Ghost Marriages: the Struggle of a Feminist Anthropology Student

In villages of the Taipei Basin, ghosts and ancestors are viewed differently depending on the point of view of a particular person. I have found that the roles of ghosts in these villages are really quite interesting. I want to really focus on the ghosts of unmarried girls for they play an important role in other couples’ marriages.

Girls are not viewed as part of the family but as someone to be given away to another family. They are viewed as outsiders. Because of this, unmarried girls who die are denied the right to a place on her father’s ancestral altar (Wolf, 1974, p. 148). In order to rectify this, at least in “the old days”, a girl’s parents could trap a husband for her, thus ridding themselves of the responsibility of her soul. The parents would write their daughter’s name and horoscope down on a piece of red paper and would conceal it in a purse. The purse was then left beside the road. The first man to pick it up would be considered as fate for him to marry her, usually in exchange for a dowry. The girl’s soul then becomes the man’s first wife and his children are obligated to worship her (p. 150).

Though trapping husbands is no longer practiced, it is still interesting to note that there are still ghost marriages being performed. Some men have a “two-wife fate”, meaning their first wife would die. Since a ghost marriage places the ghost as a man’s first wife, in order to stall the death of the living wife a man would marry the ghost of an unmarried girl. These ghost marriages also give these women children to worship them (p. 150).

As an anthropology student, I find that these practices are really fascinating and it would be refreshing to learn more about the ghost marriages and the role of unmarried daughters. Since this is something that is completely unheard of in the society I grew up in, learning more about this type of marriage is something I would like to do. However, as a feminist, there is always a voice in the back of my mind whenever I read about other societies and the roles of their women. As an anthropology student I know that cultural relativism is one of the most important things that must be practiced when considering other societies, but the feminist part of me is always anxious about young girls and women who are seen as objects and not as people. I felt a bit uncomfortable reading about the ghost marriages because I know that these young girls were not seen as real people by their fathers. They were seen as something to give to another family. And when they died there was nobody who really cared about them, unless they could come in and help another man. I know I should not be judging other societies and how they treat others in their society. These are their practices and this is their worldview and it has been that way for a long time. It just puts me in a difficult place as a feminist anthropology student because I want these girls and women to have voices and be considered people, but I also do not want to impede on the cultural practices of a society I know almost nothing about.

Reference

Wolf, Arthur. 1974. “Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors.” In Arthur Wolf (ed.). Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 131-182.