Social Gaps

АУДІО

The most interesting thing when you study abroad is a great diversity of nationalities in the group.  The result of globalization is obvious: people have fewer prejudices and we all became more tolerant. Nowadays you will not be excluded from school or university just because of discrimination.  But still equality is a daydream.

There was a guy from Tibet in our group and once he told us a very interesting thing about traditional family relationships in his country. The family pattern he told us about was polyandry. In spite of the fact that the language barrier prevented us from discussing the topic in its full breath, we still had an exciting conversation.

Not in modern cities, but in the remotest depths of the provinces women get married to all brothers from one family at ones. And the more brothers the better. Poverty is common in such regions and it’s probably easier for several husbands to support a family and bring up children.  The most surprising thing is that brothers get on well with each other and take responsibility for all the children. A man doesn’t even know which children are his!

Age difference is not a big problem, - said our Tibetan group mate, - they choose a middle-aged woman so she matches the eldest brother. And when younger brothers come of age they will also be able to marry her. Therefore, when the eldest brother is too old there is always a younger one, which is very good for woman’s health. No generation gaps.  No privacy either.

Such situation was absolutely confusing for our French group mate. The first question he asked was:

-    What about sex? Don’t brothers quarrel? Or do they have a timetable?

-    No, of course they don’t, - the unfrocked monk said, - their wife is usually the one to decide who is going to be with her the following night. And in the evening she invites one of her husbands to the bedroom. And men should take it for granted.

After hearing this all ladies in the group started saying they had always known that Tibet is a fount of wisdom.

-    What if she doesn’t want to sleep with one of them? – asked the French guy with all due care, - what should he do?

-    He has to take it seriously and be mature because it is a big humiliation for him.  It’s also necessary to work as hard as possible. Superiors usually try to help him and persuade the wife to give him another chance.  Otherwise he will have to leave.

All the students of the group were shocked. Some of us held stereotypes, some – were too infantile to understand the deep meaning of such a family pattern.

-    If it doesn’t help, - continued the monk, - the mother-in-low begs the wife not to turn her son out of the house. She doesn’t have any right to stick out or to demand. All she can do is bend the knees and promise that her son will reform. 

It goes without saying that this information provoked lots of opinions and breaking taboos in our group. Also people realized the true value of monogamy. Now we all can think in a quite different way about ideas of discrimination or inequality.

GreenForest. Курсы английского в Киеве.
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