Widowhood as a human condition

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Makovsky K. E. “The widow ”. 1865. The State Russian Museum,
St. Petersburg

Widowhood - the state of a person after the death of a spouse. A man in this state is called a widower, and a woman is a widow.

Content

• 1. History
  • 1.1 Widows
  • 1.2 Widows
• 2 Modernity
• 3Notes
• 4 Literature
• 5SM. also

Story

Widowhood, of course, appeared soon after the establishment of the institution of marriage. Simultaneous death is rare, as a rule, one spouse is experiencing another.

Widows

According to the customs of a number of nations, after the death of her husband, the widow committed suicide. In India, this ritual was called sati and was produced until the XIX century. In China, widows' suicide was practiced from the 5th to the 20th century [1]. This tradition was intended to protect widows from the encroachments of outsiders and symbolizing loyalty to the deceased spouse. In nomadic peoples, suicide was replaced by self-harm.

In other countries, the widow not only did not die with her husband when she died, but could also get married again. In ancient Greek myths, this was the first time that Gorgofon (daughter of Perseus) entered [2]. The Old Testament explicitly ordered widows to marry relatives of deceased husbands [3] (see Levirate).

Patriarchal society legally protected the rights of widows. This is discussed in the First Epistle to Timothy, in which the responsibility to support widows was assigned to their relatives and the church community. The latter also had to promote the secondary marriages of widows. In Asian countries, the community and relatives were supposed to support widows (the Kazakh Seven Institutions of Khan Tauke).

Widowers

The behavior of widowers, as a rule, was not regulated, except for the terms of mourning in the later period, which, however, were two times less than that of widows, which emphasized sexual inequality.

Modernity

At present, the laws mainly regulate the rights of widows and widowers to receive inheritance, pensions and compensations, leaving their privacy unattended. Traditions associated with the restriction of repetition, also a thing of the past.

Notes

1. ↑ About suicide of widows
2. ↑ Gorgophone myth
3. ↑ Deut. 25: 5-6

see also

• Cheerful widow
• Black Widow
• Widow sailors