widowhood

The Christian congregation has traditionally cared for the poor, the sick, widows, and orphans. The Letter of James says: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.” Widows formed a special group…

Widowhood has long been common in all societies, but the declines of mortality (as discussed above) have sharply reduced the effects of this source of marital dissolution on fertility. Meanwhile, divorce has been transformed from an uncommon exception to an experience terminating a large proportion…

…the funeral pyre of her dead husband or in some other fashion soon after his death. Sati was considered to embody the ideal of womanly devotion to husbands held by certain Brahmin and royal castes. The practice was outlawed in India in 1829 during the era of British colonialism and…