I'm Happy I live in the States and don't deal with this shit.

 I think in these situations it would be risky to get married based on romantic love.  Since survival is crucial in these types of countries marriage takes on somewhat of a different role than what we are used to in our society.  I think the people we are discussing would feel that it would be wise to find and marry a partner who could benefit their means of living.  In the text they discuss the notion of bride-price.  This term refers to the groom or groom’s family paying money or valuable goods to the bride’s family when the couple are married.  In this particular case marriage based on value might be more important for someone instead of marriage  based on love.  If a family is in desperate need of survival they may want their daughter to get married to a man coming from a wealthy family.  They would obviously want them to get married so they could receive the money or goods from the groom in order to suppor themselves.

            I cannot really imagine any other factors like this playing a role in my community if survival is at stake.  People dealing with these types of problems do not live in a Western based society such as the one we live in.  To be completely honest I do not think this would ever occur in the United States.  I might be naive but I just do not see it happening.

            I think that society plays a big part in whether or not a couple is married or not when they have children.  Either one’s society is accepting of it or not.  In the United States I think it is more accepting to have children when you are not married.  It may not have been seen like this in the past but it is 2008, things have changed.  I think that as long as the parents are able to give the child what he or she needs in order to prosper marriage should not be an issue.

            In some cultures if the children are born and the parents are not married it can have a serious consequences.  The family and particularly the child might be looked down upon.  This happens in the countries where people use principles such as bride-price, which I mentioned above.  So my question is are the parents wrong for not being married or does the country need to change their ways and get their head out of their ass?  I guess what I am trying to say is that I would not want to live in a country where I had to marry for survival.  Nor would I want to live in a country where I would be looked down upon for having a child and not being married.