Chuukese Arranged Marriage

So this is the third piece in a series of my Junior's English Skills Expository Essays. This is by a Chuukese female who wrote about the practice of arranged marriage. Who better to let you in on some insights about the culture than a Chuukese, right? Forgive the grammar or high school level style, but the content should hopefully be interesting. Less than 3 months left. Keep finding me jobs. Oh, and a huge thanks to my grandparents and my uncle Charlie for awesome packages. Shout out!

In the islands of Chuuk State, arranged marriage has been known to be a very important and beneficial type of marriage to the Chuukese. Arranged marriage, which is also known as fixed marriage, has been practiced ever since the beginning of the Chuukese society. There are many things that brought about fixed marriage, however, there are three main factors: Political reasons, Social relations, and the chief’s reasons. Arranged marriage helps the Chuukese take what they want or accomplish their decisions, therefore, it is very crucial and it is still practiced today.

Political reasons is one of the reasons for fixed marriage. Families that are very large and powerful in certain societies are the main targets for those that are running for a seat in the government. Arranging a marriage between a candidate’s daughter or son and a child of a powerful family can help the candidate get more votes and win the position in the government. However, arranging a marriage for the candidate’s sake is not the only reason marriage is fixed. Within a society or community, a particular family that has been seeking power to control the whole society can look for another well known family within the society and make an arrangement of their children’s marriage with the intention of joining to rule the whole society. Of course, this arrangement always happens since people are looking for more power and fame within their communities.

Another crucial reason for arranged marriage is that the social relations are very important to the Chuukese. They considered friendships to be forever and promise to be kept between each other no matter what. Families with strong relations are said to need a strong bond to keep them together. With their children married together, the families live with the conviction that their friendship will never break. Promises of many important things, such as the responsibility of taking care of one’s land or taking care of one’s family, can also be made through arranged marriage. Through this marriage, the relationships and promises are kept and it is very difficult to break the rare chance the couple get their children are already married.

Last but not least, is the chief’s reasons are important factors in arranged marriages. In Chuuk’s history, the lineage of chiefs cannot be mixed with the lower ones. For the sake of their islands and in order to expand the lineage of chiefs, a daughter of a chief has to marry a son of a different chief. When a daughter of a chief marries the son of a chief from a different island, those islands can form alliances and help each other in whatever they need. As for the chiefs’ lineages, they will grow on both islands from which the married couples come from. In this case, the chiefs’ blood does not mix with the blood of the lower ones and alliances are formed between the two islands.

All of these things are the main reason for the instigation of arranged marriage. When arranged marriage is fixed between the children of different families for certain reasons, the children’s families are elated with the conviction that their dream has finally come true. As for the participants, they are sad that it is not fate that brings them together, but the will of their families, particularly, the fathers. On the contrary, some are very happy and they are married for as long as they live because they turned out to really love each other.

Over all, this form of marriage has helped many people in Chuuk State who are running for a position in the government, those who want more power in society, and the relationship between each other is kept and remained
strong. Over the past few years, those who found the meaning or truth of arranged marriage to be an ambiguous one, finally grasped the real meaning, understanding, and the reason why arranged marriage is very important to the natives and their ancestors in the past. Though, today’s modern life is changing the Chuukese life style, arranged marriage is still practiced in the islands of Chuuk State.