ANTH-150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Japanese Americans, Unconditional Love, Cultural Lag
15 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Challenging Traditional Marriage: Never Married Chinese American and Japanese American
Women
--
Susan J. Ferguson
1. What is the article about/author’s purpose?
●Exploring why Chinese Americans and Japanese American women have higher
marriage rates
●Discusses benefits of being married
●Traditionally in China and Japan, marriage rates are high, but in the U.S. become
much lower -- why is that?
●Family relationships and how this impacts decisions to get married such -- the
eldest daughters being responsible for caring for younger siblings/looking at the
marriage of parents and how that worked out
●Cultural lag that exists between men/women; their views seemed to be more
progressive than their male counterparts
●Outlines 4 reasons:
1. Educational goals
2. Status as the oldest, felt duty to take care of aging parents
3. Viewing of traditions of their parents’ marriages negatively
4. Suitors, small range of people that they could marry
●Suggests that “gender roles among Asian Americans are complicated by race and
ethnicity, socioeconomic backgrounds, and immigrant history”
2. How do you define marriage?
●Union of love
●Legal contract to be recognized by the government as a unit
●Religious bond/tie/sacrament
●Financial security
●Attachment
●Trust and acceptance
●Unconditional love, support, etc.
●Some people argue that it is a context in which to start a family/passing of genes
●Marriage defines rules
●Influence that our parents/families/friends/others have had on us, how we see their
relationships overtime (whether married/divorced/etc.) Religion has shaped views
●Media has shaped/shapes views
●Can be religious (before legal), because in many places religion was the law
3. What does Ferguson outline as gender implications for these shifts and what do you think
about this? (role of men and women) test
Document Summary
Challenging traditional marriage: never married chinese american and japanese american. Exploring why chinese americans and japanese american women have higher marriage rates. Family relationships and how this impacts decisions to get married such -- the eldest daughters being responsible for caring for younger siblings/looking at the marriage of parents and how that worked out. Cultural lag that exists between men/women; their views seemed to be more progressive than their male counterparts. Outlines 4 reasons: educational goals, status as the oldest, felt duty to take care of aging parents, viewing of traditions of their parents" marriages negatively, suitors, small range of people that they could marry. Legal contract to be recognized by the government as a unit. Some people argue that it is a context in which to start a family/passing of genes. Influence that our parents/families/friends/others have had on us, how we see their relationships overtime (whether married/divorced/etc. ) You can"t be happy if you don"t get married.
