Multi Cultural Vote

We at multiculturalvote.com love a good wedding.

Many of us on the staff have been fortunate enough to either observe/experience, or in some cases, even participate in the wedding ceremony of non-American cultures. That’s actually not too odd when one considers that the staff at multiculturalvote is highly diversified (as one might suspect). Seven different countries are represented in our humble, little office.

We thought we’d examine marriage in three different concepts.

First, we wanted to identify the concept that applies to the most cultures. And after much discussion, it came down to the “basic needs” principle. Man has a basic need for companionship. The one, single concept that we thought applies to the most cultures on the planet is that both males and females in the group seek a life-long mate. Very few people want to live solitary existences without sex, love, friendship, and general companionship.

Of course there are a few cultures where most of the members do indeed live platonic lives and there is no true form of marriage or permanent unions. The Mosuo , a Chinese minority group in the Himalaya region near the border of Tibet, have no recognized form of marriage. Of course, in cultures such as this, that by no means suggests there aren’t sexual relationships. A culture wouldn’t last very long in the annals of time if they weren’t procreating new generations. There just aren’t lifelong unions in the group.

But aside from the Mosuo and perhaps a few other cultures, we feel it is safe to say that a good 99% of the world culture recognize a form of marriage—or at least a lifetime bonding or pairing of two people.

The second concept about marriage that we agreed applied to most cultures was the existence of a ceremony or a celebration when two people form a union. This idea came in second place because there are more than just a few cultures that do not have a ceremony, unlike our first concept. Not too many; but a few. In many cases, these cultures adhere to pre-arranged marriages. It is agreed upon by the parents of a child, sometimes as early as the birth, that they will form a union with the child of another couple. Often a specific age is determined when the union will take place.

In many of the cultures that practice pre-arranged marriages, there is still a ceremony of some type. But in others, there is simply a delivery of the betrothed from one family to the other. This occurs with no religious or civic ceremony taking place.

Finally, the third concept we thought should be included in any discussion of marriage is the vast differences in the actual married life from one culture to another. After two people have agreed to form a union (as is the most common concept) or the pre-arranged time has come for a couple to unite—-and there has been a ceremony officially joining the couple (as in our second most common concept), we come to the part where most cultures tend to differentiate the most.

In some cultures, the couple does not cohabitate. In some cultures, like the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, the husband moves in to the house of his wife’s mother. In some cultures, marriage imposes an obligation on the women to bear children. In others, it is the couple’s freedom of choice on whether to bear children.

Some cultures allow a man to take on many wives. Some Amazon tribes allow a woman to take on younger husbands to help with hunting and protection when her first husband grows too old or is injured and no longer capable of performing all of his previous duties.
The wide range of cultural differences within the structure of marriage is a topic we will explore further in the coming days. The differences are neither good nor bad. They are simply one of the many ways we are different as peoples of the world.

Who knows? Maybe at your next wedding in New Delhi or Tokyo or Bogota, a member of the staff from multiculturalvote.com will be there to celebrate with you. Maybe it will even be their wedding ceremony !!