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DOWRY

Sociology Index, Sociology Books 2012, Dowry, Bride price

Dowry is the wealth or possessions that a bride brings into the marriage. 

Unlike bride price, dowry is typically a transfer of wealth from the bride's family to the husband. Bride price is a transfer of wealth from the husband's family to the bride.

In India where this is a common practice, it has caused great hardship to women and also the family. Dowry amount value is directly proportional to the groom's social status.

Where a woman's family is poor and cannot afford to pay dowry, the women, very often a young girl, is literally sold off to a wealthy old man.

Dowry and Its Link to Violence Against Women in India - Feminist Psychological Perspectives - Mudita Rastogi, Illinois School of Professional Psychology, Argosy University 
Paul Therly, Southdown Institute 
Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, Vol. 7, No. 1, 66-77 (2006) © 2006 SAGE Publications
Dowry is exchanged in a majority of Indian weddings. Although its practice became illegal in 1961, dowry flourishes among all social classes. Families of the bride and groom negotiate transfer of assets to the groom and his family in exchange for marrying the bride, often within the context of an arranged marriage. Dissatisfaction with the amount of dowry may result in abuse of the bride. In extreme cases "dowry deaths" or the murder of the bride by her husband and his family take place. This article conducts a feminist psychological analysis of the dowry phenomenon, its link to domestic violence against women, and the role of the perpetrators. Existing and new explanations of the dowry system and its ramifications are explored. Psychologically based interventions and the implications of dowryrelated violence in the larger context of Asian Indians living in North America and the United Kingdom are discussed. - tva.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/1/66

The ecology of mating systems in hypergynous dowry societies - Mildred Dickemann 
Social Science Information, Vol. 18, No. 2, 163-195 (1979)
When the famine in Shansi was over, and I began to consider the reasons of it, I felt I must study the causes of human suffering, not only in China but in all the world. In pondering Western civilization I felt that its advantage over Chinese civilization was due to the fact that it sought to discover the workings of God in Nature, and to apply the laws of Nature for the service of mankind. This was in obedience to God's command to Adam to have dominion over all things. In applying the laws of science to the needs of man, Western nations had made marvellous inventions that were little less wonderful than miracles.

Gender, Dowry and the Migration System of Indian Information Technology Professionals 
Xiang Biao, Xiang Biao is at the COMPAS-Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, 58 Banbury Road, Oxford 0X2 6Q5, UK. E-mail: biao.xiang@compas.ox.ac.uk 
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2-3, 357-380 (2005) © 2005 SAGE Publications
The current literature on gender and migration focuses largely on women's experiences as migrants or, alternatively, on their experiences as those left behind. This article, on the contrary, seeks to demonstrate how gender is central in producing a migration system itself. Based on in-depth fieldwork in Sydney (Australia) and Andhra Pradesh (India) on the migration system of Indian information technology (IT) professionals from 2000 to 2001, the article suggests that the gender relations prevalent in Andhra Pradesh, particularly the institution of dowry, have been critical in producing a specially cheap and flexible labour force, and in supporting it in the volatile global economy. In turn, the emergence of a group of mobile IT professionals contributes to the increase of dowry, with disturbing consequences for those underprivileged and seemingly unconcerned with the IT industry. - 

The Expanding Dimensions of Dowry 
Indu Agnihotri, Vivekananda College, University of Delhi, Delhi E-mail: kuldipkr@vsnl.com 
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Vol. 10, No. 2, 307-319 (2003) © 2003 SAGE Publications
Recent years have seen a spread and intensification in the scale of dowry demand and dowry-related violence. Some months ago the AID WA organised a workshop to discuss the issue in view of the women's movements' engagement with it for over two decades. The discussion highlighted the changing form and nature of dowry as well as social practices in different regions, castes and community groups, and the need to understand these in the context of trends emerging in the globalisation era. - ijg.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/10/2/307

"Dowry Deaths" in Andhra Pradesh, India 
Response of the Criminal Justice System, U. VINDHYA, Andhra University 
Violence Against Women, Vol. 6, No. 10, 1085-1108 (2000) © 2000 SAGE Publications
This article is an outcome of a research project that focused on the incidence, pattern, and judicial response of what have been labeled "dowry deaths" in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. Cases that had been committed to court and tried during the 5-year period from 1988 to 1992 formed the database for the investigation. There were 498 reported cases of unnatural deaths of married women committed to court during this period in the two metropolitan cities and three districts that represent the distinct regions of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Of them, it was possible to obtain access to and analyze 340 cases. The article examines the reasons for the violence and analyzes the responses of the criminal justice system. - vaw.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/6/10/1085

Dowry and prestige in north India - Marguerite Roulet 
Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol. 30, No. 1, 89-107 (1996) © 1996 SAGE Publications
This paper explores the current practice and representation of dowry marriage by members of Brahman, Gosain and Chamar families in semi-rural eastern Uttar Pradesh. The paper approaches dowry not primarily as an institution to do with the transfer of property at marriage, but more importantly as the currently most significant means of assessing and representing social status, honour and prestige in the region. As the most comprehensive public measure of social prestige, dowry was an important arena within which people represented their social positions and their relations to others. The paper explores people's discursive constructions of dowry marriage and the manner in which they used their understanding of dowry to reflect upon social relations within. their communities. - cis.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/1/89

Dowry in Bangladesh: Compromizing Women’s Rights 
Shahnaz Huda, Dhaka University, Bangladesh 
South Asia Research, Vol. 26, No. 3, 249-268 (2006) © 2006 SAGE Publications
Marriage negotiations for Bangladeshi Muslims involve various financial transactions including primarily the religiously sanctioned dower (mahr). Added to mahr, the practice of dowry or joutuk, demands made by the husband’s side to the bride’s side, have in the last few decades become a widespread practice supported neither by state law nor personal laws, but apparently designed to strengthen traditional patriarchal assumptions. Based on detailed fieldwork, this article discusses the historical assimilation of dowry practices in Bangladesh, including debates regarding its social ramifications on women’s rights in Bangladesh, linked now to growing evidence of dowry-related violence. The existing dowry practices, despite legal intervention, continue to compromise women’s rights in Bangladesh. - sar.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/3/249

BRIDE PRICE

'Bride price' is the transfer of wealth or possessions by the groom or, more typically, his family, to the bride's family on marriage. - 'Bride price' is a payment of money or goods made to a bride or her parents by the bridegroom or his parents.

The Role and Determinants of Bride-Price: The Case of a Palestinian Village - Ivy Papps - Current Anthropology, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Apr., 1983).
Abstract: Economic analysis is used to examine the institution of bride-price. Supply and demand curves are developed in the context of the marriage market, and some hypotheses about the determinants of bride-price are derived. Using data collected by Granqvist in the Palestinian village of Artas, these hypotheses are tested by means of multiple regression analysis. The main explanatory variables are the productivity of the bride (measured by variables such as expected fertility, marital status, age, and education), the loss experienced by her own family (which depends not only on her productivity, but also on the closeness of the relationship between bride and groom), and the consumption of the wife in the marital home (which depends, among other things, on the personality of her husband). The incorporation into the analysis of uncertainty leads to the conclusion that exchange marriages-often observed in societies in which bride-price is paid-are more likely than others to end in divorce. This hypothesis is also tested with data from Artas, and the data are found to be consistent with the economic model. - jstor.org

A Model Explaining Simultaneous Payments of a Dowry and Bride-Price
Nathan Nunn - March 4, 2005
Abstract: Standard economic models of marriage contracts, starting with Becker (1981), explain the existence of the dowry and bride-price as pecuniary transfers necessary to clear marriage markets. These models predict that when marriage payments are made, either a payment is made from the bride to the groom (dowry) or a payment is made from the groom to the bride (bride-price), but not both. This contradicts one of the stylized facts of marriage contracts. When a dowry is paid, it is usually reciprocated with a bride-price. I develop a model that explains why the dowry and bride-price are paid simultaneously. In the model, both payments are crucial, not just the net amount exchanged.
In addition, the model is consistent with the general frequencies, patterns and characteristics of the dowry and bride-price observed across cultures throughout history. - econ.ubc.ca/nnunn/dowries.pdf

Implications of bride price on domestic violence and reproductive health in Wakiso District, Uganda - Dan K. Kaye, Florence Mirembe, Anna Mia Ekstrom, Grace Bantebya Kyomuhendo, Annika Johansson 
Objective: Bride price payment is a gender issue with implications on gender relations in different socio-cultural contexts. It also impacts Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. In a qualitative study on the perceptions of domestic violence in Wakiso district, payment of bride price emerged as one of the key factors associated with domestic violence. The study explored experiences, motivations, meanings, consequences and reproductive health implications of bride price payment in Wakiso district Uganda.
Methods: 10 single-sex focus group discussions and 14 in-depth interviews were conducted in Wakiso and Nangabo sub-counties, Wakiso district from July 2003 through March 2004. Data was analyzed by thematic content analysis, assisted by Easy Text software for data retrieval.
Findings: Participants perceived bride price as indicating that a woman was ‘bought’ into the man’s household, which reduced her household decision-making roles. It limited women’s independence and perpetuated unequal gender power relations, especially regarding health-seeking behaviour.
Conclusion: Bride price payment is a contextual factor that the community in Wakiso District, Uganda, perceived as associated with domestic violence, with serious sexual and reproductive health implications. - atypon-link.com/MMS/doi/abs/10.5555/afhs.2005.5.4.300

Critique on the Bride Price - Dr. Kao-Ly Yang
geocities.com/kaoly_y/archives/CritiqueBridePrice0605.html
The Bride price replaced in its cultural context 
In Hmong wedding, the groom has to pay a price for his bride. This pride is named the “Bride Price”. To name this price, Hmong people use native categories: 1.“Nqe tshoob” (Wedding price), 2. Nqe taub hau (the price of the ‘Bride’s head) or 3. “Nqe mis nqe hno” (the prices of milk and of food)). The bride price is different from the “dowry” that Hmong people called with a specific category “khoom phij cuam”, made of money and material gifts that parents offer to the new couple. One cannot either compare the bride price with the dowry or say the dowry compensates the bride pride. In fact, the symbol of the “bride price” is an intrinsic and fundamental element in the meaning of Hmong wedding. The dowry is just an accessory: it could be erased from the wedding without losing the social meaning of the Hmong wedding or generating social conflict; it doesn’t add more social meaning to any wedding, maybe only the materialistic meaning. As for the bride price, it is the core of the wedding; erasing it will lead to debate because it is the social contract. It is the social objective of the social exchange, the social meaning of any wedding. In term of sum of bride price, it is not a detail; in fact, it is the current preoccupation of all future grooms; theoretically, the sum added to the symbol of the bride price become a burden for marriage because it may reach phenomenal amount from $ 5,000 to $ 50,000 in the United States and from 3,000 euros to 15,000 euros in France in 2005. The use of the two first expressions, “Nqe tshoob” (Wedding price) and Nqe taub hau (the price of the ‘Bride’s head), are permutable even if the first expression “nqe tshoob” seems more appropriate in term of language, however it means the material payment of the bride. As for the third expression “nqe mis nqis hno”, it distinguishes from the “bride price” as a part of the whole price: it is the payment for the nurturing, for milk and food before being able to produce. Each expression may hold a fragment of the meaning of the bride price. In deduction from these expressions, the bride price’s reveals to be a compensation of the bride’s breeding until her marriage. 

Why do Dowry and Bride Price Co-exist? - ideas.repec.org/p/chk/cuhked/_061.html

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