Arranged Marriage in Societies
Arranged Marriage in Societies
In this study, I studied the topic of arranged marriages. Some of the areas that I covered were the history of arranged marriages, the future of them, what is in involved in the process as well as how people feel about them in today’s society. I followed 3 methods of research. The first was reading through books and journals as well as searching on the Internet for other people’s theories and background information on this topic. The second method was conducting a survey that led me to see how normal people in today’s society felt towards arranged marriages. And the last method was interviewing a couple who had married back 25 years ago in the form of an arranged marriage and we discussed how they felt about it and whether or not they would impose that upon their children.
In today’s society, arranged marriages amongst South Asians is not as common as it once was. In this literature, we will explore the different aspects or arranged marriages mainly in the South Asian culture but also in other cultures as well. This review also makes reference to the other cultures that participate in this custom, as well as how society has portrayed it then and now.
The Process
As far as India is concerned, arranged marriages have been taking place since the beginning of time. It was very simple. The man needed a wife, the young woman a husband. Interested friends and relatives created opportunities for them to meet (MacMillan, 1988). Back even before the 1800’s, it was highly unlikely that the women be aloud to meet or even speak to who had been chosen for her. When one’s parents felt that it was time for their child to be married, they would spread the word around their village. Suitable matches would be found. By suitable, one means of the same cast, wealth and social standing. This is extremely important because the arranged marriage tends to be a union of two families of strong moral and cultural values it provides checks and balances against areas that may splinter it, such as infidelity (Mathur, 2001)
In every village, there is at least one female whose profession is to do the introducing and her whole career is finding mates for single males and females....