Research+Paper

Product Description  I chose to research weddings and the history behind the roles that the men and women take in the ceremony. I wanted to compare how the traditional American wedding changed over time in comparison with how people in society changed over time. I found out that the traditions of the American wedding haven't changed much over time but the meaning behind each tradition has changed dramatically. There is not much to say about the future of the American wedding because it is impossible to say how people are going to be a day, a week, a year from now since none of us can tell the future. I'm interested in seeing how much the wedding will develop and change.

Wedding Galore  Since man first discovered America, it has been the center of attention of people in hopes of a new life. Groups of people from all over the world brought not only their hopes, but also their food, language, and culture. As a result, America has become the melting pot of the world. The large diversity in America has reshaped what it means to be an American with a plethora of cultures, traditions, and religions coming together in one country. Due to the influx of immigrants, the traditional American wedding has been born. Because the roles of men and women in society have changed over time, the roles of men and women in the traditional American wedding have paralleled this change.

The American wedding does not have a single set of “rules” on how to have an American wedding correctly. In America it is common to have different cultural traditions merged into the ceremony. This is a practice that is not discriminated against and is also something very exclusive to America.

The roles of the females and males in the ceremony have a lot to do with the history of America. When the father of the bride walks her down the aisle, it used to resemble the father literally giving the bride away for a price. “Daughters in those times were considered their father's property” (Olsen), so he would arrange a marriage for her to strengthen the family. However, this has changed much over time. Getting married is almost solely based on love in present day America. The father giving the bride away is now a way of the father showing his blessing for his daughter to marry the man she wants to marry, rather than being forced into a marriage.

Another tradition of the American wedding is the tossing of the bouquet. The bouquet was incorporated into weddings to include flowers, which symbolized fertility. This tradition is originally from England, which shows that America is comprised of traditions from all over the world. Women used to attempt to “rip pieces of the bride's dress and flowers in order to obtain some of her good luck” (Olsen) and fortune. In order to escape from the havoc, the bride would throw the bouquet up to distract the other women while she ran away. This tradition has also developed over time to what it is today. Today, women are less animal like, in the sense that they do not tear the bride’s gown apart. Single women calmly gather around the bride without shredding her dress and wait for the bride to toss the bouquet.

The “beginnings [of the wedding ring] lie in the deserts of North Africa, where the ancient Egyptian civilization sprang up along the fertile flood plains of the river Nile” (Jacks, 2008). Plants along the banks of the Nile River would be braided to make a ring. The circle represents eternity and the space in the middle represents the “gateway, or door; leading to things and events both known and unknown” (Jacks, 2008) in a marriage. The idea of the wedding ring has developed over time and the meanings behind the wedding ring have increasingly grown. During the Second World War, more and more men were being separated from their wives. A ring would remind them of their wives waiting at home.

As society changed and the expectations of men and women have changed, the meaning behind the ring has transformed greatly. People have a different mindset and now that men are still expected to bring home the money, the women expect something wonderful from there soon to be fiancés. In other words, men and women in America think differently and it can be translated to more shallow than before. People often don’t think of the meaning behind the ring anymore and rather they think about how many karats the diamond has or how shiny or big the rock may be. People think more of the material things in the present day. People would be happy with a ring made of plants from the bank of the Nile River that would only last about a month. Even though it is awful, a woman might second-guess if she wants to marry a man based on the type of ring he proposes to her with. This really shows how people have developed over time.

However, some traditions have stuck around since the beginning of weddings, such as where the bride and groom wear their wedding rings. The third finger on the left hand, also known now as the ring finger, is said to have a vein that is directly connected to the heart. But there is no actual vena amorist, or “vein of love”. Wearing the ring on this finger “[symbolizes] eternal love and commitment” (R. Edmonson, 2005). More connotations have been tacked on to the meaning of the wedding ring as time went on. In the 12th century Christians adopted the custom and giving the wedding ring a religious significance. “It was then that wearing a ring became a public pledge” (R. Edmonson, 2005) to people that the person is married and they are going to honor the marriage contract between the two people.

Even though two people who are supposedly in love and share this contract, there always is and has been a chance that someone in the bond will break the vow via adultery. Consequences of adultery in America do not compare to the consequences in other places around the world. In 17 BC in Rome, the father of a woman who committed adultery would be given permission to execute his daughter for putting shame on their family name. As compared to America where adultery is looked down upon but is considered to be a legal wrong doing. The only way that people would be punished would be through religion. In Christianity, adultery is a sin as stated in the Ten Commandments. This parallels the change of people throughout American history and adultery because adultery was a great deal before but now it is quite common. “Depending on studies, it was estimated that 26–50% of men and 21–38% women” (Adultery) have had extramarital sex at least once in their life. It was thought to put much shame to your family if such a humiliating act was made. But now people simply think that it means those people were not meant to be because if a person truly loved his or her spouse, adultery would not cross their mind.

The comforting process of someone who was cheated on or has done the damage is usually a best friend and in most cases this best friend would be either the bride’s maid of honor or the groom’s best man. In ancient times, the best man was the strongest and fiercest of the groom’s friends. The men would go out in search of a woman to marry and the best man would literally help to fight the family of the bride that they are capturing. People are no longer cavemen but men sometimes do portray the “caveman” in them by going out to “hunt” and “capture” a woman worthy of marrying. The maid of honor and the rest of the bridesmaids were the originally used “to fool evil spirits” (Olsen) from figuring out which woman was the real bride. But that tradition has died and the bridesmaids are the best friends of the bride who are there to support the bride during stressful times of the wedding. This change corresponds to the independence that women have gained throughout history. They gained rights and therefore have a say in who they want to marry, rather than being forced into a marriage.

The mentality of people in old America was also different as compared to today. People judged a lot on social class. A marriage was often “more a matter of politics than love, particularly among the nobility and the higher social classes” (Wedding Dress). This means that people would marry to make a union between two businesses and sometimes even two countries. Because the bride symbolized the particular business or family, the bride would dress in a manner that casted a positive light on the family or business.

This mentality has greatly changed since social status is not emphasized as much today as it was before. People were not forbidden to marry a person of lower or higher social class but it would bring down the social status of the family of the higher class. Today, people can marry who ever their heart desires without being judged.

Judging people brings up another topic, which is an interracial marriage. In the early days of America, any person who was not white was discriminated against. For a white person to marry a colored person was unthinkable. Interracial marriages were even illegal until 1967 when the Supreme Court deemed anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">All of these traditions have developed over time due to the transformations of men and women in the American society. From women who have absolutely no say in who they want to marry to women who have every right to choose which man they want to marry. And from animalistic women ripping the bride's gown to civilized women who await the tossing of the bouquet. Since society is constantly changing, the future of the American wedding is open to much change.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Annotated Bibliography <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">Associated Press. "Interracial Marriage Flourishes in U.S. - US News - Life - Race & Ethnicity - Msnbc.com." Msnbc.com - Breaking News, Science and Tech News, World News, US News, Local News- Msnbc.com. 15 Apr. 2007. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <[]>.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">This source talks about interracial marriages in the United States. I found it helpful in the sense that it talks about how the amount interracial marriages is growing. I used this information as well as the information that the Supreme Court made it legal to have interracial marriages in the year 1967.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">"Adultery." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 02 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adultery>.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">Even though this source is from Wikipedia, it had a lot of facts about the history of adultery. It was helpful in the sense that I was able to compare and contrast the way that America reacts to adultery and the way that everywhere else in the world react to adultery. I thought that it was interesting that people in the United States don't take adultery as seriously as other places, such as Japan. Even though I didn't incorporate the honor killings from Japan in my paper it helped me to realize that Americans are very lenient with how they act.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">"Here Comes the Bride: A History of the American Wedding." Random History. 08 May 2007. Web. 23 Nov. 2011. < http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/009wedding.html>.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">This source was helpful because I got to read about how weddings were in ancient times and how they differ from weddings in the present day. I wasn't able to get much from this website but I also got some information about the history of the white wedding gown and when this tradition became popular.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">Jacks, Matt. "The History of the Wedding Ring – A Recognizable Symbol of Love." TheHistoryOf.net. 09 Sept. 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-the-wedding-ring.html>.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">This website was very helpful when I focused on the wedding ring. It was helpful because I got a lot of history about where the wedding ring originated and the meaning behind the wedding ring. I found it very interesting because people don't often think about the history and the meaning behind everything. I will always remember this article because it gives much more of a sincere and promising meaning to the ring than just a stone on your finger. I also found it interesting how different we Americans think about the ring because people judge on how big and shiny the ring is rather than how much thought the husband put into it.Luscombe, Belinda.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">"Marriage: What's It Good For?" Time: Who Needs Marriage? 29 Nov. 2010: 48-56. Web.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">This magazine article was not as helpful to me but I did get a good sense about the changing opinions on weddings in America. People used to think that getting married was something to do when you're young and they thought it was extremely important. But now, people think that it's not as important to get married. Even with a child, they believe that as long as the two parents are there for the child and can support the child, it is alright to not get married.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">Olsen, Elizabeth. "Wedding Lore and Traditions." Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free Online Reference, Research & Homework Help. — Infoplease.com. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. <http://www.infoplease.com/spot/weddinglore1.html>.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">This website was very helpful because it listed a lot of the traditions that the American wedding has and it had about a paragraph about the history of each topic. Even though the paragraphs were short, it helped me to further research about each topic. It gave me a foundation to work on.R. Edmondson.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">"Why a Wedding Ring Is Worn on the Third Finger of the Left Hand." Did You Know? 07 Sept. 2005. Web. 04 Dec. 2011. <http://www.myuniversalfacts.com/2005/09/why-wedding-ring-is-worn-on-third.html>.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">This article was helpful to me because it helped me to understand why the wedding ring is worn on the third finger of the left hand. This explained why that finger is called the "ring finger". It gave information about the vein that was thought to be directly connected from the ring finger to the heart.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">"Wedding Dress." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 01 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_dress>.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">Even though this source is also from Wikipedia, it gave me information about the history behind the wedding dress. I learned that weddings were often used to bond businesses or even countries. It was interesting because it also talked about the social classes of people and how people who were of higher social class would buy more vibrant colors than just a white gown.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">"The Wedding Report : Wedding Coordinator : Honeymoon : Bridal Association Of America." Wedding Association 1-866 My Wedding : Wedding Invitations : Bridal Association Of America : Wedding Planning: Wedding Ring. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.bridalassociationofamerica.com/Wedding_Statistics/>.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: justify;">This report didn't give me much information but it did give me information about who is getting married each year and what type of weddings that they had. It was interesting because the magazine talked about how the importance of the wedding is going down but the statistics from this website shows that there is actually an upward trend of weddings. Even though the percentage is microscopic, the numbers are not decreasing.