For this week's assignment, then discuss one of the following topics:
1) People in traditional communities in countries where the state is either weak or absent depend on relatives to help meet the basic challenges of survival.
In such societies, would it be risky to choose marriage partners exclusively based on romantic love? Can you imagine other factors playing a role if the long-term survival of your community might be at stake?
2) Many people in North America and Europe choose to have children outside of marriage. Considering some of the major functions of marriage, do you think there is a relationship between the type of society an individual belongs to and the choice to forgo the traditional benefits of marriage? Under what cultural conditions might the choice to remain unmarried present serious challenges?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think in a situation where your people are endangered by the lack of offspring, I think it the act of marriage or intercourse reaches a different plane. Marriage is not always black and white. (On a kind of personal note) My family is not endangered, but my mom has a boyfriend in Jamaica, and when she wants to see him she has to travel there. So to advance their relationship, he needs a visa to come visit her. The easiest way for him to get a visa is to marry her. Now, they are not ready for the traditional act of marriage, but to progress their relationship they need to see more of each other. so in this case marriage is not really a big deal, it's more of a VIP to America and a "symbol" that they want to get further into this relationship; not necessarily be together forever. Although this was kind of a tangent from your original post I think it's fitting to put out that in places like North America it's not a surprise to get married, not because you feel a strong connection and an emotional attachment, but because that person has something you want and the benefits of marriage support that union.
ReplyDeleteAnswering your first question, trying to have a disney ending to a struggling people doesn't happen everyday. and personally I think it would be kind of selfish to hold yourself out for love if your family and your community is struggling. I'm saying that knowing if I was in tat position I would probably freak out, but if my people were in dyer needs I would do as much as I could without sacrificing all of myself to the situation. Now I'm sure if my dad was reading this I would be in trouble, because in a time of need for our tribe, I would have been married off years ago and would have never experienced all this wonderful American boys ( that sounds bad, I just mean met them, and got to know a couple). I'm just saying I could see myself having a hard time marring someone I don't love/have a romantic relationship with. Then again I wasn't raised in the Yoruba culture like my father was, I was raised in America, where anything is possible. I could imagine finding it hard to get around associating yourself with someone you don't want to call your partner, but in a time of need I could see marriage being a symbol, in that case, as something bigger than yourself and your supposed partner. It would stand for survival a basic instinct I think at times we take for granted.
this is Jeneca Onikoyi, by the way, it took me awhile, but I'm slowly understanding the internet
ReplyDelete