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Re: Why are we allowed to cut nails but not hair?Skeptic freethinker 1 I am not a Sikh but I asked myself the very same question not out of defiance though. I came up with a functionalist hypothesis as to "why", leaving the reference to the scriptures to Sikhs in all due respect. The basic idea is that Sikhs being neither muslims nor hindus, the Gurus provided the followers with apparent means to show their distinctiveness. I am thinking mostly about women Sikhs. I don't know about hindu women, but muslim women (not even sure if we can generalise), discard bodily hair except the hair on their heads, a mark of beauty. So, even dead, naked or unconscious a Sikh woman will be readilly identified as such and she will identify herself as a follower of Sikh values and way of life even in absolute intimacy when she is alone or with her husband. It is a way of integrating absolutely Sikhism to one's very nature. Does that make any sense? I don't have all the information to make my point, I thought that maybe you could find an answer outside the scriptures without having to split hairs over your faith and the validity of the Scriptures. Also, in regards to women, not shaving stresses the golden rule of equality between men and women, so distintive of Sikhism. In some feminist cercles, not shaving is the summom of women's liberation.
Re: Why are we allowed to cut nails but not hair?
Skeptic freethinker 1
I am not a Sikh but I asked myself the very same question not out of defiance though. I came up with a functionalist hypothesis as to "why", leaving the reference to the scriptures to Sikhs in all due respect. The basic idea is that Sikhs being neither muslims nor hindus, the Gurus provided the followers with apparent means to show their distinctiveness. I am thinking mostly about women Sikhs. I don't know about hindu women, but muslim women (not even sure if we can generalise), discard bodily hair except the hair on their heads, a mark of beauty. So, even dead, naked or unconscious a Sikh woman will be readilly identified as such and she will identify herself as a follower of Sikh values and way of life even in absolute intimacy when she is alone or with her husband. It is a way of integrating absolutely Sikhism to one's very nature. Does that make any sense? I don't have all the information to make my point, I thought that maybe you could find an answer outside the scriptures without having to split hairs over your faith and the validity of the Scriptures. Also, in regards to women, not shaving stresses the golden rule of equality between men and women, so distintive of Sikhism. In some feminist cercles, not shaving is the summom of women's liberation.
