The most basic and essential foundation of any relationship is communication. Planning a date, introducing our significant other to our parents, proposing, planning a wedding, getting a house, and raising children all require some type of communication; however, there is a type of communication, that should be within every romantic or sexual relationship, that is essential as well. This communication is the way we interact with our significant other sexually. Not only just how to perform the sexual acts; but, when what is acceptable in those acts and what isn’t. This form of communication, however, isn’t concrete throughout the world. It varies based on culture, environment, and socialization. For instance, throughout the Asian continent, …show more content…
Marital relations can vary amongst different groups of people, from what the sexuality is between the two groups, and even the purpose of marital relationships that’s presented within their societies. According to _____, women usually marry men for “financial reasons” (). In fact, “Some girls got into “fake marriages” and then left their foreign husbands in order to work illegally…or they get divorced, then work illegally or even go out with Vietnamese male migrant workers” (). In fact, Vietnamese women do not marry for the financial aid for themselves, but for their whole family. Based on _______ by _____, he/she indicates “the majority of girls accept marriage to foreign husbands because they have to bear a great burden of supporting their large, poor families” meaning that these girls accept the marriages that have been arranged for them to help their family financially. This is very intriguing, that there is no presence of love within marriages in Vietnam, and if there were any marriages “motivated by immoral motives or the possibility of love and romance in these marriages” they’re “silenced” (). On the other hand, according to the French culture, based on a survey of _____ by ______, _____ found that “love was considered more important in subjects living with a partner (46.4%), especially in those living in a blended family (53.8%), than in subjects living alone (29.0%)” (). Moreover, France typically has both arranged marriages and love-based marriages today (). Even though France colonized Vietnam, we can see the differences within their marriage cultures, one being more businesslike and the other a majority for
Every culture has its own unique values, beliefs and norms. Culture defines the identity and interests of a society. Understanding other’s culture is crucial in preparing ourselves for the global experience in the twenty-first century. As the world is becoming more connected to each other, interaction between cultures is unavoidable. I consider myself lucky to live in one of the most diverse cities in the world where I get chance to interact with people of different cultures. In this paper, I will discuss my findings about Family Structure in a Mexican culture, and Dating and Marriage in an African / Gabonese culture. Having a chance to understand various cultures, I realized that beliefs and practices tend to vary from culture to culture.
As you can see, marriage can come in different celebrations but they all constitute the fact that marriage is an institution in which man and woman come together as one. Aditi and Hermant’s marriage was no different compared those in this study. Al-Zu’abi (2008) states that urbanization plays a key role in influencing perceptions of marriage and that marriage patterns are formed and reformed according to culture. The final point is, marriage is a basic institution of any society no matter the culture difference.
Monogamy is a cultural norm that dominates many modern societies, and when individuals engage in monogamous relationships, they are unconsciously conforming to historical and cultural legacies of what is perceived as love that predate their illusions of personal agency. Although anthropological records indicate that 85% of human societies have tended towards polygamy (Henrich, Boyd and Richerson 2012), the modern culture of monogamy has rapidly risen and spread in the past millennium (Senthilingam 2016). This demonstrates how an individual’s conception of a heterosexual relationship as normatively monogamous has been constructed by social forces. In addition, social forces in the form of state legislation also perpetuate and reinforce an individual’s conception of what a romantic relationship should entail. Monogamous heterosexual marriage remains to be the only form of marriage with legal recognition in many countries. An individual’s belief that a romantic relationship should culminate in marriage is hence not formed through independent thought, but rather through what is considered normative by law. Essentially, “marriage is not an instinct but an institution.” (Berger 1963, 88) because it is enabled and promoted by virtue of the law. In addition, many couples believe in
In the article “The Radical Idea of Marrying for Love” the author, Stephanie Coontz, talks about how love has rarely been the motivating reason for marriage, and how in many cultures it still isn’t. She also informs readers of the reasons why people got married in ancient cultures, different types of motivations for marriage in modern cultures, how the union between spouses often isn’t the most important relationship in other countries, and how marriage is often not monogamous.
The Industry of Marrying Europeans by Vu Trong Phung (translated by Thuy Tranviet) began with a puzzling scene in a courtroom in the 1930’s where a native Vietnamese woman declared that her occupation was marrying an assistant representative and then a captain. When asked to clarify she said her profession was marrying Europeans. The part that stuck with me was how the word Europeans was plural, meaning she admitted so publically that she had had multiple marriages with multiple different men but she was only twenty-five years old. Her admission also implied a different kind of marriage than the average person’s – her marriages were for profit and gain but were temporary positions. Similar to how a person would move from a lesser-paying job to a better-paying
For centuries now, we have been taught by society that being monogamous is the socially accepted norm. In fact, having more than one marital or sexual partner in many cultures is considered to be taboo. Yet that leaves many people wondering how that tradition was even constructed and whether or not we should continue to live in a monogamous manner. In this paper, we are going to examine if being monogamous is truly a part of human nature and whether or not we are meant to be with only one marital or sexual partner throughout the course of our lives. Now more so than ever, society is moving in a direction that challenges traditional ways of life and many people are no longer following this socially constructed norm. In fact, monogamy has become a very popular, controversial topic that is continuously being addressed by the media and it has people second-guessing if remaining monogamous fits their ideal lifestyle. This is an especially important topic for our generation, due to the fact that we are currently at the stage in our lives where we set goals for ourselves that will pave the roads of our futures. Deciding whether or not to be monogamous is just as important as picking career paths and it holds just as much significance in the way it affects the rest of our lives. This is a problem in relational communication because whether we decide to be monogamous or non-monogamous, our decision will ultimately affect the way we interact with others and the way we approach intimate relationships. With today’s society slowly moving against monogamy, it’s time to decide if limiting ourselves to one marital and sexual partner is really in our nature, or if it’s just a tradition of the past that no longer holds the social significance that ...
Western influence has shifted the dynamics of marriage in recent years. Family still plays a large role, but parents are now in a more consultative position, this has resulted in a heavy decline of the number of arranged marriages. Due to the emphasis of culture in Vietnamese society, individuals of high status, like
Accepting another person as a significant other means accepting the way he or she lives. Though, this is something that we did not apprehend at the time of marriage. Additionally, the integration of two individuals in a marriage is nothing but a "combination" of two separate personalities. We are unable to accept our spouse the way she or he is because there are two different characters, mentalities, and philosophies at work. This is the reason for the increase of conflicts in marriage. How can we have a happy marriage? How can we work out these conflicts or relationship troubles? These are questions that are still confusing for many of us.
Marriage is the sacred bond between two people that share a love so deep they wish to be together for all eternity. This is what most people believe, they view marriage as a happy fairy tale, however this is not the truth for all. In many cultures marriage is not about love, it is about money, status, and tradition. An example of this would be the Japanese picture brides. Many Japanese women found husbands in America through just a picture of the man. This practice was popular in the early 1900’s, according to Racism And The Law, over 20,000 woman came over to marry American men. It was mostly prevalent with Japanese women but also with Korean. Each woman found a husband this way for different reasons but all shared the same fears of what was to come. The influence the bride’s backgrounds had on their American experience, problems they faced, and how they resolved them can be seen in “Come, Japanese” by Julie Otsuka.
More and more couples today live together or "play house" before taking the matrimonial plunge. Living together before marriage has become so popular that approximately half the couples in America participate in this activity (Gorrell 16). Some couples choose to live together to test their compatibility and possibly avoid an unsuccessful marriage. With the number of marriages ending in divorce these days, it sounds reasonable that many couples want to give marriage a trial run before making any formal commitment. But do the chances of a successful marriage actually improve by cohabiting?
Inside the article “Why Marriage is Good for You”, Maggie Gallagher makes claims that marriage improves many facets of an individual’s life; including both mental and physical health, longevity, finances, and reduced chances of infidelity (Gallagher). The statements made throughout the article reference many statistics and studies conducted by various organizations and individuals, however, Gallagher falls victim to a number of common logical fallacies. While this weakens Gallagher’s argument in the article, it does not necessarily make it false.
In light of this research, it appears that children born to cohabiting couples are more vulnerable to being raised by parents who will eventually separate considering commitment decline and the ease in which their parents can end the relationship because it is not legally binding. As previously mentioned, one benefit of marriage to society is having a stable environment for children to be raised. However, cohabitation, which is a far more flexible commitment than marriage with fewer safeguards, is steadily becoming an American cultural norm. If this trend continues, a result could be more children raised in unmarried, potentially unstable households with parents’ who may not have a long-term commitment toward one another. This occurrence leaves children more vulnerable to the negative outcomes mentioned above, further stressing the necessity for promotion of marriage and marriage stability.
Love conquers everything. Or at least, that’s what Romeo and Juliet thought. But marriage and love can be complicated, and some argue that marrying someone who shares your religious beliefs can make things much easier. Is having the same religious and spiritual beliefs part of criteria many people use when seeking a marriage partner? It is strongly felt that the person they are going to marry should have the same traditions and customs, and intensity of belief as they themselves do. For them, it is an imperative part of marriage. A correlation exists between religious shared beliefs in marriage and marital satisfaction, although the nature of the relationship is not certain. History says that religion starts wars. If that is true, what will it do to a dual-religion marriage? This paper will discuss people’s views on why it is actually a major criterion to have a partner that has the same religious beliefs.
The controversy over marriage today is much more observable than almost a century ago in the 1920s. Not only are divorce rates at 40% for young adult women (Shiono 20), but initial marri...
Marriage is a lifetime engagement and traditions in Eastern cultures. Marriages not only do couples get together and take vows to live together, but their families build a lifelong bond. On the other hand, in Western society arranged marriages are not common in the daily life; that is, the point of love is meant to be found, not arranged. In the West, love is to find that someone whereby the couples will spend the rest of their life together. According to Hai, Thu a Vietnamese author, arranged marriages are the method whereby the parents find someone for that person; they are deciding if he or she is fit for the position. Some people could not imagine that Americans who would appreciate the idea of being set together with someone they do not know. To solve this idea and lowering the divorce rate, scientists have expanded the knowledge of personality and relationships. The author brings that various tools have been built to help men and women identify a perfect marriage spouse.