But although there have been marriages throughout most of human civilization, this does not mean that there were weddings.
For these reasons, it was usually a man-woman affair, regardless of a society’s feelings toward homosexuality. Nevertheless, marriage, a social technology, has sprung up in most societies and on every inhabited continent.įor the majority of its existence, marriage has been a worldly matter, having to do with the transfer of property, the creation and support of children, the tracking of bloodlines, and the control of women. While some of us naked apes may find one partner and stay with them forever, never straying, history tells us that it has not been the norm for our species. Unlike swans, ospreys, coyotes, and termites, the primates known as Homo sapiens do not generally mate for life. But this has not always been the case, and the wedding dresses we hail as “traditional” are, for the most part, relatively modern, no matter where they come from. We ascribe meaning to these color choices, as if white could only suggest purity and new beginnings, while red could only signify life, luck, and celebration. We tend to focus on color, with white being the preferred choice for brides in the West, from Norway to Argentina, and red being the more appropriate color for traditional Eastern brides, be they from South Sudan or Singapore. Nowadays, whether we are referring to the voluminous white confections found in Western bridal magazines or the sleek red phoenix dresses with mythical roots that are still worn by brides in China today, the wedding dress has become its own kind of talisman. When it came time for their own daughter to marry, a real phoenix flew out of a mountain and presented the girl with a colorful phoenix dress all her own. To make sure that the union was a lucky one, the empress dressed the princess in a beautiful phoenix dress and phoenix crown, and Panhu carried his bride off to live in the southern mountains. He succeeded, changed into human form, and was engaged to the emperor’s daughter. Panhu was not a man, but being loyal and courageous he promised to become one upon vanquishing the enemy so he could marry the princess. One day, the emperor proclaimed that any man who could bring him the head of his enemy would be given the hand of his daughter in marriage. This dragon-dog, named Panhu, was the servant of an emperor, who was at war with a fractious general. Once upon a time, in a green and misty country at the center of the world, there lived a clever dog who was also a dragon. An ancient Chinese myth contains one of the oldest known references to such a garment, and it goes something like this: The history of the wedding dress is shorter than the history of weddings, and even shorter still than the history of marriage.
0 kommentar(er)
