Difference between revisions of "426--Week 11 Questions/Comments--Tuesday"
From McClurken Wiki
| Line 6: | Line 6: | ||
The first half of this book is interesting. I like Riley's use of the term "cultural layering." I also noticed that she used the phrase "women of color" like the authors from last week. The practices of courtship and marriage certainly varied a lot between groups. Some practices were shocking to me, like the picture brides marrying someone based on correspondence! I had a small problem with Riley's discussion however. I know that she was trying to show the dichotomy with the groups in the West, but I feel like Native Americans need their own assessment. Their traditions may seem weird to us, but that is heightened when you take groups out of their context. I don't feel it's right to lump them together like you can perhaps get away with (like her use of Anglo or Chicana) but the Chippewa can't be examined with tribes of the Southwest. Also, their experience was different because unlike the other groups, they did not emigrate from another country. I like her thesis though, that the interaction among and within families caused conflict.--Amanda | The first half of this book is interesting. I like Riley's use of the term "cultural layering." I also noticed that she used the phrase "women of color" like the authors from last week. The practices of courtship and marriage certainly varied a lot between groups. Some practices were shocking to me, like the picture brides marrying someone based on correspondence! I had a small problem with Riley's discussion however. I know that she was trying to show the dichotomy with the groups in the West, but I feel like Native Americans need their own assessment. Their traditions may seem weird to us, but that is heightened when you take groups out of their context. I don't feel it's right to lump them together like you can perhaps get away with (like her use of Anglo or Chicana) but the Chippewa can't be examined with tribes of the Southwest. Also, their experience was different because unlike the other groups, they did not emigrate from another country. I like her thesis though, that the interaction among and within families caused conflict.--Amanda | ||
| + | |||
| + | I think you could say that about a number of the groups. I agree that I thought the same thing about her depiction of Native American rituals and practices, that even her descriptions of the different tribes contrasted each other. But look at the other groups, too. The "Anglos" included English, French, Irish, etc. The practices and rituals of each of these ethnic groups are as varied. Compare them to the Slavs and Jews and we're all over the place. - Celia | ||
Riley starts chapter one with an argument that high divorce rates in the West are probably a sign that courtship methods were flawed. She backs this up by saying that it is reasonable to assume that poorly matched spouses are more likely to divorce. I don't agree with Riley's assumption. I can see her logic, but I think that divorce rates are more closely tied to expectations about marriage (emotional fulfillment, compatibility, etc) and the acceptability of divorce than to methods of courtship. -- Rebecca | Riley starts chapter one with an argument that high divorce rates in the West are probably a sign that courtship methods were flawed. She backs this up by saying that it is reasonable to assume that poorly matched spouses are more likely to divorce. I don't agree with Riley's assumption. I can see her logic, but I think that divorce rates are more closely tied to expectations about marriage (emotional fulfillment, compatibility, etc) and the acceptability of divorce than to methods of courtship. -- Rebecca | ||
| + | |||
| + | I thought that this book has been quite fascinating so far. It's just more proof that we can't divide America into the North, South, East, and West and say 'this is how it was.' We bring up movies and books alot in class (ok, I bring up movies and books alot) but the part in Chapter 1 where men looked for women who would be able to work along side them and provide good domestic help reminded me of the movie "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." Also, the section about mail order brides and the men and women who advertised for spouses and wrote to each other reminded me of an obscure Judy Garland film called "Harvey Girls" where she goes out west to marry a man she had been writing to, only to be disapointed when she arrives. - Celia | ||
== Pictures == | == Pictures == | ||
