Meline Aslanyan
meline14@gmail.com
The wealthy people, whose opportunities are initially larger and more multifarious, than the rest of the socio-economic categories of the population, always existed. The studies conducted by the American journal “Forbes” indicated that the status of the wealthy people in the world rises every year. For example four hundred wealthy people in the world possessed $ 2159.1bilion in 2000 and they had $ 2653.2 billion in 2001. According to the Human Development Report in the year of 200 the gap between the incomes of the wealthy people and the poor is increasing rapidly (6; 3-4).
The problem of wealth is more discussed in socio-economical researches because the rise of the citizen’s welfare is the guarantee for the stable development of the society and the state.
Current western researchers define wealth as financial assets (land, property, capital, stocks) belonging to an individual or groups. According to them the sources of wealth are vendible wealth possessed of assets, which can be sold (land, house, car and etc.) and non vendible wealth (property, which isn’t a private property), which can not be sold (6, page 9-10). In Soviet sociology the wealth was traditionally considered as a union of material goods, which belong to the society or its separate class, group at the moment. Later the wealth was connected with the accumulative work and relationships between individuals. Today the wealth notion is connected with the accumulative incomes in possess of cash. The criterion of wealth corresponds with the maximum level of the satisfying the needs and the realization of the interests existing in the society. The maximum level of that needs and interests is defined in the society as a standard (for example “Roof” of the incomes) and average indicator on one hand, and as a subjective ranking by the immediate member of the society on the other hand (6, page 10-11)
The analysis of the problem of the wealth shows two sides which need to be studied. 1.The economic side of the wealth connected with the individual (or social group) satisfaction with the material goods and services, which is being valued by the income, property and etc. 2.The wealth is not only economical but also a social category, which is defined by socio-economic indicators of which the most basic one is the individuals’ economical position. This gives wide opportunities to satisfy the needs accepted in that society and to conduct their interests (6, page 7-8). The social side of the wealth which reflects the unique lifestyle, individuals’ norms of behavior conditional formation of different subculture of the reach (subculture of traditional elite and etc).
There are three basic approaches for the dimension of the wealth: absolute, relative and subjective.
As an integral of the absolute level of the wealth can serve the level and quality of life, which are expressing degree of the satisfaction of the population with material and moral needs. This is being based on that income, which corresponds with the maximum of the living.
As an integral of the relative characteristics of the wealth we define life quality, which includes the all spectrum of social values (opportunities of education, degree of social security, degree of democratization, health level of the population and etc.) (6, page 11-12).It is being conditioned with the average life level in certain space. Thus when the wealth is being determined with generally accepted idea of having a lifestyle close to “the normal life level”.
There is an opinion that complex approach to the estimation of the wealth indicators includes not only objective characteristics, which can be measured, but also subjective, self-identification characteristics. The indicators of the subjective level of the wealth include psychological moods and psychological type in general outlook of interests, intelligence and drive for achievement, communicability, business etiquette, the ability self-analysis and etc.In that case the subject evaluates his position from his own point of view.
For drawing the complete picture of the wealth one should define its lower and upper boundaries. The lower boundary of the wealth can be reflected not only and not limited by the satisfaction level of the material goods and services necessary for the proper life, but also with the self-realization of the specific lifestyle and assurance for the tomorrow’s day.
In the Economical Sociology that boundary is called “wealth line”. Defining the upper boundary of the wealth accurately is impossible, most likely it does not even exist (5, page 12).
For the group of the wealthy people declarative requirements for the observance of the traditions, common moral social norms and also the necessity to participate in social life, to respond to the principles of the social frankness have the least significance (6, page 15).
Here personal and material achievements are more significant, though the dominance is given not so much to the material achievement and wide opportunities to satisfy the needs, as to self- realization. Just in the group of the wealthy people, as nowhere, “The spirit of competition” is expressed brightly (6, page 15).
Possessing the wealth gives to an individual an honor and the honor makes individuals visible and turns them into an object of envy (5, page 41).
But the fact of only possessing wealth and honor is not enough for getting and keeping respect. The wealth or power must be obvious, as the respect is being shown only in case of the fact existence. And the evidence of the wealth serves not only for giving them the feeling of their importance and keeping them alive and giving them the feeling of their significance towards others, it is useful for giving them the sense of self-satisfaction (5, page 45).
In everyday life reality, particularly in case of face-to-face communication, people communicate with each other through some symbolic systems and language. That symbols can have both single and multiple meanings. The symbolic system used in everyday life reality is being facilitated gradually and is a result of typologization, to put it in the terms of Berger and Luckman, which is an anonymous process. And the typologization is being performed through human everyday life experience (4, page 31-34).
The symbolization and the symbolic language are the significant elements of everyday life reality (4, page 35). We live in the world of everyday life – in the unique system of knowledge. But we know that the others where some part of the knowledge and they know that fact as well (4, page 35-36).
In the same way people use some symbols of wealth for giving the others the knowledge about their social status.
The notion of conspicuous consumption (Veblen 1899) suggests that consumers spend lavishly on goods which symbolize social status and visibly communicate wealth and status to the others (7, page 2).
Since Veblen (1899), researchers have recognized that people often choose products to communicate status and signal other desired identities (7, page 3).
Since Veblen (1899), researchers have recognized that people often choose products to communicate status and signal other desired identities (7, page 3).
Across the social sciences, research suggests that possessions can act as signals of identity (Berger and Heath 2007; Holt 1998, Thompson and Haytko 1997; Veblen, 1899; Wernerfelt, 1991). People use others’ choices and behaviors to form inferences about their social identities, social status, and others tastes and preferences (Belk, Bah and Mayer 1982; Burroughs, Drews, and Hallman 1991).
The cars people drive, clothes they wear, and behaviors they engage in act as markers, communicating things about them to the others. Consequently, consumers often purchase goods not only for their functional benefits, but also to communicate desired identities.
Visibility plays an important role in the communication process. Expensive consumption does not by itself necessarily ensure desired recognition, and Veblen (1899) argued that people engage in conspicuous consumption to advertise their wealth to the others. As Fishman (2008) notes: “for a signal to be effective, it needs to be easily observed by the people we’re trying to impress. This includes not just those near and dear to us, but also the person we pass on the street.” Consistent with the notion those more affluent consumers want to visible communicate their status; wealthier household spend a larger share of their income on visible goods (e.g. cars and clothes as opposed to underwear and laundry, Heifetz 2007). (7, page 4-5).
Signals are usually better when more people can understand them. Easily recognizable patterns should more effectively communicate wealth and status (7, page 6).
While being one of the universal processes of human reality, wedding are perceived by each individual subjectively and become a special part of socially constructed reality. Anyways, some patterns are same for everyone. Consequently, we observe that apart from celebrating it as one of the most important happenings of their lives, people use weddings as a mean to construct social reality where the possibilities of demonstrating their social status of being wealthy are numerous. So according to this, weddings are as realistic, as they can be used for subjective purposes.
The role of wealth in weddings
The marriage is one of the most important social institutes, which reflects ethno cultural specifications of some nation, particularly its norms and moral approaches about traditions.
Wedding in Armenia, as in many other countries, is a list of rites leading to patrilocal living. It is the case when bride comes to live in groom’s home based on patriarchal model (1, page 143-145).
Weddings mark the culmination of a range of activities involved in establishing a marriage alliance. Weddings also seal the marriage negotiations and legitimize the marriage unions. Seen here as a series of activities ranging from preparations, the actual ceremonies and the post-ceremonial activities, they involve numerous economic transactions which serve to bring forth and contest various oppositions in social relations between people, e.g. between those who are socially ‘close’ – kin, neighbors, workmates and friends. The expected participation in work, preparations, gift giving and entertainment is indicative of these processes of defining and redefining social relationships.
This is the central public occasions for marking individual and life-cycle status changes for men and women. Marriage ceremonies provide a bundle of ritual symbols on which individuals and groups can draw in order to shape their relations with one another; hence a good deal of creative work and power relations are involved in these configurations (8, page 5).
Wedding is a unique occurrence of demonstrating wealth. Studying traditional weddings, we can come up with the idea that even in old times we notice the elements of demonstrating the wealth. To make everything to appear more expressive first of all we must talk about the tradition of “Meeting the parents”, as the wedding starts up with the “Meeting the parents” up to the ceremony of bringing the bride to the groom’s home. During this ceremony the agreement is confirmed when the groom’s parents put the brought drink on the table (9, page 5-8). Here the drink has other meaning too, because in many cases the price and antique is more important.
After it bride’s parents set a luxurious table showing their power and opportunities. In “Meeting the parents” groom puts a ring on the bride’s finger, which means that she is already promised, but the price of ring is important too, because it can mean a lot of things. In many cases the groom’s parents can bring such jewelleries, which are out of their real financial possibilities. Then bride’s wedding party comes. It is a costume, when the groom officially puts ring on the bride’s finger, which is celebrated with a big party. It is being followed with the groom’s wedding party (1, page 145).
So the whole wedding party consists of two official parts: the first one is the “bride’s wedding” and the second one is the “groom’s wedding party”.
On the whole, ‘bride’s wedding’ is the wedding party organized by the wife-givers, especially the parents of the bride, to say farewell to their daughter. The bride’s wedding is given great importance especially by the wife-givers, in order to demonstrate and challenge the wife-taker’s superior position. Hence the bride’s wedding party is almost as big and expensive as the final one, the groom’s wedding party. On the last day of wedding parties, the bride is ‘brought in to the groom’s household and the groom’s wedding party marks the culmination of the marriage ceremonies (8, page 11).
The bride’s wedding party is symbolic displays of status contestations between the wife-givers and wife-takers. The groom’s wedding party, however, primarily entails ritual of passage, of luminal borders and incorporation, hence addressing the processes of separating and of incorporating the bride from her parental family to her new family (8, page 20).
Social inequalities and hierarchies among family members and kin may take new forms and be challenged throughout the various stages of the preparations for wedding parties. Moreover wife-takers and wife-givers try to use the payments and the wedding arrangements for redefining their mutual status positions. The transfer of property and its symbolic meaning therefore not only contributes to the establishment and shaping of wife-giver and wife-taker families, but it also has ramifications for inner familiar hierarchies and gender roles [8, page 1]. Changes in wedding ceremonies and customs are been seen as indicators of changes in gender roles, domestic life and notions of family as well as revealing attitudes towards and implicit notions about nationhood (8, page 5).The economic transactions that characterize weddings and social and economic activities of different degree around such a life-cycle ceremony may be seen to indicate changes in the notions of economic transactions, involving the exchange of money, gifts, labor and property. Furthermore different orientations of various social groups towards kinship, money and the market become articulated during marriage negotiations, preparations and weddings. Monetary transactions (through borrowing and lending currency), which may have been usual in the past during the wedding preparations, have gained more significance due to currency shortages and the wish to be perceived wealthy.
One of the main accessories of the wedding is bride’s gown. In some places of Ancient Armenia the bride herself sew her gown showing her ability, but now in many places the gown is being ordered to special tailors so as to show their high social status.
In Armenian weddings it is significant to give and to accept gifts from the point of showing the wealth. It is invoke unique competition between kins, neighbors and etc. The gift is given with dancing and almost everybody notices what kind of gift is being given and tries to compare which gifts is more expensive and luxurious. It is a presentation during which people facilitate some opinion about each other.
It is important to mention about the system of wedding services, as this is available to some class and its usage is also a way to demonstrate some social position and financial power. Such services include the whole wedding preparation and the wedding ceremony. Besides it, in the case of groom’s and bride’s parents’ agreement the wedding can be conducted in wedding hall. It is also a mean to demonstrate privileges, wealth and high status, because not everybody has a chance to do it in such places.
The presentation of wealth and generosity in some weddings is to provide tables with enough alcoholic drinks and fresh trays of food, various sorts of meat dishes and ample dishes of vegetables and fruit. Another item on display can be money: the last is being given as a gift to the dancers, who dance with the paper money in their hand for a while and then pass them on as tips to the musicians. The power of this visibility of money during the wedding party is embedded in its absence and shortage in everyday life today and of course in relation to the socialist period. Anyways money is, in contrast to its everyday absence, being re-appropriated in order to be circulated for reputation and honor.
The concern for images of wealth and beauty is evident everywhere. Video recording, which is being done professionally at all wedding parties and in this case as a double recording, one for the wife-takers and one for the wife-givers, dominates the production of imagery. The video-recording is influencing also on the spendings of the wedding. Them, who are participating in the wedding, knowing that, are making their behavior non- natural. Except that the video recordings are also influencing in a way that specific weddings are being viewed as a sample and thus influence the potential weddings.
What happens to money in this current ‘transition’ economy is significant. Money is a scarce resource in the everyday life and has the quality of a gift and a commodity for conspicuous consumption during the wedding ceremonies. In order to provide the cash to be spent on such ceremonies, various forms of exchange, barter or borrowing money at high interest were activated. This encourages and increases economic activity and production at once. Consequently wedding ceremonies have long-term ramifications for the family budget.
Survey methodology
The aim of the paper is to describe what kind of symbols are being used in the Armenian modern weddings to demonstrate the wealth and what is their functional meaning and motivation.
The following hypotheses are offered: In Armenian modern weddings, the traditional content factors are replaced by the purpose of demonstrating and reproducing social status. According to the second hypothesis the tendency of demonstrating the wealth is considered with the demonstration of belonging to certain socio-economical stratum through the presents particularly to the partner side.
As the methods for going towards the above-mentioned aims, we used key-informant interviews and analysis of audio-visual documents. As the key-informants we surveyed a wide range of wedding organizers, and as visual documents we used wedding video records.
Analysis of data
The wedding has its unique significance in Armenian customs. Although the wedding customs had certain transaction from the old times, anyways the wedding continues to be one of the main Armenian customs having unique definition, meaning and importance. But the basis of the wedding ceremony goes not only into the tradition but also certain list of factors.
As the methods for going towards the above-mentioned aims, we used key-informant interviews and analysis of audio-visual documents. As the key-informants we surveyed a wide range of wedding organizers, and as visual documents we used wedding video records.
The results of the survey allow us to find out and describe the wealth symbols and its occurrence characteristics in modern Armenian weddings.
As the wedding is a value in Armenian society, thus we give importance to its celebration and symbols.
According to the results the survey showed it is obvious that the wedding is being evaluated as the most significant event of the lifetime. In this case the necessity of celebrating the wedding in a special manner comes across. We might mention that the wedding is more important for bride.
But when talking about the definitions of the wedding there were contradicting opinions. While some part of the respondents value the weddings as a tradition, the rest of them talks about the loss of its main meaning. Despite the fact that the wedding phenomenon exists as collective memory and objective reality, each of us perceives it subjectively, intersubjecitivizes it according to our own value system.
It becomes clear that parallel to this idea, the wedding is being signified as much as the last serves as a mean to facilitate a certain opinion and impress the environment. So the celebration is just as well well-thought as its evaluation. In these conditions the occurrences of the wealth symbols are being represented in weddings.
From this point of view we see that the celebration of wedding is not the only thing to get primary significance but also the fact of wedding to be larger and more luxurious. It depends on lots of factors.
Firstly, the public opinion has a primary meaning, thus in condition of its pressure the necessity of celebrating the wedding in corresponding manner comes across. Then the desire of making impression on the environment, validation of the high social position and the desire of not being over-left from the others come in. But there are some cases where the high social position makes it a must to celebrate luxurious weddings.
The next factor of wealth symbol usage is the phenomenon of “neighbor imitation” and the desire of not being over-left from them. In many cases people overdo their economical possibilities so as to do the most luxurious and largest wedding based on the abovementioned reasons. In a way, an average Armenian family may collect resources for years, to be able to celebrate a luxurious wedding for their child.
But there are also some cases where all of these are not the primary indicators. Here the wedding is being defined itself, not only according to its dimensions and luxury, but viewing the wedding as a couple bonding rite, its sense of creating a family. Generating the key informant interviews and wedding ceremony record analysis, the basic symbols have been explored, which occurred to be wealth symbols in Armenian weddings. Taking into consideration the abovementioned data, nowadays the wedding celebration has turned into a sphere of services, which include the overall preparation and maintenance of a wedding ceremony. And here the usage of some planning companies becomes essential. The main purpose is the desire of demonstrating your own (and your family’s) high social position and possibilities (including social circles) with the help of using popular wedding planners.
It is obvious from the survey that the planning services are accessible almost to all classes in our society and there are some goods and services for each people corresponding to their wallet.
In this case the prestige of planning companies is defined through the amount of consumers, and often through the amount of popular and famous consumers and celebrities. One of the main factors of the popularity of the planning companies is its experience, and also expensive and original accessories, which are accessible for certain class only, and besides it, people desire to choose the most luxurious accessories in the frames their economical possibilities.
When we talk about luxury, we need to mention that there are some wedding accessories, which are partially compulsory and have institutional characteristics, such as wedding dresses, tarosiks (small souvenir which is designed with confetti and other fancy things which are given to the single ladies as to lead to an early marriage), baskets and etc. The wedding dress is a main wedding accessory from the view of wealth symbols of weddings. Nowadays the priority is given to the dresses with precious stones and different white-tones, so as it is the best mean to impress the environment. Besides this all, the price of the dress and the purchase place, are important as well as its originality. During the wedding record analysis we have encountered with unique tarosiks with pearls and other precious stones, precious and semiprecious metals. The same situation is in the case of wedding baskets. Nowadays the baskets with natural flowers are more preferable, not only because they are more beautiful, but necessarily also because they are more expensive. Both in the case of tarosiks and baskets the importance is given to the luxury. We have referred to other accessories and services of the weddings as well. The wedding cars are unique occurrences which are used during the wedding ceremony. Here the tendency of not being over-left from the surrounding community representatives and demonstrate their high social position is also obvious. But here the most important fact is the luxury and prestige of the bride’s car. But all of the abovementioned does not necessarily mean that the great part of marrying couples belong to the high class of the society, because people often overdo their economical possibilities so as to do this or that event, which has already become necessary, for example the car rental, as this can create an image of “not being over-left from society” and “having good taste”.
The survey results show that recently the fireworks became modern and important enough. They became one of the most necessary accessories of the wedding ceremony. The fireworks usually aim at doing the wedding more impressive and eye-catching.
From the point of demonstrating wealth symbols wedding halls also deserve special attention in the range of the most luxurious and prestigious goods and services.
According to the survey results the indicator for the prestige are considered to be the high price of the wedding hall, the luxury of the hall, and non-accessibility to everyone. As the respondents mentioned only a certain group of the society, particularly high class, can use abovementioned wedding halls. The exterior and interior luxury can also serve as an indicator for choosing this or that wedding hall, convenience of the hall is an important factor, too.
During the survey a list of exclusive phenomena was found out, which include unique occurrences of current conspicuous consumption. It particularly concerns to the fact of leading the married couple to the airport after the wedding party. First of all the guests of wedding party are coming out, then a big firework takes place, and after it the main part of the guests are going to the airport. Surveyed indeed showed, that some customs appear not as the logical continuation of traditions, but rather, as an innovation for making wedding look luxurious. Thus, custom generation is a process of commercialization of wedding ceremony more, than just a fact of tradition. Next to these luxurious weddings there are many weddings where the great importance is given to the tradition. But such weddings are only a small part of the total. To put it short, commercial demonstration has its dominance over traditional roots, than visa verse, when the people want to show their belonging to a class, which they actually do not belong to. The musicians are inseparable element of the Armenian weddings since the old times. The musicians realize the main function of making the wedding party into a success. Thus the next problem appears to be the choice of the singers in Armenian modern weddings. Many people prefer singers to be popular, so as to be able to make some positive opinion about them; the presence of the good music gets to the second place. It is a good way for many people to demonstrate their financial and prestigious ability, and to identify themselves with certain groups. In fact, performer preferences are an important factor in determining the person’s social class in modern Armenian society and here the expression of it is obvious in wedding ceremonies as well. Again, the form is dominant over content, as survey shows.
Nowadays the “institute of the tamada” is being facilitated, whose members are special individuals with certain skills of making breathtaking toasts. In modern weddings the existence of tamada gives evidence about wide financial abilities and belonging to certain socio-economical stratum. Here we must recognize that some weddings accessories, particularly gifts, are being demonstrated by tamada during the party.
It is obvious that the symbolic presentation of gift-giving is preserved from the old times and until now. The nature of this is that the gifts are presented with special dance-music by emphasizing the giver, the type of the gift and in many cases even its price. It is a unique competitive presentation, where people desire to see everybody’s gifts, and then the participants try to compare whose gift is more expensive and luxurious. If the gift is jewelry everyone is getting interested in its material and the price of the stones. It is a presentation through which people make some opinion about each other. Nowadays golden jewelry is the most popular gift. It is interesting that recently money, cars, houses, flats, tickets are also actual as gifts. These gifts are being presented brightly so as to impress everybody with their gifts. Here wealth symbols are being circulated so that during the presentation the giver compels bride to wear it and the cameramen has to fix that moment emphasizing the gift. The other way in Armenian weddings for impressing each other is a phenomenon, which is called “shabash”. It is a ceremony, during which money notes are given to the bride while she is dancing. In this case the important thing is who gives money and how much it is and it is a good way to demonstrate somebody’s status and wealth. This tradition actually comes from Soviet Times, and was the so called legalized form of illegal payments. Referring to the means of wedding conduction we can say that the wedding is organized dividing the whole expenses between two families depending on the number and status of invited guests from each side.
Thus although wedding is perceived as an old Armenian custom, if we try to generalize the motives of wedding ceremony, we come out to the conclusion that the wedding is not only a rite based on some coming-from-past tradition, but also a good way to demonstrate one’s own social position, particularly to show and prove power, and it’s a good way not being over-left from the surrounding and to make certain opinion and for identifying them with certain group.
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