In order for the marriage to take place, consent of the family must be given and acceptance by the community must also be granted. The family of the bride will receive a visit from the grooms family, being his parents and godparents, which means that they will all sit and deliberate the wedding and haggle on which family will donate what to the newlyweds. During the visitation process, the groom is restricted to stay at home and not be a part of the conversation amongst the two families. Age is not a barrier amongst the Quechua people, but the moment a man and a woman get married, they are then considered to be full adults.
The engagement of the man and woman is decided and announced at a later date, a couple of days after the deliberation between the families takes place and while they decide how donations will be split and on if the two are eligible to marry each other and AFTER the bride and groom have officially exchanged rosaries, or as we would say their vows. At the wedding, a public procession is held as the bride leaves her home to adhere herself to her husbands community (ayllu). When the bride and groom are officially wed and bound for life, they move on to living with the grooms parents. The only way this wont go about is if the brides family is short on laborers, of so then they will live with the brides family. Apart from the public community festivities and rituals, many others also come along with getting married in the Quechua community. These "post marriage" rituals include fertility rites as well.
References Cited:
SIM
Serving the Church Across Cultures: 2015 Quechua
http://www.sim.org/index.php/content/quechua, Accessed March 24, 2015
Countries and Their Cultures
Quechua
http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Norway-to-Russia/Quechua.html, Accessed March 24, 2015
I found these two article sections to be very interesting because my traditions for marriage are the complete opposite to what the Quechua men and women have to go through in order to be with the person that they believe to be "that special one" as we would say today. Having ones family so involved in making the decision to marry is something that people in the community i live in and where i come from don't do, and if they do, its not to the extent where what they think is decisive. Seeing how this group of people have so many rituals to marry two people makes marriage seem like a job in some sort if we want to compare and, as a woman, seeing how your decision to get married is being put up for discussion at times may not seem "fair".
ReplyDeleteIf i were to decide today who the man i was to marry would be, my family would have no influence on the decision that i make because to them, they have always said that the right man for me would just be the guy who treats me right, cares and makes me happy. The end of the story would be there and the rest would all be up to me. The only festivity that would go one would be my wedding day. So because our worlds are so different from each other, this topic really grabbed my attention because its something you don't see everyday and marriage is so different in every culture but so alike at the same time once all the premarital events pass by, that you would never think what comes behind a persons marriage and how some people come about spending the rest of their lives together.
I should also add that cultural relativism and ethnocentrism shapes the way in which we, the people of modern society, reflex upon what other cultural groups, such as the Quechua. Because we have all been raised in different ways, some cultures, such as the one i was raised in, would see this as to be wrong and how we go about marriage and choosing who our one and only is is the correct and fair way to go. But, as we learn about peoples cultures, beliefs, traditions etc, judging a person or group of people because of what they believe, in my personal opinion, should never be done because we dont know what goes behind a persons/groups beliefs, how and where they were raised and how their actions have been influenced through out their life.
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