Anthropologist know that religion and ritual have been integral parts of cultures and societies throughout the ages. Thus, Eriksen explains that “all religions deal with …show more content…
Her calm and dignified demeanor together with her words of love and wisdom give comfort to her three children, teach them something about married life, and they also move the audience, facilitating closure. Everyone present seems to find courage in the prospect that the deceased has lived a full live and is loved by those who have gathered to lay him to rest and give him the last honors. I cannot say for certain which religion the family of the deceased belongs to, but the gathering and the procedure of the ritual reminds me of funerals in the Christian tradition, but they could also belong to a different religion. If I may say so, the ceremony has a “modern” appeal to me, meaning, there are no indicators of any pagan or tribal rituals which would seem unfamiliar to me, coming from a European country. (This is not meant as a value judgement, but it is my attempt at giving a descriptive …show more content…
On the topic of marriage, Eriksen clarifies: “Now, regarding the marriage institution as such, its rationale is evidently, at least partly, its efficacy in producing and socialising children. Comparatively and historically speaking, romantic love is rarely seen as an important precondition for a good marriage” (2010, p. 116). Nevertheless, an arranged marriage does not exclude the possibility and the added advantage of love between two partners. Simply, there is stronger cohesion and emotional satisfaction present in the home when married partners do not have to invest any of their energy into enmity towards their significant others and their kin. It is unclear whether the deceased head of household and his emotionally strong wife were free to choose each other or whether their marriage had been arranged by both of their kin groups. Either way, garnering from her speech, they must have been devoted to each other whether they fell in love before or after their marriage. As the wife addresses her children, I can assume from what she is saying that the couple taught their children by modeling for them and demonstrating in their daily interactions their ideals of how a family and marriage should be, socializing them for the