M2 Discussion ANTH Response

Please reply to each classmate's post with two substantive responses. Always express viewpoints, disagreements, alternative views or questions in a courteous, respectful way. Take a leadership role in discussions and actively extend help to others 1. Talia Johnson posted: Romantic love in marriage is presented in many forms within various cultures, with the actual role of romantic love in marriage being more prevalent in certain cultures than it is in others. For instance, in European/American cultures, romantic love and “sexual exclusivity” are an essential aspect of marriage (Stone & King, 2019). However, this is not necessarily the case in other cultures, such as the Muslim city in Ethiopia called Harar that was discussed in the “Will You Marry Me” video. The video introduced a woman named Rahel, who fled the city when she was 16 in order to escape the marriage arrangements created by her parents. It is an important part of Harar’s culture for parents to arrange marriages for their daughters with a man who they believe is able to guarantee her “a secure life”, rather than having their daughters marry for romantic reasons. Parents will often arrange their daughter’s marriage when she is just a little girl, typically with someone much older than their daughter or someone who is a part of the family in some way (“Will you marry me?”, 2004). In other places such as Niger where polygyny is a common custom, people marry for romantic love as well as other reasons. Oftentimes in this culture, men will marry a second wife not because he doesn’t love his current wife, but because the housework load is becoming too much for his current wife. In other cases, husbands will also have a second wife for times when the first wife is unable to sleep with him for any multitude of reasons (“Will you marry me?”, 2004). Stone, L., & King, D. E. (2019). Kinship and gender: An introduction. Routledge. “Will You Marry Me? Marriage Customs in Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, and Senegal.” (2004) Films On Demand, Films Media Group. https://fod(dot)infobase(dot)com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=16071&xtid=39452. 2. Monica Ruh posted: In examining the role of romantic love in marriage and the cultural impact on marriage, I have come to the realization that marrying for love is a fairly recent aspect of culture. This realization comes with the understanding of the themes in historical writings that showed lovers who couldn’t be together having a tragic story of separation and marriage to somebody else. The view within American culture is that two people, typically a man and a woman, fall in love and will then get married, but that is not a universal truth of marriage. Stone and King encapsulate this idea in their definition of marriage: “entails intimate, if not emotionally charged, relationships between spouses, and everywhere it creates in-laws.” (2018, p. 169). In this definition we gain the important context that marriages are often made as a way to connect families by “in-laws". Making marriage more about the practicalities of life than the emotions of two people. For example Stephanie Coontz explains the importance of marriage to an American woman prior to the 1970s, “women’s economic dependence was so pervasive that most women had to get married, even if it meant settling for someone very different than who they wanted.” (2005). This reality changed for American women in recent decades, however the world does not revolve around the United States, therefore we can understand that many cultures and societies likely have women dependent on their husbands financially. Stone and King offer us many examples of the different forms of marriage. We see monogamy, polyandry, and polygyny as the three forms in chapter six. One example of polyandry that is studied is the polyandrous Nyinba of western Tibet. This group of people have the practice of one wife for two or more men. This system allows for the limited resources in the area to not be impacted by an increasing population that could occur at a faster pace in a monogamous or polygynous culture. What best brings together the information in this module for me was the article by Nicola Jones and her conversation with Helen Fisher. Fisher explained that when looking at biology and culture together, “These two major forces always go together. Who you love, where you love, how you express your love all have a huge cultural component. But the actual feeling of romantic love, that’s biological.” (Jones, 2021). From here we can fully understand that love and marriage are not what we define them as now. Love does not always lead to marriage and in many cultures marriage is more importantly a way to connect families in their survival. Coontz, S. (2005, Winter). The Evolution of matrimony: the changing social context of marriage. Gale Academic Onefile. https://go-gale-com(dot)sunyempire(dot)idm(dot)oclc(dot)org/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=esc&id=GALE%7CA140412438&v=2.1&it=r&sid=bookmark-AONE&asid=f0f2648e Jones, N. (2021, February 10). Is love a biological reality?. SAPIENS. https://www(dot)sapiens(dot)org/biology/biological-anthropology-love/ Stone, L., & King, D. E. (2018). 6: Marriage. In Kinship and Gender (6th ed., pp. 169–188). essay, Taylor & Francis Group.