ANTH/WMNS 326 Cross cultural families and households
20 January 2010
Required readings: Applbaum, Kalman D. (1995) "Marriage with the Proper Stranger: Arranged Marriage in Metropolitan Japan." Ethnology, 34(1): 37-51. JSTOR. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3773862
Bourdieu, Pierre (2004) "The peasant and his body." Ethnography. Sage. DOI: 10.1177/1466138104048829; 5(4): 579-599.
Applbaum: arranged marriages in Japan
- In ethnographic terms, what does marriage mean for the Japanese?
- What does not getting married mean for them?
- What are the ways in which marriage has taken and now takes place in Japan?
- What is involved in arranged marriages?
- Why are arranged marriages happening now?
- In analytic terms, what does this analysis tell us about the role of marriage in Japan?
Bourdieu: not marrying in rural France
- Who does not get married in 1960s rural SW France?
- Why not?
- What is the experience of these men?
- What does not marrying mean for them?
- How does this relate to changes in the society?
- Together, what image do we get about the meaning of marriage in these two cases?
- to what extent do they support the possibility that marriage can be purely and solely about love?
Saheri’s Choice
Three way debate:
1) those who will argue in favour of arranged marriages
2) those who will argue in favour of love marriages (and against arranged marriages, as well as against not marrying)
3) those who will argue against marriage
You will:
a) prepare a list of reasons in support of your position in groups
b) present these to the class
c) vote on which position you support