Marriage, polygyny and the end of the course :P

Marriage – since this was the last theme of modern ritual I found some interesting things out. When I think of marriage I see it in a romantic loving notions. However the tradition of weddings as it seems is not part of this notion. Is this a modern thought to have this connection of love to marriage??. In Indian contexts there are many arranged marriage that are about kinship ties and astrology. I was reading back through 101 anth text book and as it states in European marriage in medieval times as 

British social anthropologist Jack Goddy (1976: 14-25) pointed out that European marriage was characterized by class endogamy, in which the bride’s dowry and the groom’s inheritance has to be a good match for marriage to take place, because inheritance and dowry served as tough measure of social standing.

 Also I was reading back and this part of some text I found fascinating about Polygyny and it stated that…

Polygyny automatically creates a scarcity of potential wives, which is partially alleviated by the large age difference between men and women at marriage. Girls may be promised in marriage before they are born, and men might be well beyond 30 years of age before their first marriage, perhaps to a much older widow, while 12 year old girl might marry a 50 year old man. If one assumes an even sex ratio, then the only way in which some men could have more than one wife would be for a women to marry a younger age than men. The wider the age differential at marriage, the more polygamous marriages can take place.

Western ideas see this as wrong or taboo. However in many different countries this a normal acceptance especially in Africa and the Aboriginals in Australia. I have also heard of other marriages were a women marries a man and also his brothers to make a linage and in China there is a culture that do not believe in marriage and the men are not the farther to their children. So the children do not no their biological Fathers.  I think it is the Han people. The brothers of the sister who has a child looks after them.

 Well this is the last blog for Anthropology 213. In my other post I wished everyone luck in their exam, but since that is over I hope everyone gets the results they were wanting. Q.How do we get our grades for our blog and test? and how and what are our blogs graded on?  I have found this paper very interesting and now I look at everyday an simple things through an anthropological lens and with  the notions of rituals.

  Here are some photos of difffrent rituals that I thought were amazing 😀

    

 

Ritual scars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday’s Lecture

I found Friday’s Lecture really interesting and a lot of help for the exam that is coming up next week.

For example the kinds of ways of seeing ritual:

• Ritual is a formula
• What is different? ( in the ritual/ceremony)
• What is going on in that ritual?
• What are the innovations?
• What is the significant meaning?
• What kinds of components can I see?
• Whats dominating?

When we looked at the clip on Friday through a Anthropology lens. I did not realise the impact of how seeing things differently can change my perception.When I watch the state funeral of Sir Hillary years ago I just saw it as a event. Wth the questions above,  it made me look at everything in a diffrent way and ask the question WHY??.

Bees Natural Rituals

The Tangi (Rites of Passage-Death)

I have grown up with relatives and friends that go to Tangi -(Funerals). However I did not understand the significants and the background of such rituals.  With week 10s reading it gave me a in-look and also a outlook on rituals of death especially in a New Zealand context. Fascinating background and  knowledge in the rituals of death from Sinclair on ‘Tangi funeral Rituals and Construction of Maori Identity‘. I did not no much about the history of New Zealand  in context of European and Maori in  first contact with each other and how Tangi is a symbolic element to distinguish the Maori from the Europeon. I thought it was just a tradtion from centuries ago.Tangi is a ancestral tradition and it is clear that the rituals that take place have value in Maori Como’s and carefully maintained through rites of passage.

 “The modern tangi removes the Maori from a world grounded in European riles and places them in a context entirely Maori.”

In addition with this quote above, I never thought of a Tangi as entirely Maori identity ritual. My family is from the East Coast of the North Island – Ngati Porou . I have always heard of family going to unveiling’s and Tangi’s, but no one expressed the importance of these elements. I have just thought of it as something that we do, have involvement  in and  for me did do not quiet understand the importance. However you can feel and see the importance of these rituals when they take place. I think I did not understand the major impotance  because I have a bit of Maori in me, people think that I did not need the knowledge of this ritual because it is part of everyday knowledge in the Maori community. 

…..Some intresting questions are laid out for me and many to be answered.

Update of readings,lectures and ideas!!

I have been busy with assignments, tutorials and readings the past couple of weeks. So its time to catch up on 213 Anthro.

Week 8- Rites of Passage: Initiation.

The Ritual Experience by Alan Morinis.

Morinis’s argues that the study of  initiation in depth is focused on the the performance and/or rituals symbolism and social function. The theories have very little about the pain of initiations of rites of passage.  He states that “so many societies adolescents have been forced to experience painful ordeals as  part of the process’s of entering adulthood”. His focus is that he wants to illuminate the several roles of the “ordeal of initiation”. The ordeal of initiations is to experience the result of  “intensified self – awareness”. This therefore transforms children social personalities.   Morinis focus is on social and individual dimensions.

Morinis’s says that “ordeals of initiations are about group membership and about the transformation of personal consciousness that accompanies the change from child to adult”.

I thought this reading was very interesting because I have not thought of rites of passage as part of a painful process.

 

 Week 9- Rites of Passage: Weddings.

The wedding as symbolic struggle.

Weddings are a rite of passage which involves the symbolic transfer of people to another social category.  Political events are also rites of passage.  Weddings can be seen as a social boundary between being a child and a transition into adulthood.  Things have changed over the years. However in the 1930s it was very different in the Mediterranean.

“The weddings of the period, then, not only marked the boundary between adolescence and adulthood but also regulated the symbolic transfer from one side to the other.”

To be continued …

Week 10 will be posted on Friday…….

Great!! videos on ritual and culture from www.TED.com

how do I lay out my 2nd essay is it as below??

I was wondering how I would do the lay out of my essay?.

Is this a acceptable way from the example below (with subheadings) Also can we use stuff from our course readers?

1. Introduction

2. Anzac day

3. My non participant observaiton on Anzac Day,

4. Theory of political rituals and relation to Anzac Day.

5. Conclusion.

May Day worker related holiday.

The reading by Zdzislaw Mach (Continuity and change in political ritual) really interest me. Because I have not known much about May Day and its significant in rituals in transition (Post socialism). The change of the May Day ritual was very fascinating how it changed from a very structured routine tradition. In the reading the May Day political ritual is forced upon to showing that Poland was a unified society

We as New Zealanders see our Labour Day as a time to have a day off and do what ever we like. When I watch the news etc I see political rituals that are being done. However it does not click in my brain that it is a ritual. I just see it a a significant event that has politics in mind. This reading showed me to think in a very different way and ask why, how and who is making these rituals? and why have the political rituals become tradition and shift.

 

Remember Our Heroes Plant a poppy in our online Field of Remembrance.

http://www.anzacpoppy.com/

News clippings – also question…what time is a good time to go to service on Saturday (Anzac Day) ??

NEWS ON ANZAC DAY.

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/52330/nz-prepares-remember-anzac-day