105 Journal 4

[Gabrielle Raffio]

This week we watched everyone present on a various topic in their target language’s culture. I enjoyed learning more about the Hindu Wedding practices that take place in India. It was surprising to hear how much money people spend for this event. We learned that the median income family will spend $34,000 on the wedding celebration. It was interesting to learn that the bride’s family pays for the entire wedding and they are responsible for paying the dowry to the husband’s family. This is a week-long celebration and the ceremony is made up of seven stages. There are around 500-1,000 guests in attendance. Although the dowry is outlawed, it is still practiced heavily today. Because of this, women are seen as a drain of resources to one’s family and they are seen as a negative contribution to one’s family. We learned that every 90 minutes, a bride is burned in India and that 107,000 brides are killed every year due to dowry violence. This presentation was very interesting and left me thinking more about the gender divide in India and how much of that is based on the wedding ceremony.