The chapter with the topic that interested me the most in this Sociology course was the one dealing with marriages. I thought it was interesting to see how marriage can take on so many different meanings depending on what country or culture a person belongs to. To most people, especially here in the US, marriage is usually the union of two adults (usually heterosexual) who are in love with each other. This means that the two individuals get to choose who they want to be their future husband or wife. However, in India, it is not an uncommon practice to marry a person that your parents have approved/chosen for you.
As it turns out, most of the marriages that take place in India are arranged. Arranged marriages are a traditional practice in India, so you can find arranged marriages being practiced in all social classes. The parents of the individual play a big part in this tradition because they are the ones who choose a partner for the individual to marry. The parents must look into the family background of the future bride or groom to make sure that their sons/daughters marry into good families. Not only that, but they go beyond the family background and check the bachelors/bachelorettes out for themselves to make sure they make a good choice. Once a potential partner is chosen, the parents may or may not set up a quick meeting between the two individuals. In other extreme cases, the individuals do not meet at all before the wedding. It is also customary for the two families involved in the arranged marriage to exchange gifts.
When parents look for a husband for their daughters they make sure that the suitor doesn’t have a job that requires a lot of moving or a job that can potentially endanger his life. For example, parents of the...
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...r ruining the lives of their sons/daughters. Not only is that a consequence of the failed marriage, but the divorce will stay in the family’s background, which makes it harder for other children in the family to get married in the future.
While arranged marriages are still a common practice, and some girls believe that there are benefits from the arranged marriage, some future brides feel uncertain and scared of getting married because it would mean that they would have to leave the comfort of their home. Not only that, but it is not uncommon for the family of the groom to put extra pressure on their new daughter-in-law. Everything, including her behavior, her clothing, and her housework will be under observation. Whether or not arranged marriages are the best way to create families or find love, it is interesting to see how there is not just one way to get married.
According to the author, Lizette Alvarez, in the article “Arranged Marriages Get a Little Reshuffling”, Arranged marriages are better than modern marriages and parents can choose good mates for young. First, the arranged marriage has changed a lot in modern time. Arranged marriages are more flexible because young people can meet several times in some public venues without family members. Parents and elders have become more lenient. Second, arranged marriages have more advantages than modern marriages. Arranged marriages can preserve religion and identity and help people to find their mates in the same social class. Arranged marriages can outlast modern marriages because couples can avoid social and religions disharmony. Finally, young people prefer arranged marriage to modern marriage. Young people would spend less time to find their mate because their parents, chat rooms and dating websites help find mates for them. Young people can easily find their mates who have the same education level and social status. As a young person, I do not agree with the author because other people migh...
In a scene the film Ravi goes to a wedding in India where a family member is being wedded. Ravi asked if he was happily marrying his wife, in love, and not having second doubts, all his family member expressed was no remorse, but it seemed as if it was something casual for him, it was necessary to marry, and that the bride he had chosen was approved from his parents, and the community of Patels. It seemed that throughout the film arrange marriage is viewed as normal in India, they don’t seem to ask their children if they’re happy about being arrangbeds into a marriage, it something that when you come of age you have to do. However in Indians living in America are challenging their parents and their cultures religion of arranged marriage. In America they are looking at the diverse cultures and falling love with people outside their culture, and making work, while others are still in the biodata and probably decided to marry into a Patel or other Indian name, yet still experienced dating other men before deciding. What was weird is that some Indian women don’t date until later in their college years when they are away because of the strict household their parents had and from fear of disappointing their family, and being
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.
Divorce can be caused by problems such as drugs, adultery, abuse, and money. The United States is a fast-paced country with little to no time to spend on the basic family values it was founded upon. Jobs are more demanding, kids are spending most of their time with people other than their parents, and the economy drains marriages by causing worry and stress. The foundation upon which marriage was built has been shaken.
The first difference between American culture and Indian culture is marriage. A wedding is a great social event in our society, which establish a new bond between two individuals and families. Marriage is a joyful occasion with plenty of music, dance, partying and merrymaking. It also brings together a long-lost friends, relatives and acquaintances. In India, the parents choose the mate for their child, which is called an arranged marriage. In most cases, the bri...
On one hand, in arranged marriages the family of the person chooses the best candidature for marriage because the family wants to create a good couple which will match and the families of men and women are making their choice according to number of benefits it can give. “Many Indians look at marrying a person they don’t know, gives one “a lifetime to learn to love them”, as opposed to the American ideal of learning a person inside and out before entering into marriage. It can be said that an arranged marriage in India is not based on feelings, but rather on commitment” (Debashish, 2013). So this king of building the relations is also taking the feelings into account but the rat...
“Arranging a Marriage in India” by Serena Nanda is a well written, informative article aimed at sharing the view of the Indian culture on arranged marriages and also showing how much effort is put into the process of arranging a marriage. Our own culture has evolved into accepting the fact that we are all independent individuals who could not imagine having someone else make such a significant decision for us. Serena Nanda does an excellent job of using her sources within the society as evidence of the acceptance of the arranged marriage aspect of their culture.
One of the main arguments for arranged marriages is that parents, being older and more experienced, are better able to find a suitable match for their children. This belief relies on the trust the offspring has that their parents understand what would be best choice or most suitable for their children. This trust is often discouraged by the individualist ideal and rebel teen mentality sponsored by American mass-media. However, in India trust between parent and child are common. When Nanda tried helping arrange a marriage, we see that parents in India weigh many considerations when choosing partners for their children including the statuses of the individuals (including their caste and career path), the social dynamics between the members of both households, and what resources the other family and potential partner have. At least in the case given in the reading, this process can be though and produce a good marriage with stable family ties. Another argument made for arranged marriage is that since the parents are handling the marriage, the children are free to enjoy life and not worry about the details. To a lesser degree in our country, people delegate part of the relationship forming process to others by allowing friends, family, and dating sites or shows to play matchmaker. Though in general, in America the person who would be in the relationship is more involved, and has to worry about handling some of the details. In India, culture is more dependent on family structure so marriage is just as much about forming ties between families as the couple itself, which is part of the reason why the family is so involved in these
Arranged marriage is much more effortless and like a short cut of love because the tedious and intricate process of maintaining the relationship and dating is omitted and they are under the influence of the same culture, share the same religious conviction and grow up in a similar social class. Individuals incline to an unvarnished and easeful lifestyle and the marriage does not occupy as the same ratio of life as five to ten years ago. On the one hand, boys may save the money which is used on dating because they do not need to buy too many things that pleased the girl. Moreover, in several circumstances, a date or a courtship is quite embarrassing and time-consuming especially for the adults who were forced to have a date under the pressure of their parents even from their grandparents. On the other hand, the spouse can cut down on the daily expense because their children will be nursed by their parents rather than babysitters and their children can live in a warm environment and a harmony atmosphere and feel more comfortable without strangers. Arranged marriages, according to the marriage experience of the parents and the marriage agency, alw...
Modern arranged marriages are arranged by the child's parents. They choose several possible mates for their child, sometimes with the help of the child (who may indicate which photos, biographic he or she likes). The parents then arrange a meeting with the family of the mate and they will often have short unsupervised meeting (an hour long walk around the neighborhood together for example) (Arrange Marriages). The child will then choose who they w...
Has the value of marriage become obsolete to the up and coming generations? With the decline in respect amongst individuals, increasing divorce rates, a decrease in moral values, infidelity rates, and lack of communication amid people, are we setting our future generations up for marital failure? The generations of today are being shown that marriage is something that they are expected to do rather than what they are meant to treasure. Marriage was once revered as a sacred union between two individuals in which they honored and cherished the vows in which they chose to recite to one another, values our current society may be lacking.
What is a family? A family is two or more people consider themselves to be blood related, or related by marriage, or adoption. Our families are who we love. We as families look different in so many ways. A family’s caregiving unit might have a couple, a mother, a father, and children. A family could also be a single parent and child, a group of siblings, a small or large group of friends. A family defines itself in many different ways. Families are the foundation of how our society and how it works. It is how we come into the world and nurtured and given the tools that we need to go out into our world. We are both capable and healthy or not our families influence our lives either in a good way or a bad way. While families
In general, arranged marriage has provided people fundamental principles about the importance of marriage and how a person can find happiness. Arranged marriage defines marriage between a man and a woman, which arranged by the couple 's parents and relatives based on family ties and traditions. Although marriage is described as the oldest and enduring human institution, the reasons for marrying have differed from culture to culture. In common circumstances, cultural, religious, economic, age, educational level, and racial factors play a role in determining who the person can marry and form which marriage takes. Some statistics find that the rate of divorce is low in arranged marriages and high in love marriages. For years,
Many of the marriages in India are arranged. While the tradition is becoming less and less popular, parents will often search to find the right partner for their children. It is not just two people getting married,
Young marriage has an impressive number of disadvantages and bad repercussions that can be observed in most of the early wedded couples’ lives. While most boys have a say in when and who they marry, and what they do once they are married, many girls do not get the chance to make these decisions. Husbands of young wives are often older men who expect their wives to follow traditions, stay home, and undertake household and child-care duties; or non mature irresponsible young men who consider themselves able to pull such a burden. Early marriage involves huge responsibility from male, especially financial support. Combining job and education is not an easy case to deal with. So, early marriage has a high possibility of putting an end o...