Follow Your Own Path Writing Assignment “Cultures are different in how they see, interpret, value, and respond to the word” (Eller 11). This is one of my favorite quote from the textbook because of how vague the meaning of it can be. Cultures are different in many aspects depending on the cultural group that you are studying. For the final project, I decided to broaden my knowledge about the Mbuti Pygmies. Let me start by defining culture as “a set of real facts, albeit “social facts,” regarding observable behavior and the products of that behavior, including the rules, groups, and institutions that shape people’s lives” (Eller 20). The Mbuti Pygmies are originally an ethnic group from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Northern Zaire.
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Lee states in his book, “Mbuti marriage involves the payment of bride wealth or the exchange of sister or other close female relatives” (212). My understanding from this quote is that in order for the bride to be chosen by the groom, her family has to be ready to exchange goods or even one their close female relatives. The fact that they are prepared the exchange one of the bride’s female relatives, creates a hypothesis that at a certain age, the Mbuti Pygmies appear to be obligated to arrange a husband for their daughters. For the Mbutis, this is a remarkable practice before the marriage, and it is crucial that the bride’s family pays the groom’s family with goods or money in order to guarantee the bride’s acceptance. For more than 100 years, this practice has been very common in neighboring countries, and Angola is one illustration of it. A long time ago, while Congo was at war, the Mbuti Pygmies migrated to bordering countries, and the majority of their common wedding practices still present at these countries. In the northern region of Angola, which is bounded by the Democratic Republic of Congo, marriage practices are strongly identical to the ones from the Mbuti’s culture, particularly the one that I mentioned bellow. For several cultures around the globe, marriage is perhaps one of the most important …show more content…
According to McLoone, “…must prove his worth to a woman’s parents by catching an antelope single-handedly and offering it to them” (92). By stating this, the author wanted to show that in the Mbuti’s culture, before the men get married they are submitted to a test in order to identify if they are capable of protecting their wives. Thus, in the majority of the tribes around the world, men are forced to perform certain rituals or tests in order to be recognized as men. However, for the Mbuti Pygmies, there are additional tests to prove if a men is capable of keeping his wife protected, and this is one of the main requisites to be accepted by the girl’s family. By the same token, I have heard that there are some other countries in Africa that require the man to pass series of test in order to be allowed to get married. Certainly, there are visible signs of the Mbuti Pygmies’ influence in the Angolan culture because there are rumors that in Cabinda, which is one of the provinces with more Mbuti Pygmies in Angola, men are forced to spend a week in the jungle with no proper resources to survive to prove themselves to their families. Practices like this are what make the Mbuti’s culture so unique and interesting for me. One cannot deny that sometimes it is good for men to prove themselves capable of protecting their wives, but I strongly disagree
Lee states in his book, “Mbuti marriage involves the payment of bride wealth or the exchange of sister or other close female relatives” (212). My understanding from this quote is that in order for the bride to be chosen by the groom, her family has to be ready to exchange goods or even one their close female relatives. The fact that they are prepared the exchange one of the bride’s female relatives, creates a hypothesis that at a certain age, the Mbuti Pygmies appear to be obligated to arrange a husband for their daughters. For the Mbutis, this is a remarkable practice before the marriage, and it is crucial that the bride’s family pays the groom’s family with goods or money in order to guarantee the bride’s acceptance. For more than 100 years, this practice has been very common in neighboring countries, and Angola is one illustration of it. A long time ago, while Congo was at war, the Mbuti Pygmies migrated to bordering countries, and the majority of their common wedding practices still present at these countries. In the northern region of Angola, which is bounded by the Democratic Republic of Congo, marriage practices are strongly identical to the ones from the Mbuti’s culture, particularly the one that I mentioned bellow. For several cultures around the globe, marriage is perhaps one of the most important …show more content…
According to McLoone, “…must prove his worth to a woman’s parents by catching an antelope single-handedly and offering it to them” (92). By stating this, the author wanted to show that in the Mbuti’s culture, before the men get married they are submitted to a test in order to identify if they are capable of protecting their wives. Thus, in the majority of the tribes around the world, men are forced to perform certain rituals or tests in order to be recognized as men. However, for the Mbuti Pygmies, there are additional tests to prove if a men is capable of keeping his wife protected, and this is one of the main requisites to be accepted by the girl’s family. By the same token, I have heard that there are some other countries in Africa that require the man to pass series of test in order to be allowed to get married. Certainly, there are visible signs of the Mbuti Pygmies’ influence in the Angolan culture because there are rumors that in Cabinda, which is one of the provinces with more Mbuti Pygmies in Angola, men are forced to spend a week in the jungle with no proper resources to survive to prove themselves to their families. Practices like this are what make the Mbuti’s culture so unique and interesting for me. One cannot deny that sometimes it is good for men to prove themselves capable of protecting their wives, but I strongly disagree