Bride price usa

A Papuan bride price basket bride price usa from the early 20th century. In the collection of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

The tradition of giving bride price is practiced in many Asian countries, the Middle East, parts of Africa and in some Pacific Island societies, notably those in Melanesia. Bridewealth is commonly paid in a currency that is not generally used for other types of exchange. According to French anthropologist Philippe Rospabé, its payment does therefore not entail the purchase of a woman, as was thought in the early twentieth century. Dowries exists in societies where capital is more valuable than manual labor. For instance, in Middle-Age Europe, the family of a bride-to-be was compelled to offer a dowry —- land, cattle and money —- to the family of the husband-to-be.

Bridewealth exists in societies where manual labor is more important than capital. In Sub-Saharan Africa where land was abundant and there were few or no domesticated animals, manual labor was more valuable than capital, and therefore bridewealth dominated. An evolutionary psychology explanation for dowry and bride price is that bride price is common in polygynous societies which have a relative scarcity of available women. The Code of Hammurabi mentions bride price in various laws as an established custom. The Hebrew Bible mention the practice of paying a bride price to the father of a minor girl. If a man entices a virgin who isn’t pledged to be married, and lies with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.

This innovation came about because the bride price created a major social problem: many young prospective husbands could not raise the amount at the time when they would normally be expected to marry. So, to enable these young men to marry, the rabbis, in effect, delayed the time that the amount would be payable, when they would be more likely to have the sum. In fact, the rabbis were so insistent on the bride having the “benefit of the ketubah” that some even described a marriage without one as being merely concubinage, because the bride would lack the benefit of the financial settlement in case of divorce or death of the husband, and without the dower or ketubah amount the woman and her children could become a burden on the community. In traditional Jewish weddings, to this day, the groom gives the bride an object of value, such as a wedding ring. The ring must have a certain minimal value, and it is considered to be a way to fulfill the halachic legal requirement of the husband making a payment to or for the bride. Some of the marriage settlements mentioned in the Iliad and Odyssey suggest that bride price was a custom of Homeric society. Homeric society” is a fictional construct involving legendary figures and deities, though drawing on the historical customs of various times and places in the Greek world.

At the time when the Homeric epics were composed, “primitive” practices such as bride price and polygamy were no longer part of Greek society. It is possible that the Homeric “bride price” is part of a reciprocal exchange of gifts between the prospective husband and the bride’s father, but while gift exchange is a fundamental practice of aristocratic friendship and hospitality, it occurs rarely, if at all, in connection with marriage arrangements. Islamic law commands a groom to give the bride a gift called a Mahr prior to the consummation of the marriage. Islamic law considers it haram for a husband, the groom’s family or the bride’s family to take the mahr of the bride without her willful decision. Morning gifts, which might be arranged by the bride’s father rather than the bride, are given to the bride herself. The name derives from the Germanic tribal custom of giving them the morning after the wedding night.

The woman might have control of this morning gift during the lifetime of her husband, but is entitled to it when widowed. If the amount of her inheritance is settled by law rather than agreement, it may be called dower. In parts of Africa, a traditional marriage ceremony depends on payment of a bride price to be valid. In Sub-Saharan Africa, bride price must be paid first in order for the couple to get permission to marry in church or in other civil ceremonies, or the marriage is not considered valid by the bride’s family.

The amount can vary from a token to a great sum, real estate and other values. The animals and money are not always paid all at once. Depending on the wealth of the groom he and his family can enter into a non written contract with the bride’s family similar to the Jewish Ketubah, in which he promises to pay what he owes within a specified period of time. The bride price tradition can have destructive effects when young men don’t have the means to marry.