Married life, after death.In some rural, areas of China, when a young, unmarried son dies, his parents may try to find him a bride. This fork custom, known as an "afterlife marriage," is rooted in ancestor worship ancestor worship, ritualized propitiation and invocation of dead kin. Ancestor worship is based on the belief that the spirits of the dead continue to dwell in the natural world and have the power to influence the fortune and fate of the living. , which holds that people continue to exist after death, and the living are obligated ob·li·gate tr.v. ob·li·gat·ed, ob·li·gat·ing, ob·li·gates 1. To bind, compel, or constrain by a social, legal, or moral tie. See Synonyms at force. 2. To cause to be grateful or indebted; oblige. to meet their needs. Parents trying to ensure their son's happiness in the afterlife search for a family whose daughter has died and, once the corpse The physical remains of an expired human being prior to complete decomposition. Property and Possession Rights In the ordinary use of the term, a property right does not exist in a corpse. is obtained, bury the pair together as a married couple. A female corpse typically costs at least 10,000 yuan Yuan (yüän), river, 540 mi (869 km) long, rising in S Guizhou prov. and flowing generally NE to Donting lake, Hunan prov., SE China. Navigation above Changde is limited by rapids to small craft. , or about $1,200--four years of income for the average farmer. Parents who can't afford a corpse may make a straw figure and bury it beside their son. |
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