Quote:
Originally Posted by Stitchawl
Actually, arranged marriages make up 35% of Japan's modern marriages. But they are arranged by either the bride or groom these days, rather than by the parents. One or the other will go to a marriage broker and request a mate to fill certain criteria (age, job, family status, etc.,) and the broker will set it up.
|
That sort of thing happens in the US, too, but it's not quite what I meant by the term. I believe the "matchmaker" is an established custom in some orthodox Jewish communities, for example.
In cultures that practice what I was referring to, the family is the critical social unit, and the society is largely composed of relationships between families. Family networks often provide services we might think of as the province of local government.
It results on occasion in practices we have problems with, like the practice in some more conservative Muslim states of stoning to death a woman who loses her virginity before marriage. In such cultures, family relationships are critical, and unmarried daughters are valuable currency in arranging desirable ties with other families. A woman who loses her virginity before marriage becomes debased currency, and in some respects threatens the social fabric that holds her society together. Her society has evolved a rather draconian policy for dealing with transgressions.
The key point is that such practices evolved to promote the survival of the
society that practiced them. The effects on the
individual were irrelevant.
______
Dennis