Marriage

Ryan Schwartz Marriage

o 3 kinds of marriages. Religious, Civil and Traditional o Religious § Ceremonies are in church or mosque (usually) & conducted according to norms of religion § Christian man => only one wife § Muslim man => up to 4 wives o Civil § Take place in government registry office § Men => only one wife. RELIGION DOESN’T MATTER o Traditional § Held at wife’s house & performed with ethnicity involved § Most allow polygamy (multiple wives) o Women have little to no say in who they marry. They often marry in their teens, to older men with other wives. First wife must welcome and teach newest wife. o Most women are bought from bridegrooms. Payment can be in money, cattle, wine, or in paying for women’s education (that is most common & an often used wooing process). o Weddings contain a lot of music and dancing and cultural aspects from the ethnic groups involved. o Marriage is taken as a social contract rather than two lovers uniting for life. Divorces are very common in Nigeria. Children of the woman are accepted into the new family.
 * http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Nigeria.html**

o Marriage is //**indispensible**// to Igbo. ***//Children are of prime interest. Parents pray for children’s fertility daily. Purpose of marriage is to beget children and continue family line//.**
 * http://www.afrikaworld.net/afrel/igbo-marriage.htm**
 * o Children are the most important aspect of any person’s life. Common names for children are: //Nwabu-uwa// means a child is all the world to me; //Nwaka-aku// or //Nwakego// means a child out-values all money. Men and women are teased if they are unmarried or have no children. **
 * o Women are considered wives only after they have a baby (male is preferred) but they are ridiculed for their whole life if they cannot have a baby. **
 * o //Marriage is considered the union of a man and a woman… achieved when a baby is born.// **

http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Igbo-Marriage-and-Family.html** o Children belong to the father’s side in normal marriages. But out of wedlock, they belong to her lineage. o When children are ready to marry, the mother of the son chooses his wife. Maternal approval is key because the couple usually lives with the son’s mother until an independent home is located. o Most new couples lived in villages make of loose clusters of homes surrounding a central meeting place with each other and their kids. The homes were made of mud walls and straw roofs. Women usually decorated the walls with art of some sort. o Most villages had 2 types of meeting places: shrines or temples and a grove of the local earth goddess. Population was usually between 40 and 8,000 people. o The eldest son received most of the inheritance. If the father dies while the son is still a child, the father’s brother will take over. Marriage is also in the form of inheritance. If the husband died, the widow can marry her brother-in-law.

huts that most families lived in when they were first married

Nigerian children are of the most importance in Nigerian Culture IIn Nigeria, marriage isn't usually out of the love between men and women, but to continue the family name