When I was living in village India, I asked several of my Indian friends why Indian girls were married so young. Betrothed in childhood (some shortly after birth), and married at (or before) puberty, the child brides went to live with their husbands' extended family, as virtual indentured labor and potential breeders.

The answer I got was nearly the same from all sides, Hindu, Jain or Sikh: every menstruation a girl has is considered a life lost, and if the girl is not married, it is tantamount to murder. To foster life and preserve the family, the girl must be married and bedded at puberty and bear as many children as she can.

Parallel to this is the belief that women have insatiable sexual appetites and men must guard themselves against the desires and needs of women, who are always inclined to sexual desire, while men are just the opposite. This concept brought me up short, since I had been raised to the opposite view, as I believe most westerners are.

The world is full of contradistinctions and opposing beliefs, is it not.