Text 28667, 53 rader
Skriven 2015-10-15 00:45:42 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
  Kommentar till text 28658 av Gerrit Kuehn (2:240/12)
Ärende: Re: Religion declining
==============================
 
Gerrit,
 
GK> Says who? My impression always was that this depends on the country the
GK> people live in. It is definitely not legal for neither Muslims nor
GK> Mormons here in Germany. Don't know about the US, though.
 
One needs to understand the historical background.
 
In the 1800s there was no social security and when the husband died, the
breadwinner, it meant economical disaster for the wife and kids.
 
Widows were often taken in by an older man in a gesture of mercy, it wasn't
just for the fucking, it was for their well-being and survival. These men did
not get married with that woman, they just got her to take care and because he
could afford it. It was their way of a social-security system. Several of those
"situations" are well documented.
 
Joseph Smith and Brigham Young took it a step too far. They were "sealed for
life" or "sealed for eternity" by the LDS-church (which they largely invented
themselves) but that wasn't recognised as a civil wedding then. Only when the
LDS-church officially walked away from polygamy were they allowed to start
concluding legal marriages.
 
Fact remains however that due to the American revolutionary war, the trek west,
the several gold rushes etc there was a shortage of men to take care of all
women. hence what happened.
 
The indians had it too. warriors dying in battle left families behind and they
had a system where some man in the family (brother, uncle, nephew, ...)
inherited them and had to take care of them without them being married
according to indian custom.
 
It doesn't mean there weren't any "scheefpoepers" there.
 
There were other odd situations. Take for example what happened to the Donner
party getting stuck in the sierra Nevada and wintering there (the canibalism
episode). Father and mother Donner perished. When their very young daughters
were saved and made it to California they were quick proposed to and
married-off due to the shortage of women to local single men, today we would
call it child abuse, pedophelia and the word sexual-predator would be used. In
those days however it was social welfare.
 
Years ago I was able to walk the old cemetary of the Valdez townsite (Alaska)
which got destroyed by a 1964 tsunami. There were several grave markers from
the 1860-ies with girls aged 13 dying during childbirth together with their
babies which didn't make it either. Underage marriage was a way of survival
then ... maybe ... Today?
 
 \%/@rd

--- D'Bridge 3.99
 * Origin: Many Glacier -- Protect - Preserve - Conserve (2:292/854)