Marriage - Becca Libby

Marriage is a touchy subject for a lot of people, simply because many of us have very specific views on what we think it should be. In my opinion though, marriage is about what works for the individual, or doesn't. I already knew somewhat about the arranged marriages in India, but I loved the article and found it very amusing. I love Sita's reaction to the anthropologist's questions about her arranged marriage, mainly because it all made so much sense. Although the arranged marriages work in India, as they have for many years, this process would be a catastrophe in many other cultures. In our culture, we always talk about the in-laws as if they are some horrible infectious disease, "Oh man, my in-laws are coming this weekend, better hide in my room and not come out until they've gone." That sort of thing. I guarantee this happens about 0.001% of the time within Indian families.

For some reason in the US, we have marriage all wrong. What is this people being married for 6 months and then divorcing? I mean really? Marriage is glorified in our culture, and because of this many young girls want to get married and have kids right away and it ends up causing major problems for them later. No wonder in India young people can live their lives without worrying about impressing the opposite sex. They can go to school and get their lives on track before ever having to think about it. I love the variations in marriage between different cultures, these differences are so immense that we cannot give a definition to marriage (as one of the articles states). On of the most interesting things I read was about the women of the Neur, and the same sex marriages. When we think about same-sex marriage in our culture, we automatically assume it is a romantic/sexual relationship. The barren women of the Neur simply marry another women in order to have children and still be a parent. It makes so much sense and gave me a whole new perspective on the subject.