Well, I guess this is "what goes around, comes around", at work, in a way. I feel Indian people are beautiful, too. What will be funny is if finally there are so few men, the women are able to take over India and run things for a while.
Hiring the wife to other men
by greendawn 21 Replies latest jw friends
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greendawn
The Indians are a nation with a very ancient and great civilisation and like the ancient Greeks they are very philosophical, however I think they are too patriarchal to allow women to take over in society.
It wasn't that long ago when widows had to be burnt with their dead husbands. -
FlyingHighNow
Right. I suppose it's not gonna happen anytime soon that women outnumber men. But if they would just realize it, they do have reproductive power. I see how women are treated here and this is how I concluded that Eastern Philosophy and religion really isn't superior to Western religion. This and the caste system.
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ballistic
Where-ever dowries originated, I see it more as a cultural problem than anything to do with gender power strugles or equality. I don't suppose anyone wants to live in a society where they are "forced" to abort such a large number of babies or one in which marriage partners are hard to find, and yet how do you break the chain? Dowries were outlawed in the 1960's in India and yet it still continues.
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stillajwexelder
The Mennonite community are so in bred that it has been postulated that they may bring in new genes to their gene pool by doing exactly this Hiring the wife to other men outside the community
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Forscher
Doesn't suprise me at all.
I remember from my anthropology courses that something rather simliar went on in traditional Innuit (Eskimo) cultures. Traditionally a higher value was placed on men, likely because they owned all the means for provision through hunting. So it was not all that unusual for them to kill newborn female infants if they already had some girls in the family. This resulted in a shortage of females among the Innuits. Since division of labor was strictly adhered to, men just didn't do "women's work", period. Sometimes a man might have to leave the group for a fairly extended period, maybe hunting out on the pack ice.
If the man didn't have a wife, or his wife was unable to go with him due to sickness, etc.. The man was often "loaned" a wife so that the tasks which would normally be taken care of by his wife could be taken care of. As for sexual favors, well, the Innuit were somewhat flexible on that as well. Such a loaned wife was often expected to take care of that department as well.
Generally cultures in such a position as that of India will do something similiar and/or tolerate homosexuality.
Believe it or not, even as a Witnoid, I found the varieties of human behavior fascinating.
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Forscher
The Mennonite community are so in bred that it has been postulated that they may bring in new genes to their gene pool by doing exactly this Hiring the wife to other men outside the community
Certain South Sea and at least one remote Chinese group that I know of had a simliar problem of inbreeding. How they sovled that problem was to provide women for travelers' pleasure in the hope that they would bear a child and bring new genes into their gene pool.
I remember a National Geographic magazine which mentioned that about a certain island and featured a picture of a drop-dead-gorgeous young lady who was a product of that practice. There were several Europeans among her ancestors.
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Simon
Many hospitals in the UK are not "supposed" to tell expectant parents the sex of the child when you go for a scan for fear it could be aborted if not a boy.
They do if you are white though IMO.
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FlyingHighNow
White? Do they tend to abort babies based on gender, too?
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Gill
It's sad to see how religion and culture go hand in hand with stupidity and lack of thinking ability.
Sometimes, I feel really glad that I live in a society where to be religious is looked down upon because it means you have a small mind.
There are many problems here in the UK associated with such 'free thinking' but I prefer them to the out and out stupidity of countries that hold on to backward, degrading practices.
Long live the Queen, democratic squabbling governments, intrusive press reporting and lack of interest in anything to do with God!!! (Oh! Roast beef dinners, a quick pint of Guiness at the pub, and women who give their husbands lots of back chat and keep them on their toes!!)