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Re: orion-list cemeteries
In a message dated 6/24/99 11:42:49 AM EST, dsuter@stmartin.edu writes:
<< Rick Strelan wrote:
>
> Could the imbalance of males and females in cemeteries partly be accounted
> for if, in fact, a widow left the area on the death of her spouse? I assume
> most wives were [considerably] younger than their husbands.
>
That assumption might need to be qualified by some research on marriage
and the status of widows. There's a significant body of literature out
there, I believe, that would be relevant.
>>
We do not know of course whether data on marriage of the fairly recent past
may shed light on the problem, though cultural factors mentionned in the
Torah regarding marriage, particularly wife inheritance, may be relevant.
Wives were likely [considerably] younger than husbands at their first
marriage. If they were inherited after the death of their husbands then the
males who became their husbands were likely to have been younger than the
first husband, closer to the age of the woman then her first husband might
have been, particularly if he was a younger brother of the deceased.
Greet Kershaw (Ret. Anthropologist, CSULB)
For private reply, e-mail to Auke@aol.com
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