Compare and Contrast Essay on Mexican and Indian Culture

Introduction

Culture is a set of customs and behaviors which are associated with a particular group of people with a common origin. Culture distinguishes people from each other and gives a common identity to a specific group of people (Cvetkovich, 2012). Mexicans have their own set of beliefs and rituals to be followed when carrying out their traditional activities which are distinct as compared to other cultures. Mexican wedding is marked with various activities which makes it distinct from other cultures. Comparing Mexican and Indian culture, it is evident that there exist difference which can easily be noted.

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In Mexican culture, there Los Padrinos was also known as Godfathers who will contribute to the cost of the wedding, while in Indian culture, the cost of a wedding is met by the parents of the bridegroom as they are trying to show their financial status (Duyvis, 2010). Mexican Los Padrinos gathers for the cost of flowers and cake cut during the wedding.

In the Mexican wedding, the groom gives thirteen gold coins which half will be kept by the bride and the other half by the bride; this serves as the symbol of the unity between the bride and groom. In Indian culture, instead of exchanging rings or gold coins, they exchange necklaces as a sign of unity, the necklace is vastly known as Mangalsutra, it serves as the symbol of marital status to Indian women (Duyvis, 2010).

Between Mexican and Indian wedding, there is a significant difference in the number of guests. Mexican wedding involves the invitation of a small number of guests approximately 75 guests while Indian wedding involves invitation of a large number of guests approximately 200 guests and at times the number goes up to 1000 guests. Indians take wedding as an opportunity to show off their wealth, and that is achieved by being able to accommodate more people in the wedding, while the Mexicans take a wedding to be a family affair and those who are closely related or close friends of both bride and bridegroom families.

There is a significant difference in the duration of the wedding between the Mexican and Indian wedding. In some cases, Indian wedding will last for a week while Mexican can last for up to 1 hour (Kapur, 2009). Indian wedding is always marked with various pre-wedding activities which involve dinning, in Sangeet, the Indian families get together before the main event of a wedding to socialize. During all the events in the Indian wedding, different guests are invited to each event. Mexican wedding can last for a single day, and the reception will last for four hours, and only the guests will attend the function.

In Mexican culture, they believe that the two couples should meet themselves by their means without anyone forcing them to come together, while in Indian culture, parents are the ones who determine suitable partner for their children (Kapur, 2009). It is always aimed to improve the social and financial status of the families. During the wedding, there is a set time for the bride and bridegroom to play together with the aim of getting used to each other. In the Mexican wedding, time can be set aside for the bride and bridegroom to play together, but the aim is to entertain themselves.

In the Mexican wedding, the bride wears a white dress, and the bridegroom preferably wears tuxedo or suit, while in Indian culture, the traditional dress code for the bridal is red sari (Kutsche, 2006). The bridal sari is always decorated and embraided, and the cost of decorated Sari and tuxedo is approximately the same. Since the Indian wedding lasts for many days, the bride and groom will keep changing clothes every day.

In Mexico, most of their weddings are done in relation to the Christian traditions while in India, the wedding ceremony is marked with various prayers. Indian prayers during the wedding include a prayer to Ganesha. Saptapadi one of the rituals embraced by the Indians. After the Mexican wedding, there is a cutting of cake which accompanies it, and the marriage of certificate has to be signed.

Upon the occurrence of death between the Mexicans, there are various traditional activities which must be accomplished before and during the burial of the deceased. These rituals mark the difference between Mexican culture and the culture of other people.

After the death, Mexican traditions embrace burial as a means of disposing of the death, while in Indian culture, cremation has been embraced (Moore, 2002). Mexicans dig a grave of up to six feet where the body of the deceased will be buried, and after that, the grave will be decorated with flowers. While in Indian, the dead will be taken to the cremation site which has been set aside by the authority or the community, and the body of the deceased is cremated, and ash took by the family members to be preserved in a special container.

In Mexican culture, the dead are always buried with his or her clothing and some of the precious personal belongings while in the Indian culture, the dead are always cremated alone without any of the belongings (Moore, 2002). The belongings left by the dead will remain within the family and can be used by the family members.

Upon the occurrence of death in the Mexican culture, the bereaved family will be visited by friends and neighbors of goodwill to condole them, and they will bring gifts to the family, while in Indian culture, the visitors will visit the deceased, but they are not allowed to bring gifts to the family.

In Mexican culture, there is a belief that there is life after death, there is a special day for dead celebration, during this day in western Mexico, flowers, fruits, bread, and food are brought as gifts to the dead. Indians mark the celebration of dead during the cremation of the dead person, and after that, there is no specified celebration of dead.

In Mexican culture, the grave site visit is important (Kutsche, 2006). Once in a year, family members of the dead visit the grave site where they will paint the grave and put flowers on the top of the grave to show their love and respect to the dead. In the Indian culture, the pot where the ashes of the dead are taken care of; this is an act showing that you care about the deceased.

On the day of burial, in most of the Mexican funerals, church priest conducts a Catholic mass, this is because a larger percentage of Mexicans are Catholics and they embrace mass before the burial, while the Indians, they normally conduct a ceremony which spearheaded by the Hindu priests and the senior-most members of the family.

After the death of a person in the Mexican culture, the body of the dead person will stay for up to 48 hours before burial (Moore, 2002). The family members and the friends will be holding a meeting at the home of the deceased to organize for a decent send-off of the dead and relatives at a distant place have enough time to attend the burial ceremony. In Indian culture, death is not allowed to remain for more than 24 hours before cremation.

Despite the presence of a difference in cultural practices between the Indian culture and the Mexican culture, it is worth to appreciate that there exist some similarities in the way they do various cultural activities (Kutsche, 2006). These similarities include the belief that after death there is life and during the wedding ceremonies, there are celebrations to mark the union between the bride and the groom. In both cultures, there is a belief that the newly wedded couples should seek assistance from their parents on how to relate in marriage if they are faced by any challenge.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be noted that there exists a vast difference in the cultural practices of different people. The difference in the cultures gives each group of people an identity. Mexicans have their way of practicing their lifestyle and the way they carry out various activities which are meant to mark different activities and stages in the life of an individual. The culture of Mexicans has been inherited from generation to generation. It is important to know about the culture of other people and appreciate their way of life and with this is the place, harmony within the society occupied with different people with different cultural practices will be bolstered.

References

Cvetkovich, A. (2012). Histories of Mass Culture: From Literary to Visual Culture. Victorian Literature And Culture, 27(02). doi: 10.1017/s1060150399272129

Duyvis, G. (2010). 8. The Culture of the Mexican Highlands. Man, 37, 13. doi: 10.2307/2789136

Moore, J. (2002). The Death Culture of Mexico and Mexican-Americans. OMEGA - Journal Of Death And Dying, 1(4), 271-291. doi: 10.2190/693j-xbm8-hft1-hbqx

Kapur, J. (2009). An "Arranged Love" Marriage: India's Neoliberal Turn and the Bollywood Wedding Culture Industry. Communication, Culture & Critique, 2(2), 221-233. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-9137.2009.01036.

Kutsche, P. (2006). Native Ethnography: A Mexican Indian Describes His Culture: Native Ethnography: A Mexican Indian Describes His Culture. Latin American Anthropology Review, 3(1), 16-16. doi: 10.1525/jlat.1991.3.1.16.1