Marriage Traditions- Indian, Chinese Cultures Essay

Marriage Traditions- Indian, Chinese Cultures - Essay Example Stated another way, it is an eye to the culturally relativistic foundations of marriage traditions in Chinese and Indian cultures that a proper perspective of the marriage traditions in those two cultures can be properly had. It is not absolutist in that it does not try to judge the ethics and morals of the marriage traditions of the two cultures, but views them from the standards and principles within the cultures that gave rise to and which continue to promote the marriage traditions (Fluehr-Lobban, 1995; Geertz, 1984; Donnelly, 1984; Hodes, 1985; Polisi, 2003; Moschetti, 2005). In. China the major form of marriage is one where families gave away their female children for marriage to other families when the girl comes to marrying age, usually as early as at puberty, and the girl then goes on to live in the husband’s family home, to then become a part of that family. To fill that gap left by the married girl, the family then made space for when one of their sons took wives. T his is the fundamental marriage arrangement that allowed for the addition and subtraction of members of households based on time-honored traditions in Chinese culture, and certainly prior to China turning Communist, under the old dynasties. On the other hand, the literatrure also notes that some alternate forms of marriage also formed part of the marriage traditions of China, and those include marriage arrangements where a girl is given up for adoption at birth or at a very early age, to a family.