Marriage

 Marriage and equivalent traditions are some of the most important traditions within folkgroups. Marriage marks the "transition from one social category to another, because for one of the spouses it involves a change of family, clan, village or tribe... or residence" and because many members of the group are affected by the union of two people (Gennep 1977; 116). 

Traditional marriages for the Ojibwe were arranged by the parents of an individual, or in rarer cases, by the individuals themselves. Marriage was primarily about survival and subsistence, with little emphasis placed on "love" (Gonzalez 1992: 31). The act of getting married gave the new couple autonomy, and freedom from their parents authority. Women were seen as having reached maturity once they married and became responsible for their household and family (Gonzalez 1992: 31). 

 There is not a set ceremony for marriages, and there are a variety of traditions that may or may not be included in a marriage, depending on the tribe, band, clan, and individuals. Some marriages include a ceremony in which a fire is built and sacred herbs are burned, some marriages include wrapping the couple in a unity blanket of sorts, and still others centered around the exchanging of gifts. However, traditional ceremonies usually included an elder who presided over the ceremony, the couple being smudged with sage and cedar, and the fathers of the couple along with the man getting married smoking tobacco from a pipe together (Johnston 1990).

While traditional ceremonies are not the norm today, many Ojibwe men and women integrate parts of tradition into their more modern or christianized ceremonies.