MARRIAGE PRACTICES 1 Marriage Practices used in Two Different Cultures By: Marnicia Moody 1/17/2015 ANT101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Instructor: Heman Sweet MARRIAGE PRACTICES 2 Marriage Practices used in Two Different Cultures Marriage practices have been around for decades. The way each culture celebrates their new found love is different in every culture. The two cultures I am going to focus on are Oraibi and Hindu. The way each of these cultures share their new life is not only beautiful but it is very different. In this essay I will discuss how the two cultures celebrate and prepare to wed. The Oraibi tribe resides in the villages of Tusayan which is located in Arizona. The Hindu tribe resides in places like India and Nepal. Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world. The marriage ceremony of the Oraibi tribe is both complicated and long-lasting. The marriage ceremony of the Hindu tribe is long and spiritual. The Oraibi tribe also goes by the name of Hopi Indians of Arizona. Among the Hopi Indians marriage by purchase does not exist. (H.R. Voth, 1990) They believe that you should be able to marry whoever you want. They actually keep their relationship from the public until they are ready to marry. Then the man asks the father for her hand in marriage. In some cases the mother and the father may have some input in the two being married but it is less likely to happen. When two people marry because they want to it is believed that the marriage will last longer. The Hindu culture uses a different approach to marriage. In a Bengali Hindu marriage negotiations for marriage begin either directly or indirectly. They start of by making matches between the boy and the girl depending on how powerful their families are. In all these cases out of pocket fees are to be paid; and, in the event of a successful negotiation, a certain fee must be paid. (D.N. Mitra, 1946). The next step is a party where the girls and the boy’s relatives go to each other’s parties to select two or more boys or girls to wed. MARRIAGE PRACTICES 3 The final selection of both parties will depend on what the men of the family have to say. In the Oraibi tribe they even have a ritual for the big wedding day. They start by making sure the wedding is set for autumn or winter because during summer and spring they are usually working in the fields. As soon as the mother or aunt knows about a woman in their family getting married they start by doing her hair in a hitherto which is worn between two coils and ties a knot in the loosened hair of each side. Then either later in the day or early morning the bride to be and her mother take a meal made from white corn to the future husband. When the bride gets to the future husbands house she immediately starts working on making white corn meal and the mother returns home. The men go about their usual day of work. When it gets lat ...

1. MARRIAGE PRACTICES
1
Marriage Practices used in Two Different Cultures
By: Marnicia Moody
1/17/2015
ANT101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Instructor: Heman Sweet
MARRIAGE PRACTICES
2
Marriage Practices used in Two Different Cultures
Marriage practices have been around for decades. The way
each culture celebrates their
new found love is different in every culture. The two cultures I

2. am going to focus on are Oraibi
and Hindu. The way each of these cultures share their new life
is not only beautiful but it is very
different. In this essay I will discuss how the two cultures
celebrate and prepare to wed.
The Oraibi tribe resides in the villages of Tusayan which is
located in Arizona. The
Hindu tribe resides in places like India and Nepal. Hinduism is
one of the oldest religions in the
world. The marriage ceremony of the Oraibi tribe is both
complicated and long-lasting. The
marriage ceremony of the Hindu tribe is long and spiritual.
The Oraibi tribe also goes by the name of Hopi Indians of
Arizona. Among the Hopi
Indians marriage by purchase does not exist. (H.R. Voth, 1990)
They believe that you should be
able to marry whoever you want. They actually keep their
relationship from the public until they
are ready to marry. Then the man asks the father for her hand in
marriage. In some cases the
mother and the father may have some input in the two being
married but it is less likely to
happen. When two people marry because they want to it is
believed that the marriage will last
longer.
The Hindu culture uses a different approach to marriage.
In a Bengali Hindu marriage
negotiations for marriage begin either directly or indirectly.
They start of by making matches
between the boy and the girl depending on how powerful their
families are. In all these cases out
of pocket fees are to be paid; and, in the event of a successful
negotiation, a certain fee must be
paid. (D.N. Mitra, 1946). The next step is a party where the
girls and the boy’s relatives go to
each other’s parties to select two or more boys or girls to wed.

3. MARRIAGE PRACTICES
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The final selection of both parties will depend on what the men
of the family have to say.
In the Oraibi tribe they even have a ritual for the big wedding
day. They start by making
sure the wedding is set for autumn or winter because during
summer and spring they are usually
working in the fields. As soon as the mother or aunt knows
about a woman in their family getting
married they start by doing her hair in a hitherto which is worn
between two coils and ties a knot
in the loosened hair of each side. Then either later in the day or
early morning the bride to be and
her mother take a meal made from white corn to the future
husband.
When the bride gets to the future husbands house she
immediately starts working on
making white corn meal and the mother returns home. The men
go about their usual day of work.
When it gets later in the day the bride stops grinding corn and
begins folding blankets with the
husbands family. They do not talk that much to the bride during
the next few days. The next day
the bride continues to grind more corn until it is white. On the
third day of grinding the corn then
becomes a blueish color. And then by the fourth day all the corn
is given to the mother in law
and returned to their owners by the mother of the bride. The
fourth day is also known as wedding
day proper.
Most of the time that the bride is at her grooms house, she
is getting prepared to be
wedded. The whole family is participating the entire time,

4. especially the aunts. They are
preparing the dress and the wedding ceremony with vessels of
water and mohu. Mohu is foaming
suds of pounded roots of yucca to which warm water is added.
A farewell ceremony is always
performed before they make the bride and groom official. The
ceremony is called Niman-
Katcina.
MARRIAGE PRACTICES
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The Hindu culture make their girls get dressed in their best
clothes and jewelry, which is
normally borrowed, to be selected to wed. The girls are then
taught to walk slowly and bow their
heads in front of the boys or they will be disqualified from
being selected as a bride. The girls are
then asked a series of questions related to their culture to see
who has the best knowledge. In the
Hindu culture you basically have to audition to become a bride.
Anything from singing to
playing an instrument makes you stand out from the other girls.
The final selection of a boy and a girl does not necessarily
end in their marriage. (D.N.
Mitra, 1946). Dowries and presents play the next big role in the
selection. The girl is usually
presented with cash, houses, jewelry, and many other expensive
items. This is usually because of
the list the parents make of the things they need. So it is kind of
like they are trading their
daughter for things they cannot normally purchase. The boy
always receives a watch no matter
how many watches he may have. The boy and girl in the Hindu
culture do not have a say so in
whom they wed. They also do not know who they are marrying.

5. They must marry whoever their
parents chose and learn to adapt to one another.
From reading both cultures and learning their traditions of
getting married I have learned
the two cultures only have one thing in common and that is
family. The Oraibi and Hindu
cultures both have very strong ties to their families. The way
they view marriage is totally
different though. The Hindu culture is more of a negotiation
between two families that decide
their children’s fate. The Oraibi culture gives their men and
women the freedom to choose who
they want to marry. They even have time to get to know one
another before they make wedding
announcements.
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References
H. R. Voth American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 2, No. 2
(Apr.
- Jun., 1900), pp. 238-246
Pandit Vishwanath The Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute of Great Britain and
Ireland Vol. 47 (Jan. - Jun., 1917), pp. 31-36
D. N. Mitra American Journal of Sociology Vol. 52, No. 3
(Nov., 1946), pp. 255-258