Traditional
Seminole marriage was matrilocal and polygyny, until that was banned in the
twentieth century. Seminole Indians mostly married within there group and
marrying someone outside the community was frowned upon. Today intermarriage is
very common. Divorce used to be simple and at the wish of either partner but
unions under modern law require a formal legal divorce. Marriage in the
Seminole community has its own process. When a male finds the one he wants to
marry he must call together a council of his own family to break the news. If
the family does not oppose, the message must be delivered to the females
family. When the two families have agreed gifts are exchanged. The wedding
ceremony is informal and consists of the groom going to his mother in laws
house to receive his bride as a wife. The next day they make it symbolically
official with a public appearance in the community. After the marriage the
husband goes to live with his wife and her family for the period equivalent to
a honeymoon and soon after they set up their own household.
References
N.d. JRank. "Seminole- Marriage and Family." .
www.everyculture.com (accessed July 22, 2014).
Reflection: Its crazy to see how things have changed in the Seminole society but it’s awful to know that some things they were forced to change. Things such as polygyny and the divorce system in their lifestyle were forced to change under the U.S. law. Most Seminoles now follow Christianity which means they have adopted new practices but are still a matrilocal society. Although some things had to change the Seminole Indians still have a traditional way of marriage and the way they do things. I have learned much about their original traditions and have seen how they’ve changed from just a few hundred years ago to modern day.
ReplyDeleteGood Sean. Thanks. Now, I talked about marriage practices among the Awajun, the old, or traditional practice of reserving a wife, which does not happen that much anymore, but I think you can also mention that, or stuff talked about in class, and then compare it with practices in your community (U.S.). You can also mention something about cultural relativism, and how you realize these are practices that have value in their local context because you are kind of going there with your comment. Utilize course content Sean. There is something misspelled in your ethnographic post. You wrote "there" instead of "their," I believe.
ReplyDeleteBy the same token, I already commented on Matt's post, and reflection. Please read my comments there about the references. Those are important, you all are kind of consistent, but not completely. YOu have to agree on how to write the dates of the publications, and what to write when there are no dates available, and also. don't use parenthesis when you write "accessed on...bla bla bla" No parenthesis there. I want all of you guys to be uniform in terms of refs, which implies you have been working together, as a team. Good job. Thanks
It is unfortunate that the Seminoles had to change some of their practices dealing with marriage. The Seminoles once had their own way of divorcing couples but they had to change their customs according to United States laws. Now a Seminole divorce is done the same way as any other U.S. citizen does one. Also, because polygyny was banned in the United States the Seminoles were affected by that and can no longer practice it. As there have been many examples in class where in specific tribes the groom must marry his cross-cousin, the Seminoles are not like this. They have the option to pick who they want to be their wife, it’s just that the families must both agree on the marriage. When applying cultural relativism to the marriage process of the Seminole Indians, it refers more to the past. The Seminoles, a few hundred years ago, had a very distinct marriage process that was much different from ours. Modern day Seminoles have converted to Christianity, adapted to our culture, and now carry out marriage the same way a typical American does.
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