Image courtesy of Full Stop
Yanomami Courtships and Differences
The Yanomami tribe follows very different marriage and courtship customs than I do. This makes them an extemely interesting society to compare my own customs to. For one thing, marriage is normally between cousins, which is not practiced in American society (that much). Another thing that is very different is that marriage is not a reason for celebration. In Yanomami culture, the woman is given to the man and that is as far as their ceremony goes. This stands out to me as most societies treat marriage as a celebration of life or massive party. One thing that is in common with some socities is that both men and woman can try to divorce. This common in the courtship customs of today. In both the society I live and they live, people can divorce and remarry. I think this is an interesting contrast, as the marriage is pre decided by the man and woman’s parents, though after they are married they have much more freedoms.
Yanomami and the Renaissance
The Renaissance marriage culture has many similarities with Yanomami culture, as marraige is normally determined between the man and woman’s parents. To put things in perspective, imagine the story Romeo and Juliet taking place in Yanomami culture. Romeo would be a hunter and be put to a lot of manual labor. It would be hard for him to spend time getting to know Juliet beforehand as Yanomami culture begins with survival. Juliet would be a farmer and a gatherer. Often times, the women would builds crafts, clothing, and weapons for the men. I think that this would in turn flip the two charachters emotions. Romeo would be the one pushing back, as Yanomami men are taught that the tribe as a whole comes before themslelves. This creates a unique contrast that effectivly flips the story. The story would also not end as a tragedy. There are many Yanomami tribesmen who live in the rainforests of the Amazon. It would be simpler for them to slip away than it would be in Italy, as there are far fewer people to prevent them from doing so. An even better solution, but much more difficult, would be for Juliet to try and divorce her husband. This is possible, but very difficult as the parents and elders must consent to it. Men in Yanomami tribes are polygenic though, meaning they can have mroe than one wife. So I believe Romeo may feel more indifferent that in the Renaissance Italian version.
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