and her husband’s child or children, and most importantly please her husband with what he needs and wants. A Hindu woman is not really seen as an individual but more of a creature or even an object because in the book of Sex, Marriage, and Family in World Religions, it states, “A man should have sex with his wife… and always find his satisfaction in his own wife, when he desires sexual pleasure he should go to her to whom he is vowed…” (Browning, Green, and Witte,

Cheryl Langford has had a lifetime of Always The Bridesmaid, Never The Bride. Growing up with her best friend Beth, she always felt she lived in her best friend's shadow. Beth was an amazing friend, but Cheryl wanted to stop feeling like a supporting character in her own life. So when she heard that Beth was going to get married to a Bear Shifter bodyguard, it was a bittersweet event. Then she met Derrick, the groom's Bear Shifter brother, and her life would never be the same.

Paul Durrenberger and Suzan Erem discussed "young men who were subordinate to their fathers and elder brothers in the multifamily household became heads of their household once they had access to wages. Young women who had a variety of relations with other men and women in the multifamily households found themselves in only one, subordinate relationship: the one with their husbands ( , 2010, p. 228)."  This particular society has neolocal marriage. Yet, about one-half of the households considered themselves to be of patrilineal descendents. The descendents' rule was young men and women had power based on a certain reason; for young men access to wages and for young women it was the absence of men. The purpose was to have balance of power. The kinship is decribed as neolocal. "There may be friction between the woman and her husband's relatives who are not a part of the household but who make the decisions concerning her household anyway. Moreover, because most men handle their finances themselves or send the bulk of the remittances to other men for investment, village women receive only what is adequate for the daily reproduction of the household and are not in a position to make significant financial decisions, do major purchasing, or handle household management ( , 2010, p.

The anthropological definition that our book gives for marriage is a culturally sanctioned union between two or more people that establishes certain rights and obligations between the people, between them and their children, and between them and their-n-laws. Yet we see in many cultures the women are not always equal in marital decision. Polygamy which is a person having more than one spouse has brought a lot of abuse towards women who marry due to obligation or culture, as we see in the movie Raise the Red Lantern. We will review through the movie Raise the Red Lantern how some cultures disregards women, insecurity, and responsibility to family duties has both impacted young women all over the world for centuries both positively and negatively.

In the Hindu tradition, their texts give little to no attention to women and devote the dominance to the father, husband, or sons. Women who lived in the fifteenth century in Rajasthan rejected marriage, grew in their spiritual life, and tested the limits of the caste system. Meanwhile, in today’s world Hindu women are gaining leadership roles in India and are beginning to be inspiring spiritual teachers. Hindu women in South Asia and Southeast Asia are seen as the guardians of beliefs and rituals for their families (133).

After reaching womanhood, Yanomami women are accustomed to marrying men in their twenties, despite the difference in age. Like many patriarchal forms of marriage, it is tradition for the female to reside within the village of her husband; however, in Yanomami culture, the male must first earn his wife through labor for her family—this is known as bride service. While completing bride service, the male must remain a part of his in-law’s family for many years before returning back to his own village to create a life for a family of his own (Hames 128). This service work does not simply provide benefit to the bride’s family, but also to the young man completing the work as well as it brings confidence in the fact that he possesses the support of the family in conflict as in addition to a stock of both food and tobacco (Herzog-Schroder 6). Polygyny is permitted in Yanomami culture and is practiced by roughly ten to twenty percent of all native males. Sororal polygyny, the marriage of multiple sisters, is the ideal form of this union as it brings a sense of peace and acceptance into the family as sisters are perceived as getting along better than women of different backgrounds. In levirate marriage, when one’s husband dies marriage to his brother might be required. On the other hand, when sororate marriage is practiced the same concept applies if the death of the woman comes before that of the man—a man may lay claim to his previous wife’s sister (Hames

Moso is a Chinese ethnic group that is famous for being a matriarchal society with minimal contact from the outside world. In Moso matrilineal system, woman is the pillar of the family. As the head of a family as well as a mother, a Moso woman is responsible to determine family’s name, decision, and inheritance. No one has right to replace woman’s authority, even a man. This is the primary point of a matriarchy which traces the side of Moso family’s lineage through the descendant of woman. What is great about Moso, despite being matriarchy, is that the society has no gender preference. Moso society shares their workload wisely between man and woman. Man usually works on labor-intensive activities, such as traveling for trade, slaughtering livestock, or building a house. Woman, on the other hand, engages in traditional activities including farming, cooking, or even serving their family. Moreover, because of their walking marriage system, everything they have earned, produced, and developed belongs to their family. One point which is mentioned in the lecture by Professor Ma implies that the main point of Moso matrilineal family does not lie in the relationship between husband and wife, but between brother and sister. In fact, Moso society has successfully created a stable family structure through these walking marriage system and fair division of gender roles.

     This patriarchal role of males in the Indian family allows for all the power to be placed on the father of the household. This power can be abused which I would assume happens with the children in these families. The oldest male child has the authority to boss around his other siblings, and in the death of his father he then becomes the leader of the household. This could lead to many harsh or unfair ruling by older siblings or by other members of society. This would lead for the younger sibling to have to adjust greatly as they grow into adulthood. These rules that govern Indian household are often strict and are always final. This is accepted by all.

In this paper we will look at two separate cultures wedding rituals and meanings. We will find that within various cultures, marriage is symbolically represented through a range of very simple to elaborate weddings. Marriage typically transforms both individuals’ roles in society and in the home. It is the combining of two families and often involves politics and takes into consideration good social standing. Cultural traditions are often passed on the families and children. Marriage can serve as a changing of roles in the financial realm as well as the occupational realm for a family. India and Chinese wedding are different in most facets and yet the same in a few (arrangement being one). We will take a closer look into the matrimony celebrations of both cultures and compare the meaning, symbolism, and process of each.

In the Busoga culture, men are considered to have authority within the family setting. The various household tasks are divided among women and the older girls. Women are usually economically dependent on the male who is the next of kin. This dependency causes women to lack significant influence in family and community matters. It ties male relationships to the sustenance and also the survival of children in the family. According to the law, a wife who has a husband is entitled to fifteen percent of the spouse’s estate after the husband dies. There is however, conflict between cultural unwritten law and unwritten modern law. Cultural laws usually take precedence.