"When a father dies, he marries his mother; when a brother dies, he marries his sister-in-law." Why is this custom in the Huns? What are the reasons?

It is believed that many people are more aware of the customs and traditions of our ancient marriage life level, such as "matchmaker's words, parents' orders", such as monogamy and concubinage rules and regulations. However, there should be many people do not grasp the level of marriage life of China's ancient ethnic minorities customs and traditions, today to detail a contemporary view of the marriage of ethnic minorities incredible customs.

When it comes to Xiongnu, people will unconsciously think of robust and rough, is a group of Xiongnu people who have institutions without discipline. The Xiongnu came up strong during the Western Han Dynasty and gave the officials of that time a headache due to their frequent harassment of the Chinese borderline. It was not without reason that the Xiongnu could turn out to be the masters of the prairie at the very beginning of Chinese history. The Xiongnu were known for their militancy and power, and one of the four great beauties in history, Wang Zhaojun, came from the idea of soothing the Xiongnu and going out of the West.

Why do the Huns have to "marry their mother when their father dies, and marry their sister-in-law when their brother dies"?

After the death of the Xiongnu boy, the eldest son of the family can marry their stepmother, if the brother or nephew died, the living male can marry the widowed sister-in-law or brother-in-law.

Chinese culture has a "great country" called, especially in the eyes of the popular Han Chinese people in the eyes of the Chinese people this kind of custom is "incest", is a disgrace. The first thing you need to do is to get a good deal on your own, and then you can get a good deal on your own, and then you can get a good deal on your own. But this kind of custom in the Huns living environment but easy, and also can have a long time, this is what is the reason?

Maintenance of women and children

From ancient times, the steppe Huns all live by the water and grass to herding and hunting as the dominant, women because of the physical weakness, in the production of manufacturing laborers in the primary and secondary influences, the status is very low.

Hunnu people respect the strongest, the vast grasslands follow the law of the jungle of the survival of the fittest, out of the fight for hegemony and inter-tribal struggles continue, men are often killed in action, women and children are quickly married to the family of other groups, and suffered the maintenance. Loss of men's maintenance, women and children are difficult to survive on the grasslands alone, many of the life of the Hun women will be married to a lot of men.

Avoiding the outflow of assets

Hunnu survival environment is extreme, lack of resources, if the death of a young man, his wife married, not only will bring the family's sheep and cattle and other money, will continue to lead to the lowering of human capital, and even bring young children, this is all the Huns can not accept the matter of the tribe.

Thus it evolved in the death of the father, the child can marry the mother as a wife; in the death of the brother, can marry the brother and sister-in-law as a wife of the customs and habits of married life. The deaths of the head of the family, the father and the brother, caused the family to fall apart, the personal property to be cut up and the family resources to be scraped off.

In order to better prevent the family from disintegrating, the Huns needed to select a new leader to take charge of the family, inheritance of everything, this new leader is of course to the deceased leader's children or brothers to choose from, and inheritance of everything means inheritance of the right to inheritance of the other women and family.

Guaranteeing a prosperous career

In ancient times, the standard of treatment was very poor, especially in the steppe, the survival rate of pregnancy is even lower, the woman is responsible for the obligation to extend the posterity of the Huns, every Hun family looks forward to the "prosperity of the business". If the loss of a man in the family will only lose a person, but if the loss of a woman will lose all the family's breeding opportunities, more women is also a sign of family prosperity.

In fact, the custom of "marrying the mother after the death of the father, marrying the sister-in-law after the death of the brother" is not an innovation of the Xiongnu, and "Zuozhuan" describes that in the Spring and Autumn period, the "steam marriage" had already taken place. The first is the "Steam Marriage", which was already practiced during the Spring and Autumn period. According to the expression in "Er Ya", upwardly obscene is said to steam, downwardly obscene is said to report. To put it plainly, "steam" means that a son marries his concubine's mother, and to put it plainly, "report" means that a nephew or nephew can marry his widowed sister-in-law or aunt after the death of his brother or uncle.

For this kind of minority's incredible marriage life customs and habits, we should not bring all the discolored glasses to treat, because of the geographic environment is not the same, learned history and humanities is not the same, and even who is not better than the comparison of scientific research, the Huns are also the same as the Han people, in the special natural environment, the special background of the times, give full play to the people's cleverness, make a selection. the selection.

Every cultural and artistic practices are behind a special historical time natural environment, some of this culture and art are inherited, some are accompanied by historical time changes, period development and abandoned. Therefore, we can not use contemporary eyes to comment on the ancient times of this custom of right and wrong, only to say that the period of development, our daily life is stronger!