Analysis: Suttee Or Sati

Reflection Paper: Suttee or Sati: Victim or Victor
In this article, the author firstly introduced Sati, "which is the death of a woman on her husband's funeral pyre"(p.175). The historical background is also given by the author. Sati seems to have a long history. "There have been several attempts to abolish the practice"(p.176), while it seems not successfully abolished. "Some instances still occur, even in the 1980s, and the esteem and devotion paid to the memories of women who have died in this way remain the same"(p.176). The author also mentioned two respectable arguments for not discussing sati, "The first is derived from a fear of sensation due to sati was never common, the second is trying to understand it is the same to explaining it …show more content…
I totally agree the author's views. When we want to improve something, we should fathom it first, and then know how to change it better. Therefore, it is better to understand the practice of sati and then we can know how to judge it appropriately. The author also apposed two views about the concept of "suttee" and "sati", "the first one is defined the women as victims, the second one is described that the death of women is voluntary"(p.177). Neither suttee or sati, the final results are the same, the women had to face the death. I think no matter what the cultural and religious ideas are impressive or not, it is impossible for most of women to die completely voluntary in this way and satisfied with this practice. I think the concept of sati is used to try to defend the concept of suttee. If the practice is carried out by force, the governor will be identified as inhuman. Therefore, the governor use the “sati”, it sounds like that all of the women are actually voluntary to die in this way. Further more, this practice also indicated that there are gender inequality since ancient times. The concept of sati implicitly indicated that only the widow should die in this way, if the wife died first, the husband no need to die in this way. Therefore, the religious ideas could decide that the wife is hard to live fairly longer than the …show more content…
The writer also concluded that the highest duty of a woman is to serve her husband” (p.183). The conclusion of writer also indicated that the women had a very low status. They could not have their own life, and had to serve their husbands all the time, no other activities in their life. The writer also mentioned some arguments about supporting the practice of sati. “The first argument is about the prohibition on suicide. The author stated that the common prohibition on suicide is improved by complementary rules, such as, people in a scared place, battle by the warrior and the self-immolation of the widow”(p.184). I agree the first two issues, for the last one, I think the self-immolation of the widow is an actual suicide and should be prohibited. If the government ban the practice of sati, most of widows would not die in this way. The second argument the writer mentioned is about the rewards awaiting the good wife. “The writer summarized that when a devoted wife did the practice of sati, it awards great blessings on both wife and husband”(p.185). It indicated that the wife’s behavior is crucial, a good wife can help the dead husband avoid to go to the hell. The third argument is about the case of bad wife. “The writer argues that if a guilty wife dies with her husband, her sin is