No One Can Beat Tradition

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(Edited)

Hazel Montero

No One Can Beat Tradition

Every Community comes with its respective traditional practices. The way they behave and the way they relate with each other could be extremely unique.

In a take-home, Christianity is quite different when it comes to traditional practices in some aspects, but tradition knows no bounds. It exists in all aspects of life.

My Community has a tradition that we all believe in. It is not just something we can joke with but something that can teach one lesson in all areas of life. Marriage is something we cannot run from and something that has to do with tradition. In my Community, we all believed in our tradition and what it entails. There is a law that we must all obey and must adhere to. As my tradition demands, no married woman is allowed to go out with another man, and a woman is not allowed to get married to two or more men.

My uncle's wife has been with him for ten years without traces of argument among them. They have four children and travel to other villages for business. My uncle got broke just because of the nature of the business he is doing. As time went on, he became broke and had nothing with him. He was depending on the little change he was getting out there which was not enough to sustain his family. After some years of serious hardship, his wife decided to look outward. She was moving out with a man who happened to be my uncle's friend. She was doing this just because of money.

After some time of embarking on this roadside relationship, something terrible happened which took her life away. We were to obey tradition no matter what as we were born into it.

In my Community, according to our tradition, when a married woman looks outward, she would get attached to some strange illnesses.

She was seriously sick and his husband asked him to confess her sins which she bluntly refused. She covered her evil deeds just because of shame. Shame can bring one to his doom. She could not talk but instead kept mute.

There is a remedy for this kind of act. The remedy is by confessing your sins. When you confess, you have to buy a goat to appease the gods. After this has been done, your ailments would vanish. This is what I have seen happening and it is a reality.

My uncle's wife could not talk and so met her doom. On their way home, she died. She died just because of shame.

Shame can lead to something we cannot describe.

One of her children fell sick and was so severe. There is always a way for our customers to carry out our research on this issue. The head of the family who happened to be the eldest would be the one to carry out this act. He would bring in three white chalk and three cowries which would be thrown as well as some other items just to appease the gods and to seek their face on the issue before them. The elder will in the end see the solution to the problem.

After much incantations by the family's eldest man, it was discovered that her mum's deed was the cause of the child's ailments. The elder has seen this while carrying out the ritual. The family gathered and made some incantations which made the child become better.

Infidelity is not the best but can destroy your immediate marriage.



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18 comments
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Hmmmmm, I have heard of some traditions like this and it's kinda favours the men than women. Even though they have large number of men cheating

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Men are made to have more than one wives, but woman are made to stick to just one...man...

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Which part of the new testament said that?

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This can make the women to be faithful and stick to their men and only their men. It's a good tradition, you know...

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Infact, women are afraid of looking outward...

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The impact of traditional repression on relationships, or on relationships that have ended, is really incredible.

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(Edited)

@cool08 if you are going to quote research as a backup for your beliefs you must provide links to the scientific, peer-reviewed, papers and data. Researchers names’ and titles’ would also be welcome.

One of her children fell sick and was so severe. After much research, it was discovered that her mum's deed was the cause of the child's ailments. The family gathered and made some incantations which made the child become better.

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It's just a reality. It is not a quote and I don't see it as a quote. I wrote this according to what happened to my uncle's wife based on traditional belief.

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You’ve written

After much research, it was discovered

Please provide links to this “research” so that we can see what was “discovered”, and by whom.

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I have edited it. Please check again....

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I have edited it to suite the sentence.

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This piece may be read by curators and readers very differently. A reader may agree or disagree with your point of view. A curator has to consider whether or not upvoting that point of view constitutes endorsement.

The 'tradition' you describe is a sincerely held belief. As much as you may believe in what you say, it remains a belief. In a nonfiction essay, a belief should not be represented as fact. I'll give you an example.

My aunt believed strongly in her traditions. She prayed to the Lady of Mt. Carmel, and entreated this entity that her son would come home from WWII. He came home. My aunt promised that if he did she would wear brown for the rest of her life. In fact, she did wear brown every single day. She believed her prayer had saved her son. She would tell you this. Was it true? Maybe. But this is not a fact. It is a belief.

If she were writing an essay for the Inkwell and asserted this as fact, we could not upvote her. We could not endorse her belief. However if she wrote that she had made a promise and that in her eyes the promise was kept, that would be OK. She is not asking us to accept her belief as fact, but merely explaining her belief.

In your case, if you had presented this tradition as something your community believes in, that would have been OK. But, you presented this belief as fact. This cannot be proven.

I make this long explanation so that in the future when you (or anyone else) write for the Inkwell you will understand that we do not endorse beliefs, but we may endorse having them explained as that: beliefs.

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(Edited)

I understood your fact, but I never thought of nonfiction to be just the way you presented it.

I made mentioned of it that it was what my Community believed on and no one would go against it.

Anyways, thanks... I got your fact...

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That is a great question!

Fiction is not true. It is imagined. It is a story about something that has not happened. Sometimes fiction can be inspired by life. For example, when I was young, my family did not have much food. Sometimes we didn't have enough even for dinner. I didn't want to write that, but thought I could make a good story with that inspiration. So I wrote a story about a young boy (I'm female) who had to ask a reluctant relative for food. I used the feelings I had as a child to give emotion to the story. The story was made up. The walk home was made up. The experience of being hungry and embarrassed was not made up.

If I were writing that experience for the nonfiction prompt, I would tell the truth. I would say that I was hungry and embarrassed. I would explain that this did truly happen to me and how it happened.

Truth and fiction. One is real. One is not.

In your case, if you wanted this to be a nonfiction piece, you would have to start it something like this:

In my country we have a tradition. We believe....and then said what is believed. You can use your uncle as an example. You can say his wife became ill and everyone believed it was because of the way she behaved. What you can't do, is state as fact, something you can't prove. No matter how much your community and you believe she was punished, it is a belief. That cannot be stated as fact.

You can even say at the end, I believe in this tradition. That's OK. You just can't present your belief as a true event.

I hope that clears the issue up. If you have more questions, please ask. I'm a former teacher and don't mind explaining anything :)

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It's clear. Thanks for always be there. Now I can boldly differenciate these two. I'm indeed grateful ....

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