Critical Reflection of the Idea of Marriage - Coursework Example

There is a high importance on families in Indian culture. The most important factor that is considered when arranging a marriage in India is the reputation of the family. It is evaluated that marriages can be arranged only if both families have the same socio-economical status. The other factor includes the education, appearance, attitude, and behavior of the bride and groom. Unlike the western society, a high level of care is exercised by the parents in selecting an appropriate mate for their children, as stated by Serena Nanda’s friend “you American wants everything done so quickly, you get married quickly and then just as quickly get divorced. Here we take marriage more seriously. We must take all the factors into account. It is not enough for us to learn from our mistakes. This is too serious a business. If a mistake is made we have not only ruined the life of our son or daughter, but we have spoiled the reputation of our family as well. And that will make it much harder for their brothers and sisters to get married. So we must be very careful” (Nanda).

Research has evaluated that there are several advantages to the concept of an arranged marriage because most Indian couples are living a successful life after their arranged marriages, however, on the other side, the only disadvantage with the arranged marriage is that both the groom and bride are not provided enough time before their marriage to understand each other and their natures.

Lassiter defined the concept of family and kinship as a situation where different people, whether directly or indirectly related to each other live together, he called kinship a network of relatives. The network of relatives can be established through exercising marriages between the matrilineal and patrilineal descent of the family. He explained the marriages of individuals with their direct cousins, i.e. in a matrilineal descent system with the children of the mother’s sister’s children and similarly in the patrilineal descent system with the brother’s children, as Endogamy. Whereas, marriages with all other individuals are termed Exogamy. However, incest taboo refers to the marriages/sex between people considered kin.

It has been evaluated that in our families the concept of exogamy is common because people want to lead their lives independently. Lassiter states “In American culture, today incest is commonly defined as having sexual relations with someone closely related, for example, a parent, sibling, uncle, cousin, grandparent, and aunt, etc…” (Lassiter). Therefore, in the American culture, people are more interested in the concept of exogamy for their marriages and so is the culture of our family.