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oa Marriage and Family values: a Case Study of Jiezhu (a religious menopausal ritual) performed in China
- Source: Religions: A Scholarly Journal, Volume 2014, Issue 1, Dec 2014, 12
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- 18 October 2015
- 18 October 2015
Abstract
In traditional China, a woman’s role is defined by her attachment/ submission to three men – her father, her husband and her son – through her three stages of life. Jiezhu is an initiatory ritual for menopausal women. It espouses patriarchal family values with the husband as the transmitter of the Buddhist prayer beads and the male offspring as the lineage carrier. A woman is supposed to be “happy” if she has a husband and male heir. Jiezhu enacts and reinforces marriage as the “ideal” life for a woman with all the ritual symbols in its scriptures, texts, songs and accessories.
© 2015 Tak-ching Cheung, licensee Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals.