Is Polygamy and Child Marriage ever acceptable?

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Linkat wrote:

Not necessarily - if a cultural suppresses women for instance and does not allow them equal rights - do you think that the woman are happy with this? Do you think a young child is happy about having sex with a 40 year old man as is a tradition of a child bride? The child has no choice and no power. That is where it crosses the line.

I am not imposing my beliefs on their cultural but I do when another person is being abused or harmed or treated unfairly. That is where it becomes wrong.

Actually, I do believe that indigenous women were happy living within their own perfectly well functioning cultures. Of course, I am a White man who has lived in a modern Western culture all of my life I have no way to judge this. But I see know reason (other than White supremacy) to believe that indigenous women wouldn't be happy living in their own culture.

And that is the problem. White people are the judges... and White people even judge how indigenous women feel about indigenous cultures.

I happen to know that there are indigenous women, for example in sub-Saharan Africa for example, who actively support and promote traditional practices that White people find abhorent. I know this, because stories about these women appear in the BBC, and CNN and other media. However I have never seen these women actually be given a voice.

There is an interesting thing that happens in Western Media.

Indigenous Women who have taken on Western values are given a voice and a platform. It is not difficult to find them speaking or writing or giving interviews.

Indigenous Women who have rejected Western values are silenced. You have never heard them speak. You have never read what they have to say. It is as if Western media wants to pretend they don't exist. I would love to hear the point of view of an indigenous woman living in a traditional cultural context talk about how her traditional culture works for her. You will never hear this... any journalist who tried to get this perspective would find her career end rather rapidly. This is a valid point of view that will never be expressed.

We are living in a world where one culture (White, Western European) that happens to have control over media, and military force and economics exercises cultural supremacy over the indigenous cultures it Colonized.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Quote:

True - I was venture to guess that most serial killers believe their killings are acceptable.

But the discussion concerns cultural practices, not anomalous acts of depraved individuals. I don't think Ted Bundy thought his behavior was socially acceptable.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Quote:

Indigenous Women who have rejected Western values are silenced.

I don't see that they are being actively silenced, as that is not a "Western value". They are being ignored. And clamoring for one's rights is a Western value as well.

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@maxdancona,

We agree on something!!!!!!

A lot of cultures with short lives spans consider females adults at the time they become able to product offsprings.

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@hightor,

hightor wrote:

Quote:
True - I was venture to guess that most serial killers believe their killings are acceptable.

But the discussion concerns cultural practices, not anomalous acts of depraved individuals. I don't think Ted Bundy thought his behavior was socially acceptable.

I was sort of answering your question - which was acceptable to whom.

Depending on someone's point of view pretty much anything would be acceptable.

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@Linkat,

Quote:

I was sort of answering your question...

Not without changing the premises, though.

Quote:

Depending on someone's point of view pretty much anything would be acceptable.

Social practices and customs aren't the same as "someone's point of view". "Do your thing and you'll be king" is a Western value. But I see what you mean.

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If you are talking about cultural child marriages - it really does not seem these children want to get married young. Even in the cases where the children were of the same age.

From the mouths of these:

While child brides in Rajasthan tend to be married off very young, it is usually to grooms of a similar age and it is not until they are older, about 15 or 16, that they actually start living together as man and wife.

Even so, being married so young does limit their opportunities.

Rukhmani, a 26-year-old mother of two, was married at six years old and started living with her husband when she was 15. "Had I been married later, I'd have learned to read and write," she says. "If I'd studied, I wouldn't have had to work in the scorching heat, harvesting in the fields."

Mamta, another child bride, also regretted not being able to study, which she felt would have given her a chance to be independent. Instead, she'd felt she had no option but to endure regular beatings from her husband.

Bangladesh has the highest rate of child marriage in South Asia and the fourth highest in the world, despite child marriage being illegal here, too. In Bangladesh, young girls are married off soon after reaching puberty and usually move in with their husbands straight away.

Seema, aged 14, married and moved in with her 19-year-old husband a year ago. Her life now is radically different to her carefree childhood.

After marriage, what is my work now? Washing dishes, cleaning the floor, washing clothes and cooking," she said.

Seema is now four months pregnant and overwhelmed. "Before I was a kid, and now I'm having a kid. Of course it's scary."

They don't sound too happy nor do they seem like this was their choice. But it is acceptable under their culture.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-15082550

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@Linkat,

You are hearing a story written by a Western Journalist. You aren't getting a real picture from the point of view of women who feel a part of their indigenous culture. Ask a American child about how they feel about school (or even the University system)... this story isn't giving you an authentic picture of what life is like in indigenous cultures.

That is part of the problem, you are understanding this story through two levels of Western Bias (the journalist and your own).

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@Linkat,

The real challenge here; how do you feel about our history with Native American cultures?. We had attitudes towards Native American and Indigenous Canadian cultures. That was the reason that many well-meaning people supported the Indian Schools we now hate.

Canada recently apologized for their actions in civilizing the indigenous cultures. Civilizing means getting rid of all the traditional cultural practices of which White people don't approve.

Many people people, my self included, feel that our actions in stamping out traditional cultural practices of aboriginal peoples of the US can Canada was a grave injustice.

In Afghanistan we are justifying the war as a way of getting rid of traditional cultural practices of which White people don't approve

There is a basic contradiction if you both...

1. Condemn our history of eliminating traditional cultural practices among indigenous tribes in the US and Canada.

2. Support attempts to eliminate traditional cultural practices among indigenous tribes in Afghanistan.

Of course, if you support the West's right or duty to intervene in the culture of indigenous people in general, then at least you are consistent. But in that case, the Indian schools (that are now widely condemned) would seem reasonable.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

I think it is appropriate to stop certain behaviors like human sacrifice.

I do not think it it appropriate for us to intervene if a culture is not committing atrocities.

I apply this same standard in North America and everywhere else in the world.

1 Reply

@oralloy,

oralloy wrote:

I think it is appropriate to stop certain behaviors like human sacrifice.

I do not think it it appropriate for us to intervene if a culture is not committing atrocities.

I apply this same standard in North America and everywhere else in the world.

Including the US???/

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@BillRM,

What atrocities is the US committing?

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Polyandry is a woman having multiple husbands because of a shortage of women as in the aforementioned kuru case.

Polygyny is a man with multiple wives because of a shortage of men due, possibly from war.

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Is Polygamy and Child Marriage ever acceptable?

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