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Marriage practices in different cultures
Marriage cultural practices
Cultural marriage practices
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Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Researh Background.
In Islam, marriage is one of the methods to form a family and also to produce our own descendants. Besides that, marriage is also a law of nature that can not be altered or wedding sidelines at every generation and age. Lies within every human being, there is a feeling to share feelings and passion, or so to the opposite gender. Thus, Islam requires people to get married to meet their individual needs. Islam does not see that marriage is only to consolidate between men and women or satisfying human desires but far more than that.
Based on Abdul Wahid Baharon (1992), marriage can be categorized into four types according to cultural knowledge and the first is monogamy (monogama and monoandri). It is a marriage between a man and a woman only. This means that a husband has only one wife, and a wife with a husband only, not more than that. Secondly is polygyny where a man marries two women or more at a time. Next is polyandry. Polyandry somehow contrary with polygyny which is a women can marry more than two men at a time (Azwaj, 2001). Polygyny and polyandry also more easily understood by the term of polygamy. Last but not least is group marriage. This group marriage involving a group of men who marry a group of women in the same time. But in Islam, polygamy in a form of polygyny is permitted whereas polyandry is banned to be practiced by any Muslim.
Generally speaking, the word polygamy itself is derived from many definitions. One of it is from the Greek words which known as "Ploy" or "Polus" that means many and secondly the word 'Gamein "or" Gamos " meaning of marriage (Abdul Wahid Baharon. 1992). In a more concise definition is that the individual has more than one ...
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... studied should be determined first in order to gather all the infomations needed in the research. This study will be carried out based on Malay community in Kedah that may known involved in polygamy directly or not. I will be focusing on people around 25 to 60 years old in order to get the information about polygamy and the age will be categorized accordingly. In order to get the definite information, approximately 120 respondents will be selected to participate in this research survey.
This research will focusing on the 12 districts in Kedah (from North to South), namely Langkawi, Kubang Pasu, Padang Terap, Pokok Sena, Kota Setar, Pendang, Yan, Kuala Muda, Sik, Baling, Kulim and Bandar Baharu. Throughout all this area, the information needed in this research can be obtained thoroughly.
1.7 Chapter Organization.
Troughout this research, there will be five chapter
Polygamy: “A marriage form in which one individual has multiple spouses at the same time; from the Greek words' poly (“ many”) and Gamos (“marriage”)”. Examples of this would the whole history of Africa like no other continent in the world. African societies have managed to see children being a structure of prosperity and a family that has more children were considered to be more powerful.
So what exactly is the justification and reason for polygamy? Mormons believed that when a couple or family is sealed in the temple of the Lord by one holding God’s priesthood keys of sealing, that the bond is not "until death do us part," but rather for all eternity. If this is true, then when a man is widowed and he marries a second wife, he then has two wives. The Mormons believe that if a man can have multiple wives in heaven, then the same should be true on Earth. "According to the Lord’s law of marriage, it is lawful that a man have only one wife at a time unless by revelation the Lord commands plurality of wives in the new and everlasting covenant" (McConkie5770). If a woman who is sealed in the temple is widowed, she not allowed to be resealed: only a man is allowed a plurality of spouses.
According to the text book the definition of polygamy is “a family system in which one person has more than one spouse, usually one man to multiple women”. In class we talked about how this is illegal and Mrs. Barlow from the article also comment on how she had to hide this part of her life and that doesn’t seem right. It also is weird to me to see someone confess that partook in such a religion, knowing it created ten to do illegal things. We talked about it in class but it wasn’t real in my head until I saw this story. Another connection to class is the topic of women rights and how Mrs. Barlow felt she lost
“When Brothers Share a Wife” is a writing piece by Melvyn C. Goldstein. The beginning of the article starts off with Dorje, who is traveling over a 17,000-foot mountain pass to join his two brothers, Pema and Sonam, in a joint marriage to a woman in another village. Dorje, Pema, and Sonam live in Limi which is located in the northwest corner of Nepal. After learning about who the brothers are the article says that the brothers are entering a fraternal polyandry, type of marriage. This type of marriage is “one of the rarest forms of marriage but is not common in Tibetan society, where it has been practiced from time immemorial” (“When Brother Share a Wife”). Fraternal polyandry is where more than one brothers marry a woman together then live
In view of these facts, it is clear that divorce and polygamy both belong to the category of situations that deviate from the ideal marriage. With that in mind, Christians should not be quick to judge polygamy, especially while ignoring divorce. Evidently, it takes more courage, consumes more energy, and involves more responsibility to be in a polygamous relationship than to divorce and remarry.
Fletcher-Stack, Peggy. “Polygamy: Not as Rare as You May Think.” Beliefnet. Beliefnet, Inc., 2011. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
Mention the concept of polygamy in any “civilized” gathering, and you just may be able to see the shiver of repulsion that ripples through the crowd. By substituting the word “polyamory” in, you will be able to circumvent this reaction – but only because everyone is staring at you in baffled silence instead. So we begin, as always, with definitions.
Polygamy is considered illegal in the United States, which would make it a deviant practice. That fact is on the bottom burner for me when considering this situation. Forcing someone to theoretically spend the rest of their life with someone not of their choosing is definitely out of the norm in my opinion. On to...
“Polygamy is defined as a marriage in which a spouse of either gender has more than one mate at the same time. Polygamy is considered a valid form of marriage in many countries and communities around the globe” (Al-Krenawi). However, polygamy is illegal in the United States. Those who practice polygamy in America can only be “legally” married to one spouse; therefore, the subsequent spouses in a polygamist relationship hold a “singl...
This will always be a topic that Mormons will be associated with. In the past, around the time of Joseph Smith, polygamy was in practice. During that time period, polygamy was happening because it was believed that through revelation, God commanded his people to partake of it. When Wilford Woodruff became the fourth president of the church, he released an official statement that disassociated the approval of the church with plural marriage. Nowadays this statement is still true. In fact, the leaders of the LDS church have even said that anyone who practices polygamy will be excommunicated from the church. They do this in order to help maintain the idea that the Mormon’s are no longer associated with the church.
(Bâ, 2008, p. 38). This speech reveals that both wife and husband have the obligation of supporting the polygamy. Modou’s obligation is to God as he intentionally wanted Modou to marry again while according to Tamsir, Ramatoulaye’s obligation is to allow the marriage to occur and accept the situation as it is her duty to support her husband’s decisions. Furthermore, Mawdo also married again. His and Nabou’s marriage is to some extent similar to Modou’s.
Although what we were told by God, in many primitive civilizations marriage was primarily industrial. During early times husband and wife were not much together; they did not even eat together very often.(The Marriage Institution 1). Their marriages were always planned by their parents and in some cases brides were bought. Polygamy was also frequent in the early history of marriage. Although, as civilization progressed monogamy became the idealistic goal of human sex evolution.(The Marriage Institution 6). In addition, as civilization advanced, marriage became more seriously regarded and the wedding ceremony became recurrent. The marriage ceremony grew out of the fact that marriage was originally a community affair and also primitive man had no records, so the marriage had to be witnessed by many people.
When we think of marriage, the first thing that comes to mind is having a lasting relationship. Marriage is a commitment of two people to one another and to each other?s family, bonded by holy matrimony. When a couple plans to marry, they think of raising a family together, dedicating their life to each other. That?s the circle of life--our natural instinct to live and produce children and have those children demonstrate your own good morals. I have never been married; but I don?t understand why when two people get married and vow to be together for richer and poorer, better or worse, decide to just forget about that commitment. A marriage should be the most important decision a person makes in his or her life.
Polygamy in Islam serves a strictly religious purpose. Polygamy was a way of life until the Quran was revealed 1400 years ago. When the earth was young and under-populated, polygamy was one way of populating it and bringing in the human beings needed to carry out God's plan. By the time the Quran was revealed, the world had been sufficiently populated, and the Quran put down the first limitations against polygamy. Polygamy has become an established part of traditional Islamic law and practice; Muslims are accustomed to accepting that a man's right to more than one wife is firmly established in the Qur'an and the Hadith. Polygamy (specifically polygyny, the marriage of one man to many women) is thus considered unquestionably moral, even though it is obviously unfair; only men are allowed the privilege of it. However, a close study of the Qur'an can enable one to see that the Islamic ideal of marriage is monogamous, with only husband-wife pairs. In fact, the Qur'anic stance on polygamy is the same as its stance on slavery; both are objectionable on ethical grounds, but tolerated due to the particular circumstances of Muhammad's community.
The world polygamy means the practice of having more than one wife. It comes from poly meaning ‘many’ and gamos meaning ‘marriage. Polygamy has been around for many years, and by many years, it’s been around since the biblical ages. In the Old Testament of the bible polygamy was allowed, not only was it practiced or allowed in the Old Testament but other cultures and religions practiced polygamy as well. These religions included Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. The Old Testament gives multiple examples of men being married to more than one wife at a time. The patriarchs Abraham and Jacob are known to be examples of righteous men who had several wives in the Old Testament. It is said that in ancient times when a man had more than one wife or wives and concubines(a woman who lives with a man but has lower status than his wife or wives) these wives and concubines were segregated by position and authority within the husband’s family. The first wife held the highest position and it was to her first –born son that the husband’s inheritance was given. (www.bibleresearch.org)