It's also especially sad to know that what happened to Mariam still happens to people today. The isolationism effect still exists in a lot of countries where leprosy cures are not as readily available and its contagiousness is considered dangerous.
Secondly, I found this sentence scary "She was thirty-two, old enough to be grandmother..." Woah! I kind of freaked out when I read that! And then I reread it. Thirty-two and old enough to be a grandmother... man times have really changed. 32 is pretty much normal for motherhood to begin, let alone grandmotherhood. I mean, I know that this was the case throughout history, since life was so much shorter, and usually women has children at much earlier ages, but. It is still kind of ridiculous don't you think?
I wonder, did the age in which women became grandmother go up gradually as life expectancy went up? Or were their other factors that affected the change in age?
great post bro! super insight! i really enjoyed the part about culture! it's mega interesting the way you discussed the differences between our culture and ours. i think that although the global culture is much different now, it very interesting how the Muslim culture in the middle east is socially very behind the social advancement of the rest of the world. for a culture that is so technologically advanced at that time, it is strange how they held on to the culture of the time.
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy your post Nick. You stated some of the same things that I was wondering myself. I think it is slightly ridiculous for a woman to be considered grandmother-worthy at age 32. Think about it though, there are still some indigenous cultures out there that practice child marriage and where it is encourage for individuals to have kids as soon as they are physically capable of doing so. Still, a striking contrast in time and culture.
ReplyDeletereally interesting nick, i love reading the different types of posts people blog about.
ReplyDeleteas for the age thing, it freaked me out as well. But, for the time (like you said) it was normal to start having children for women at the age of puberty!... freaks me out just a bit.