14 Narrative Essay Topics on Arranged Marriages in India

14 Narrative Essay Topics on Arranged Marriages in India If you are writing an essay on arranged marriages in India, you need to base your narrative in something related to your life and experiences. To do that, having some facts might make the work a bit easier. Remember too that these should only help to guide the direction of your narrative essay, but that the true substance of the work should revolve around your personal stories or experiences. Below are 14 great facts about the topic which can help you along the way: In India, 90% of all marriages are arranged, which is roughly 30% more than the statistical likelihood of arranged marriages around the world. If you are in an arranged marriage in India and get a divorce, many parents will disown their child. In India, arranged marriages are viewed not as something done based on feelings, but something done based on a commitment and through that commitment, feelings will develop with time. This form of thinking is one which is emotionally beneficial, and one which alters the psychology of the two people entering into the relationship. Instead of viewing the relationship as something to be sustained until smaller habits or nuances or challenges push the limits of what one person will accept and the relationship is broken, these arranged relationships enter into the relationship with a more accepting foundation, one which isn’t â€Å"I will stay until†¦Ã¢â‚¬  but rather â€Å"I will stay no matter†. Trust, compatibility, love, and adjustment are proven factors in sustainable and long term marriages. In fact, the manner in which the marriage was formed is not a significantly influencing factor in its success. In arranged marriages, for example, all of the new elements of the other person are discovered along the way, each day, something that adds charm and elongates the duration of mystery. In India it is believed that marriages are contractual, but that within them time is adequate in fostering newer feelings for the person, something that keeps the feelings between the man and woman sustained throughout their lifetime, in newer and evolving ways. In India, those in arranged marriages stayed in love for roughly thirty years after the marriage was formed, whereas those who entered into â€Å"love marriages†- those based on love and not on a family arrangement- only stayed in love for 5 years. In India women are raised learning to cook and sew so as to make them more successful wives. They are also encouraged to search for a groom who is blessed and approved by the parents as the best achievement in life, for not marrying in India is considered to not only be a burden on one’s family but an embarrassment. In India the potential husband and wife have the option of meeting one another before they marry to see if the relationship is sustainable. Once the two approve of the match, there is regularly a period of months or a year before the wedding takes place during which time the couple is engaged. This period of time functions as a dating period, the same way dating periods take place in the west. The wedding ceremony in India is typically one week long and is paid for by the father of the bride. The father of the bride is also responsible for providing a dowry, or cash or gifts that accompany the bride as she moves into her new home. This is meant to be her form of financial security. In India, daughters marry into a family. Marriage is not something that just takes place between the man and the woman, but rather, between the two families. And more specifically, it is something which takes place between the woman and the family of the man. The reason for this is that wives enter into the male’s family unit and live with them. Some households contain all of the wives and children for all of the sons. In India, the burden of arranging the marriage is often that of the parents. The father is responsible for selecting and arranging for a husband to marry his daughter, something which takes into account the religion of the man and the caste systems. In India, it is, at best, frowned upon to marry outside of the family’s caste so they must select an eligible man who is in the same caste as the family. When a father is selecting a potential match for his daughter, he will most likely use astrology to ensure that the horoscopes of the two people are a suitable match, and if they are not the marriage cannot happen. The father also has to investigate the man to ensure he will make a suitable match and make his daughter happy, and that his family is suitable as well. The divorce rate in India is only 2%, which is strikingly low especially when compared to the rest of the world where the rate is an average of 50%. These statistics show that while there may be debatable aspects around arranged marriages, they nonetheless remain successful significantly more often than in other countries. On the wedding day, there is typically a small religious ceremony first, and then social gatherings after with dancing, food, and music. Each day of the week long celebrations require different hairstyles for the bride, different make up, different outfits, and different jewelry. There is a henna ceremony as well. On the day of the wedding, the couple circles the holy fire seven different times, encompassing the ancient tradition of Saat Pheras. Once this is done, the couple is wedded for seven lifetimes. This, in Hinduism, is considered to be the act which sustains life and after it is complete will the man and woman be declared husband and wife. Each of the Pheras is said to bring about different blessings from the various gods and goddesses. There are blessings for togetherness, trust and love, faith, loyalty forever, financial stability, health, and progeny. These facts are extremely important if you write a narrative essay on arranged marriages in India. But if you want to make up a good topic for your paper as well, make use of our 20 sample topics related to marital relationships in India. However, if you just have troubles with organizing your narrative essay, then visit our guide that will help you produce an excellent paper. References: Bansal, P. (2015).  Arranged marriages losing respect in India? The Times of India.  The Times of India. Retrieved 7 December 2015, from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/man-woman/Arranged-marriages-losing-respect-in-India/articleshow/49058130.cms Clark-DeceÌ€s, I.  The right spouse. Kannan, C. (1963).  Intercaste and inter-community marriages in India. Bombay: Allied Publishers. Mansukhani, A. (2007).  I Married a Total Stranger.  Marie Claire. Retrieved 7 December 2015, from marieclaire.com/sex-love/advice/a856/arranged-marriage-india/ Myers, J., Madathil, J., Tingle, L. (2005). Marriage Satisfaction and Wellness in India and the United States: A Preliminary Comparison of Arranged Marriages and Marriages of Choice.  Journal Of Counseling Development,  83(2), 183-190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2005.tb00595.x Pande, R. (2014). ‘I arranged my own marriage: arranged marriages and post-colonial feminism.Gender, Place Culture,  22(2), 172-187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369x.2013.855630 Reddy, V., Yogasri Srinivas, V. (1978).  Marriages in India. Gurgaon: Academic Press.

Mount Sandel - Mesolithic Settlement in Ireland

Mount Sandel - Mesolithic Settlement in Ireland Mount Sandel lies on a high bluff overlooking the River Bann and it is the remains of a small collection of huts provide evidence of the first people who lived in what is now Ireland. The County Derry site of Mount Sandel is named for its Iron Age fort site, believed by some to be Kill Santain or Kilsandel, famous in Irish history as the residence of the marauding Norman king John de Courcy in the 12th century AD. But the small archaeological site east of the remains of the fort is of far greater importance to the prehistory of western Europe. The Mesolithic site at Mount Sandel was excavated during the 1970s by Peter Woodman of University College Cork. Woodman found evidence of up to seven structures, at least four of which may represent rebuildings. Six of the structures are circular huts of six meters (about 19 feet) across, with a central interior hearth. The seventh structure is smaller, only three meters in diameter (about six feet), with an exterior hearth. The huts were made of bent sapling, inserted into the ground in a circle, and then covered over, probably with deer hide. Dates and Site Assemblage Radiocarbon dates at the site indicate that Mount Sandel is among the earliest human occupations in Ireland, first occupied around 7000 BC. Stone tools recovered from the site include a huge variety of microliths, which as you can tell from the word, are tiny stone flakes and tools. Tools found at the site include flint axes, needles, scalene triangle-shaped microliths, pick-like tools, backed blades, and a few hide scrapers. Although preservation at the site was not very good, one hearth included some bone fragments and hazelnuts. A series of marks on the ground are interpreted as a fish-drying rack, and other diet items may have been eel, mackerel, red deer, game birds, wild pig, shellfish, and an occasional seal. The site may have been occupied year-round, but if so, the settlement was tiny, including no more than fifteen people at a time, which is quite small for a group subsisting on hunting and gathering. By 6000 BC, Mount Sandel was abandoned to the later generations. Red Deer and the Mesolithic in Ireland Irish Mesolithic specialist Michael Kimball (University of Maine at Machias) writes: Recent research (1997) suggests that red deer may not have been present in Ireland until the Neolithic (earliest solid evidence dates to around 4000 bp). This is significant because it implies that the largest terrestrial mammal available for exploitation during Irelands Mesolithic may have been the wild pig. This is a very different resource pattern than that which characterizes most of Mesolithic Europe, including Irelands next door neighbor, Britain (which was chock full of deer, e.g., Star Carr, etc.). One other point unlike Britain and the Continent, Ireland has NO Paleolithic (at least none has yet been discovered). This means that the Early Mesolithic as seen via Mt. Sandel likely represents Irelands first human inhabitants. If the pre-Clovis folks are right, North America was discovered before Ireland! Sources Cunliffe, Barry. 1998. Prehistoric Europe: An Illustrated History. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Flanagan, Laurence. 1998. Ancient Ireland: Life before the Celts. St. Martins Press, New York.Woodman, Peter. 1986. Why not an Irish Upper Paleolithic? Studies in the Upper Paleolithic of Britain and Northwest Europe. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 296:43-54.