Via The Downtown Lad I found this story on marriages in Kyrgyzstan.
More than half of Kyrgyzstan's married women were snatched from the street by their husbands in a custom known as "ala kachuu," which translates roughly as "grab and run." In its most benign form, it is a kind of elopement, in which a man whisks away a willing girlfriend. But often it is something more violent.
Recent surveys suggest that the rate of abductions has steadily grown in the last 50 years and that at least a third of Kyrgyzstan's brides are now taken against their will.
If this is what some people think society should be based on ...
Posted by armand at April 30, 2005 10:52 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Cultureisn't "wife-stealing" an old appalachian custom as well?
Posted by: joshua at May 2, 2005 09:22 AM | PERMALINKi was being serious. i vaguely remember reading that one of the proto-american titans -- jefferson, maybe -- abducted his wife (perhaps consensually) who was either promised, or actually married, to another man. and that this was a culturally accepted practice then.
Posted by: joshua at May 2, 2005 10:56 AM | PERMALINKi was half right. but it was andrew jackson, it was definitely consensual, and the whole thing is subject to at least semantic dispute.
Posted by: joshua at May 2, 2005 11:10 AM | PERMALINKWell, isn't this the whole origin of groomsmen anyway? The kidnapping party?
Posted by: binky at May 2, 2005 11:15 AM | PERMALINKIs it? Now that you mention it - that definitely rings a bell.
Posted by: Armand at May 2, 2005 11:22 AM | PERMALINK