Review 9

Natasya Anggita Kuntarto (1706973211)

“Arranging a Marriage in India” by Serena Nanda describes how arranged

marriages take place by also explaining the process of it. Arranged marriages are very
common in India whereas the bride and the groom wouldn’t meet each other before
the marriage of sometimes they might meet for a brief conversation after being
approved by each family. Although this way of marrying someone may seem weird
to some people including Nanda, she had tried learning to understand their system on
arranged marriages in India through her culture’s perspective. After asking Sita, one
of her informants, it turns out that this way of getting married may sound plausible
and that it seems much more considerable because there some benefits when it comes
to arranged marriages.

One of the benefit is that they could have the chance to enjoy their lives and
let the parents do the work without to ever worry about whether they’re going to find
their true love or not. Besides that, arranged marriages tend to decrease the risk of
divorce. Although it may seem reasonable, the process isn’t as simple as we thought
it would be. There are some basic rules that need to be followed in the process of
choosing the perfect bride or groom to marry off to a joint family. One of the most
important key to choose a bride or groom is by looking at his family background and
reputation. This article mainly discusses how they choose a bride to marry their son.
They usually see how she dresses, her behavior, how she gets along with others, her
education, etc. the future in-laws usually these strict standards on choosing a bride
that could take time as much as possible. The reason is that they want to prevent
mistakes that could lead to ruining their family’s reputation and makes it harder for
their other family members, such as their sisters and brothers to get married.

Also talking about marriage, the article “Polyandry: When Brothers Take a
Wife” by Melvin C. Goldstein discuss about fraternal polyandry that has been
happening with Tibetans living in Northern Nepal. This kind of marriage is
considered common in Tibetan society in which it traditionally represents an ideal
form of marriage and family according to them. Fraternal polyandry means that two
ore more brothers share the same wife and the marriage ceremonies vary by income
and region. The age of the brothers also plays a role in determining this. The wife has
to treat each brother equally and their offspring is also treated similarly with no
attempt to link their children biologically to particular brothers, vice versa, the
brothers also don’t make an attempt of favoritism to a particular child as they are all
equally the father or their children.

One of the reason of choosing to marry by fraternal polyandry even though

they have the right to choose monogamy is materialistic, in which they want to
prevent the division of the family’s inheritance such as a family’s farm and animals.
As for the wife, it is also economically beneficial since her husbands and children are
working for her. If one of the brothers choose to separate from fraternal polyandry
and seek other brides, it would come out as a disadvantage.

The positive outcomes when it comes to fraternal polyandry is that Tibetans

believe that this way of marriage could reduce the risk of family fission because the
brothers could continue to live and work together without fighting over their family’s
inheritance. Besides reducing family fission, fraternal polyandry also considered as
an alternative that reduces population growth that then leads to reduced pressure on
resources.

Both of these articles on two different marriages share a common trait, they’re
both considered as rare to some parts of the world. But even though it’s not
something that we usually see in our lives, they somewhat have some benefits and
reasons that makes it seem plausible for it to happen. For instance, arranged
marriages tend to decrease divorces and fraternal polyandry could reduce family
fission and population growth in which all of those benefits helps them or even
makes it easier for them to live their everyday life.