Wife
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A wife is a female spouse, or participant in a marriage. The term originated from the Middle English wif, from Old English wīf, woman, wife, from Germanic * wībam, woman, related to Modern German Weib (woman, wife),[1] from the Indo-European root ghwībh-; wīb, meaning veiled or clothed, referred to the wedding veils.[2]. The original meaning of “wife” as simply “woman”, unconnected with marriage, is preserved in words like “midwife” and “fishwife”.
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[edit] Related terminology
Although “wife” seems to be a close term to bride, the latter is a female participant in a wedding ceremony, while a wife is a married woman after the wedding, during her marriage. Her partner, if male, was known as the bridegroom during the wedding, and within the marriage is called her husband. 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 spouse 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 spouse and offspring, 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 her 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] Antiquity
Many traditions like the wedding ring and a dower, dowry and bride price have long traditions in antiquity. The exchange of any item or value goes back unto the oldest sources, and the wedding ring likewise was always used as a symbol for keeping faith to a person.
[edit] Christianity
[edit] Historical status
Christian cultures (or, more generally, Western ones, that is, Western Europe and many of its former colonies) were guided by the Bible in regard to their view on the position of a wife in society as well as her marriage. This image changed considerably in the age of Modernity.
In the Middle Ages and Early Modern history, 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 offspring.[11] Unable to procure for herself, a woman had 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] The situation changed only in the Married Women’s Property Act 1882. 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] 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.[16]
If a woman did not want to marry, another option was entering a convent as a nun[17] to become a “bride to Jesus”,[18] a state in which her chastity would be protected[18] and the woman was economically protected as well.[19] Both a wife and a nun wore veils, which proclaimed their state of protection by the rights of marriage.[20]
[edit] Contemporary status
In the 20th century, the role of the wife in Western marriage changed in two major ways; the first was the breakthrough from an “institution to companionate marriage”;[21] for the first time, wives became distinct legal entities, and were allowed their 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 drastic alteration of middle and upper class family life, when in the 1960s these 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”.[22]
Today, a woman may wear a wedding ring in order to show her status as a wife.[23]
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.[24] The status of marriage, as opposed to unmarried pregnant women, allows the spouse to be responsible for the child, and to speak on behalf of his/her wife; a husband is also responsible for the wife’s child in states where he is automatically assumed to be the biological father.[25] Vice versa, a wife has more legal authority in some cases when she speaks on behalf of a spouse than she would have if they were not married, e.g. when her spouse is in a coma after an accident, a wife may have the right of advocacy.[26] If they divorce, she also might receive—or pay—alimony (see Law and divorce around the world).
[edit] Islam
Allah, most Gracious says about spouses in Quran:
Among His signs is [the fact] that He has created spouses for you among yourselves so that you may dwell in tranquillity with them, and He has planted love and mercy between you; In that are signs for people who reflect.
Qur'an [30 : 21]
and says:
... they are a garment for you and you are a garment to them ...
Qur'an [2 : 187]
Consider this in conjunction with the following verse:
... the best garment is the garment of God-consciousness ...
Qur'an [7 : 26]
It requires that a husband and wife should be as garments for each other. Just as garments are for protection, comfort, show and concealment for human beings, Allah expects husbands and wives to be for one another.
And the believers, men and women, are protecting friends of one another; they enjoin the right and forbid the wrong, and they establish worship and they pay the poor-due, and they obey Allah and His messenger; as for those, Allah will have mercy on them; Lo! Allah is Mighty, Wise. Allah hath promised to believers - men and women - gardens underwhich rivers flow, to dwell therein, and beautiful mansions in gardens of everlasting bliss; but the greatest bliss is the good pleasure of Allah: This is the supreme felicity.
[edit] Hinduism
In Hindi, wife means a woman who shares every thing in this world with her husband and he does the same, including their identity. Decisions are ideally made in mutual consent. A wife usually takes care of anything inside her household, including the family’s health, the children’s education, a parent’s needs.
In Tamil, a wife is known as a “Manaivee”. “Manai” means “house”, and “manaivee” “head of a household”. The majority of Hindu marriages in South India even now are arranged marriages, which means parents that have a son will search for parents with a daughter, through relatives, neighbourhoods, or even brokers. Once they find a suitable family (family of same caste, culture and financial status), they proceed with discussions directly. In the past decades, a marriage out of love has become a rivaling model to the arranged marriage.
Indian law has recognised marital rape, sexual, emotional or verbal abuse of a woman by her husband as crimes. The Britannica mentions that “Until quite recently, the only property of which a Hindu woman was the absolute owner was her strīdhana, consisting mainly of wedding gifts and gifts from relatives.”[27]
Commonly, a wife wears a red dot on her forehead to show her status as a married woman.
[edit] Buddhism and Chinese folk religions
China’s family laws were changed by the Communist revolution; and in 1950, the People’s Republic of China enacted a comprehensive marriage law including provisions giving the spouses equal rights with regard to ownership and management of marital property.[28]
[edit] Other
In Japan, before enactment of the Meiji Civil Code of 1898, all of the woman’s property such as land or money passed to her husband except for personal clothing and a mirror stand.[29]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Etymology of “Weib”
- ^ American Heritage Dictionary on “wife”
- ^ Britannica 2005, dowry
- ^ Merriam-Webster, dower
- ^ Merriam-Webster on Midwife, and Britannica, midwife
- ^ Sharing the husband’s title
- ^ 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
- ^ Future of the Children
- ^ 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
- ^ Brockhaus 2004, Kranzgeld .
- ^ Though cloisters’ practices were not bound by modern national borders, see sources for Spain, for Italy, and for Britain
- ^ a b (Taking) The White Veil
- ^ The welfare of the cloister members was ensured by the Catholic Church and the Pope.
- ^ 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]
- ^ Stepfamily as individualized marriage
- ^ Howard, Vicki. “A ‘Real Man’s Ring”: Gender and the Invention of Tradition.” Journal of Social History. Summer 2003 pp837-856
- ^ Maternity pay and allowance, and work and family guide
- ^ 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
- ^ Britannica, Legal limitations on marriage (from family law)
- ^ Britannica 2004, Legal limitations on marriage (from family law)
- ^ Britannica, Legal limitations on marriage (from family law)
