Wife
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A wife is a female participant in a marriage.
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[edit] Origin and Etymology
The term originated from the Middle English wif, from Old English ghwībh, from Old English wīf, woman, from Germanic * wbam, woman, related to Modern German Weib (woman, wife),[1] from wīb, meaning veiled, clothed, referring to the wedding veils.[2]
[edit] Related Terminology
Although "wife" seems to be a close term to bride, the latter is the female participant in the wedding ceremony (to her (bridegroom), while a wife is the status of a married woman after the wedding, during her marriage. Upon marriage, she or her family may have brought her husband a dowry, or the husband or his family may have needed to pay a bride price to the family of his bride, or both were exchanged between the families; the dowry not only supported the establishment of a household, but also served as a condition that if the husband committed grave offences upon his wife, the dowry had to be returned to the wife or her family; for the time of the marriage, they were made inalienable by the husband.[3] A former wife whose husband is deceased is a widow, and may be left with a dower (often a third or a half of his estate) to support her as dowager.[4]
Wife refers especially to the institutionalized form in relation to the husband and offsprings, unlike mother, a term that puts a woman into the context of her children. Also compare the similar sounding midwife, a person assisting in childbirth(“Mother midnight” emphasizes to a midwife’s power over life and death).[5]
A wife may in some cultures and times share the title of the husband, without having gained that title by her own right.[6]
[edit] Differences in cultures
- The various divisions of the following chapters share the previous terminology in English language, notwithstanding religious and cultural, but also customary differences.
[edit] Christianity
[edit] History
In the Middle Ages and Early Modern history of the realm of Christianity, it was unusual to marry out of love,[7] though it became an ideal in literature.[8] Women were not expected to have any property:[9] they only were given a dowry by their parents to give her husband[10] and inherited only if there were no male offsprings.[11] Unable to procure for herself, a woman was forced to submit to the husband chosen to avoid problems (prostitution, or a criminal career,[12] which has been dealt with extensively in literature, where the most important reason for the lack of equal rights was the denial of equal education for women.[13] The situation was assessed by the English conservative moralist Sir William Blackstone: “The husband and wife are one, and the husband is the one.”[14] Though the wife was generally expected to support the political faction favoured by the husband, satirists like Joseph Addison suggested ironically that the marriage contract might allow the wives to join the political faction independently in order to suit the expectations of their environment, or their peer group.[15]
One other option was to buy access into a cloister as a nun,[16] also called a "bride to Jesus",[17] consequently being a "bride of Jesus" to support her chastity,[18] and being economically protected.[19] Until late in the 20th century, women could in some cultures or times sue a man for wreath money when he took her virginity without taking her as his wife.[20]
Both the "wife" and the "nun" wore veils, which was meant to show their state of protection by the rights of marriage.[21]
[edit] Present
In the 20th century, two changes happened to Western marriage; the first was the breakthrough from an “institution to companionate marriage”;[22] for the first time, wives became a legal person, and she was allowed her own property and allowed to sue. Until then, wife and husband were a single legal entity, but only the husband was allowed to exercise this right. The second change was the dissolution of family life, when in the 1960s wives began to work outside their home, and with the social acceptance of divorces the single-parent family, and stepfamily or "blended family" as a more “individualized marriage”.[23]
Both the "wife" and the "nun" wore veils, which was meant to show their state of protection by the rights of marriage.[24]
Today, a woman may wear a wedding ring in order to show their status as a wife.[25]
In Western countries today, married women may have education, a profession and take time off from their work in a legally procured system of ante-natal care, statutory maternity leave, and they may get maternity pay or a maternity allowance.[26] The status of marriage opposed to unmarried pregnant women allows the husband to be responsible for the child, and to speak on behalf of his wife; he is also responsible for the wife in states where the husband is automatically assumed to be the biological father.[27] Vice versa, a wife has more legal authority in some cases when she speaks on behalf of a husband than she would have if they were not married, e.g. when he is in a coma after an accident.[28]
[edit] Islam
Women in Islam have a range of rights and obligations. Marriage takes place on the basis of a marriage contract, and for a husband to have more than one wife is very rare.[29] Even today, in some Muslim societies the father may decide whose wife his daughter is going to be and force her into the marriage under threat of murder, although this custom is not based on religion but tradition.[30] Beating his wife, however, is defined as a husband’s right in the Qur'an 4:34. Women in general are supposed to wear specific clothes, as stated by the hadith, like the hijab, which may take different sizes depending on the Muslim culture, but they are not obliged to do so.[31] The husband must pay a mahr to the bride, which is similar to the dower.[32]
Though for wives there seem to be no external signs, other than being allowed to reveal their entire head to her husband, which is not only stated by the Qur’an but known by even older customs.[33]
The situation of a wife in Muslim society is controversial: Some groups criticize the condition of wives as being "miserable",[34] and propose intolerance to the rule that a husband may beat his wife.[35] Based on the fundaments of Islam, it is emphasized that "The Prophet (s) said: "Do not beat your wife." He also said: "Do not strike your wife in the face."[36] However, the wife traditionally has had a high esteem in Islam as a protected, chastise person that manages the household and the family. Progressive Muslims may also agree on a perfectly equal relationship.[37]
Muslim women have no sign similar to a wedding ring to show their status as a wife, though this has been a recent (ie. postmodern adoption from the Western culture.[38] Traditionally and most commonly, the only sign of the marriage is the nikah,[39] the written marriage contract.
[edit] Hinduism
[edit] Buddhism and Chinese folk religions
[edit] Other
[edit] References
- ^ http://gaer27.uni-trier.de/CLL/Frouwe/weib.html
- ^ American Heritage Dictionary on "wife"
- ^ Britannica 2005, dowry
- ^ http://m-w.com/dictionary/dower
- ^ [http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=midwife Merriam-Webster on Midwife, and Britannica, midwife
- ^ http://www.uae.gov.ae/Government/women.htm
- ^ William C. Horne, Making a heaven of hell: the problem of the companionate ideal in English marriage, poetry, 1650-1800 Athens (Georgia), 1993
- ^ Frances Burney, Evelina, Lowndes 1778, and Seeber, English Literary History of the eighteenth century, Weimar 1999
- ^ Elizabeth M. Craik, Marriage and property, Aberdeen 1984
- ^ Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace, To Marry An English Lord, p166-7, ISBN 0-89480-939-3
- ^ http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/information_show.htm?doc_id=290368
- ^ Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders: theoretical preface
- ^ for the 18th and 19th century, which contained much criticism of these facts, see also Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Boston 1792
- ^ William Blackstone, Commentaries upon the Laws of England.
- ^ Joseph Addison, The Spectator, No.81
- ^ Though cloisters' practices were not bound by modern national borders, see sources for Spain, for Italy, and for Britain
- ^ (Taking) The White Veil
- ^ ibid.
- ^ The welfare of the cloister members was ensured by the Catholic Church and the Pope
- ^ Brockhaus 2004, Kranzgeld .
- ^ Silvia Evangelisti, Wives, Widows, And Brides Of Christ : Marriage And The Convent In The Historiography Of Early Modern Italy, Cambridge 2000
- ^ ”Companionship marriage” and “companionate marriage” are synonyms (the latter being the older one), although the term usually refers to a relationship based on equality, it might instead refer to a marriage with mutual interest in their children, [1]
- ^ http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/information_show.htm?doc_id=290368
- ^ Silvia Evangelisti, Wives, Widows, And Brides Of Christ: Marriage And The Convent In The Historiography Of Early Modern Italy,Cambridge 2000
- ^ Howard, Vicki. "A 'Real Man's Ring': Gender and the Invention of Tradition." Journal of Social History. Summer 2003 pp837-856
- ^ [2], [3]
- ^ Cuckoo’s egg in the nest, Spiegel 07, 2007
- ^ The restrictions of her abilities to do this vary immensely even within a legal system, see case NY vs. Fishman, 2000, [4]
- ^ The New Encyclopedia of Islam(2002), AltaMira Press. ISBN 0-7591-0189-2 . p.477
- ^ Spiegel 07, 2007
- ^ http://www.renaissance.com.pk/novq12y1.html
- ^ Qur’an verse 4;4
- ^ Yvonne Haddad and John Esposito. Islam, Gender, and Social Change, Published 1998. Oxford University Press, US. ISBN 0-19-511357-8.
- ^ http://www.alinaam.org.za/library/marital/srwife.htm
- ^ http://www.islamawareness.net/Wife/ and Iman Hashim, Reconciling Islam and feminism, Gender & Development, 1999, vol. 7, issue 1, p 7, ISSN 13552074
- ^ Dr. Haddad, Damascus, http://www.sunnah.org/msaec/articles/responsibilities_husband.htm
- ^ Heba G. Kotb M.D., Sexuality in Islam, PhD Thesis, Maimonides University, 2004
- ^ http://www.zawaj.com/articles/westernized.html
- ^ http://nikahsearch.com/marriage/marriage.htm
[edit] See also
some where no proublem in life.
