MARRIAGE RITUALS

Marriage rituals in Christianity and the Muslim faiths

Marriage rituals in Christianity and the Muslim faiths

Introduction

Marriage perhaps involves rituals more elaborate than those of any other life event in most cultures. The bewildering variety of such rituals makes generalizations difficult, but placing the rituals in their larger cultural context shows some similar features in their functions and symbolisms. Because in preindustrial cultures religion covers all spheres of life, most marriage rituals there place the sexual and economic aspects of marriage also in a religious context, celebrated and perpetuated by ritual practices.

Marriage is a universal institution, but defining it adequately presents a challenge. One authoritative definition focuses on perhaps the most common characteristic- children: "Marriage is a union between a man and a woman such that children born to the woman are recognized legitimate offspring of both parents" (Royal Anthropological Institute 1951, 110).

Other definitions generally emphasize that the marital union is socially and legally recognized and establishes a family as a social unit that regulates sexual activity, produces and raises children, implies some reciprocal rights between the spouses and between them and their offspring, and constitutes a basic economic unit. In short, marriage could be seen as a set of rights that gives access to the spouse's sexuality, labor, and property, although not all of these aspects are necessarily present in all marriages.

Marriage Rituals

Rituals of marriage begin long before the actual wedding ceremonies. Whether the bride and groom fall in love or someone makes the match, meeting involves ritual. Dress, makeup, hairstyles, ornaments, and other efforts to enhance personal appearance are often ritualistic efforts to attract the opposite sex, as are flirtations of various kinds. Young men in the Trobriand Islands of the southwest Pacific Ocean may decorate themselves with Johnson's Baby Powder, and girls like to put flowers ...