A Wedding in the US

A Wedding in the US

Topic: Ritual

Sources:

“American Wedding Traditions and Customs”, http://www.elitedresses.com/American_Wedding_Customs_s/63.htm

“United States Wedding Traditions”

http://www.worldweddingtraditions.com/locations/north_american_traditions/united_states_traditions.html

“Something borrowed, Something new”

http://press.discovery.com/us/tlc/programs/something-borrowed-something-new/

Description:

Often women in the United States are brought up since they were young girls to believe in their someday fairy-tale ‘white-wedding’. And now with the growing popularity of reality television, there are even wedding competitions; to see who can get the ‘prettiest dress’, the ‘fanciest ceremony’, etc. I myself have two younger sisters, and we have talked about what we’d like to do for our weddings since we were very young. “Who the bridesmaids will be; where we’d get married; and of course who our dream man would be.” I even remember one of my sisters getting so excited she drew me a picture of what she wanted her ‘someday’ wedding dress to look like, and at the time she was eleven. I know from friends, family and the media, that we were not the only three girls who have gotten excited by this fairy-tale like ceremony.

Discussion/Analysis:

In the US, I feel that part of this fairy-tale like feel, comes from the fact that our marriages are not arranged. We choose our partners based on ‘love’. A tradition that is not as common any more, but is sometimes still practiced is when the soon-to-be groom asks the father of the bride for his permission to be wed to his daughter. The common wedding traditions in the United States are taken from a wide range of other cultures, but mostly they are from European cultures.

The White Dress is the most picturesque image we often think of when we think of the American wedding. Traditionally, the meaning of the white dress was to symbolize purity, but during the Victorian era, when the white dress originated, the white dress was a symbol of status and only to be worn once. Recently, I saw a new show on television called “Something borrowed, something new”, where the women either choose a refurbished version of their mother’s wedding dress or a new one. I’ve even seen a show where they present the challenges of finding a wedding dress with a budget of $2,000-3,000. The wedding industry has become huge, and the pressures for the ‘perfect’ wedding have seemed to grow from the traditional celebration of the love between two people to an elaborate and expensive ceremony of this love.

The rings are also another very important part of the ceremony, symbolizing eternity and never ending love. Often the rings are made with gold or silver, and encrusted with various types of jewels.  At the end of the ceremony, the bride and groom kiss to seal the vows, and then they walk together down the aisle. During this time rice has been traditionally thrown to wish fertility, happiness and prosperity to the newlywed couple. Yet in some newer traditions birdseed is thrown, or bubbles are blown.

American weddings can be very elaborate, and have definitely become a prospering business, and are a large part of our culture, but even still I feel that in the end they are just ceremonies to celebrate the love between two people, and the hopes of a happy future. 

American Football Culture

American Football Culture

Topic: Cultural Texts

Sources:

ANTHRO, Robbins Ch. 1 (pg 18-25) “Deciphering the Balinese Cockfight”

“Football in the USA”

http://homepage.smc.edu/morris_pete/papersandpresentations/main/footballinusa.html

“Advertisers pay a premium to put their spots in the Super Bowl, and it’s just not worth it.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/high-cost-super-bowl-ads-aren-worth-article-1.1252611

Description:

Since I was young I have recognized the importance of football in many families, including my own. In my early childhood I was the only daughter to a single father, and he did not leave me out of his love for the 49ers or his football excitement. I remember our neighbor was a Raiders fan, and I could hear the dueling shouts for victory from my Dad and our neighbor as I played outside. I was never very fascinated by football itself, I was more of a soccer fan, but I did always enjoy the Super Bowl commercials , and singing along with Hank Williams Jr. on Monday night Football. But with huge men running into each other, tiny cheerleaders shaking their butts, and thousands of screaming fans, what does this say about us and our culture?

Discussion/Analysis:

The Super Bowl has basically become a national holiday in the United States. The grocery stores are filled with food and event merchandising displays advertising the event and the excitement of how their bean dip, potato chips and coke will make your Super Bowl experience so much better than it was without it. There are commercials on television that use the Super Bowl to advertise their totally unrelated products, like candy bars and dog food, because the Super Bowl sells.

Then you have the Super Bowl itself; with men wearing pads that give the illusion of enlarged muscles, as they tackle one another, and the delicate women wearing skimpy outfits while cheering on the football teams. Then at halftime you have popular music artists doing extravagant shows, and businesses that are willing to pay $3.5 million to have 30 seconds of advertising that plays during the commercial breaks of the Super Bowl. Is this a direct representation of the average American culture? It has been ingrained into us that football is for boys and cheer leading is for girls, and often if you do see women playing football they are wearing barely any clothes and they are playing in the mud. There are serious women's football teams, but they are far less popular, and can often be seen as a joke because groups like the Lingerie Football League.

I don’t personally feel that football is bad, but I do feel that it does directly represent a portion of our culture. A portion that was at one time was even considered the ‘norm’, a somewhat sexist, and militant way of life. Nowadays with times changing these ‘norms’ are changing along with them, but even still football has stayed incredibly popular and is still seen as the great American sport.