Compare and Contrast Essay: South-asian and North American Culture Differences

Throughout the course we have talked and read about several differences between both South Asian and North American Cultures. One topic that stood out to me the most during this course was the differences between the South Asian and North American practices with marriage. There are tons of differences between each culture but the ones that stood out to me are arranged marriages and divorce.

In the South Asian culture arranged marriages are more common compared to the North American culture. Before marriage med and women are typically not allowed to socialize with the opposite sex when alone, “ In India, where socializing between the sexes before marriage is widely discouraged, single men and women who work shoulder to shoulder throughout the night have been reprimanded for “dating” during the day.” (Kaput 51) From this quote it gives us more evidence indicating that it is frowned upon to socialize with the opposite sex before marriage. Meaning that dating before marriage is not common in the South Asian Culture. The man’s family will start the research process to find their son a spouse. “Some informants described love matches as much more spontaneous, and even a bit risky, while arranged marriages where characterized as “heavily researched”; the scrutiny of an individual’s personal and professional “resume” is central to an arranged marriage.” (Kaput 55) Based on this quote from the book arranged marriage is like a job interview. The man’s parents are searching and interviewing potential women who can marry their son. The man’s family is heavily involved through the process and so are the women’s family. In the North American culture arranged marriage is not as common compared to the South Asian culture. In the North American culture it is highly encouraged to socialize with the opposite sex before marriage. It is encouraged because socializing with the opposite sex is typically how you find a spouse. Dating before marriage is very common in the North American culture. Based off of my experience my parents dated for ten years before they got married. In the South Asian culture moving in with your boyfriend before marriage is also not common but in the North American culture it is encouraged. This is encouraged because you should get to know your partner before you make the next step of getting married. Another difference is that in the North American culture the families are not picking their children’s spouses. The families become more involved once the couple gets married and start having children.

The next thing I will discuss is divorce between the two different cultures. “In India, divorce is not accepted. Women have to hide the fact they are divorced.” (Kapur 57) Based on this quote from the class text book divorce in the South Asian culture is not acceptable. Divorce is frowned upon in the South Asian culture. When a divorce occurs the women take more of the embarrassment.  Since divorce is frowned upon India has a low rate of divorces, “Indian boasts one of the lowest divorce rates in the world, estimated at about 1 percent, compared to approximately 50 percent in the United States.” (Kapur 51) Based on that quote from the textbook it just proves that the divorce rates are low in India possibly because it is frowned upon. In the North American culture divorce rates are higher compared to the South Asian culture. Growing up most of my friends that I grew up with had divorced parents. Based on my experience divorce in the North American culture is not frowned upon and is not something people are afraid to talk about. Also, one thing that I have noticed compared to the South Asian culture is that the North American culture does not just frown upon the women but the possibly both or one person from the relationship. For both cultures they could agree that divorce is not ideal and can be emotionally tasking.

Throughout this paper we have looked at the differences between the South Asian and North American culture. The major differences that we looked at was marriage and divorce within the culture. In the South Asian culture arranged marriage is more common versus in the North American culture it is not common. The same thing goes for how divorce is perceived in each culture. In the South Asian culture is highly frowned upon and it becomes more embarrassing for the women. The North American culture it is not frowned upon but it can be embarrassing for both people that are involved. Overall both cultures are very different but they are incredibly interesting to study.