Strange customs in Sudan, Africa: Girls also "marry (marry)"
Sudan is the country with the largest continent area. In the Keria region of southern Sudan, there is a Nuer people who make a living by herding cattle. About 400,000 people live on a large grassland. The Nuer people still maintain a unique custom unique in the world-"giving houses" to girls.
Whenever a girl "gives a house", the men and women in the village, old and young, rejoice. Accompanied by impact instruments such as the dam drum unique to Africa, they sing and dance to their heart's content. Every household kills sheep and cattle and is very lively and happy. When the girl "gave the house", the men and women in the village rejoiced, singing and dancing to their heart's content under the accompaniment of impact instruments such as the dam drum unique to Africa. Every household killed sheep and cattle and was very lively and proud. Originally, the traditional wisdom of the Nuer people believed that a family with a strong population and full of descendants was a symbol of a strong family. Therefore, in order to achieve this goal, in addition to normal marriages between men and women, the girl is also allowed to be "given a wife". However, not all girls are qualified to "give a house". The law strictly stipulates that she must have extraordinary prerequisites to enjoy this right: that is, she must be infertile and divorced; or she must be the only survivor in the family due to various unforeseen events.
In this way, everyone regarded her as a "man" and could be "given a house". Except for gender and male differences, this kind of "husband" carries the same responsibilities and tasks at home as a real husband. Her goal of "giving a house" is also to reproduce her children so that she can have successors. But how can such a "same-sex" family achieve this goal? In terms of childbearing, the Nuer people do not care much about blood connections. Therefore, she asked a male descendant to have children with her wife. In other words, she is a "nominal husband", and the children of her wife are the crystallization of "extramarital affairs". Although she was an "illegitimate child", the children all took her surname and called her "father". In this way, children can be openly included in the "patrilineal" court to continue to "incense". The children respected her as much as their male fathers because she was the ruler of this growing family.
A tradition that has not changed for four to five thousand years
The Nuer people have a very long history. As early as four to five thousand years ago, the stories of their ancestors were recorded in papyrus and murals in ancient Egypt. Over the past few thousand years, other ethnic groups have either disappeared or evolved, but they are the only ones who still retain their pedantic social layout and traditional customs. They are called "living fossils of African humanity." Unlike many similar ethnic differences that have taken over foreign civilizations, the Nuer people still follow the pedantic Nuer language.
Because cattle farming is the most important asset, there are a hundred great words in Nur to describe the different colors and markings of cattle, and the total vocabulary of this primitive language is no more than 30,000. The Nuer people do not like to do business except to buy cattle. There is a story spreading in the mainland to this day that the only Arab caravans who swept across the entire African trade routes in the past were the Roho Nuer people. Because the only thing they could sell was cattle, the pace that attracted them to talk about buying and selling was to sell them more cattle.
Strict intra-ethnic law enforcement
What is most unbelievable about the Nuer people is that their families have almost been able to reproduce completely and continuously into the present era after thousands of years. What is the subtle place in this?
According to the "customs law" of the Nuer people, the blood chain of each family must be passed down from generation to generation without interruption. The only way to ensure that the industry is permanently preserved within the family. Therefore, the marriage customs of the Nuer people seem very strange: if a man leaves his wife and dies without leaving behind children, then his brother has the task of marrying a widowed sister-in-law, and the descendants he gave birth to will be put under the name of the deceased brother and serve as all the cattle he lived in; if both sides of the family unfortunately die to heaven, the patriarch of the family has the task of appointing a young boy to be their cow. Therefore, this young boy must isolate all connections with his biological parents and recognize the dead man as his "father."
Women can become husbands
What is even more unexpected is that girls can also "give wives". According to the customs and laws of the Nuer people, if all male members of a family unfortunately die, leaving only one female member behind, whether she is a widowed daughter-in-law or the deceased's unmarried sister or daughter, she has the right to "grant a house" so that she can serve as family assets. The wedding is presided over by the elders of the tribe, and the "wife" you marry must call the woman "husband" and treat her like a real husband. Because the female "husband" cannot have children with his wife, she is assigned to pair up with a matching male branch at the wedding until she gives birth to a son. The son he gave birth to must call his daughter's "husband""" from an early age and take the surname "Dad". When he grows up, he will assume all the industries, positions and tasks of the "Dad" family.
These great and sparse delineation records are actually passed down orally and spiritually by the elders of various families in the Nuer customs and laws, and have been implemented steadily for thousands of years. It is precisely because of this series of great and pedantic delineation that despite the vicissitudes of life, the Nuer people still have the blood of their families thousands of years ago.