Dowry

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A dowry (also known as trousseau) is a gift of money or valuables given by the bride's family to the groom's at the time of their marriage.[1] It has been regarded as contribution of her family to the married household's expenses.

In societies where payment of dowry is common, unmarried women are seen to attract stigma and tarnish the family reputation, so it is in the bride's family's interest to marry off their daughter as soon as she is eligible[citation needed]. This also benefits the bride's family, in that it removes the economic burden of caring for the daughter, and increases the likelihood that the new married couple will be able to provide for the parents during their old age.

In some areas where this is practiced, the size of the necessary dowry is directly proportional to the groom's social status, thus making it virtually impossible for lower class women to marry into upper class families. In some cases where a woman's family is too poor to afford any dowry whatsoever, she is either forbidden from ever marrying, or at most becomes a concubine to a richer man who can afford to support a large household. Dowries have been part of civil law in almost all countries, Europe included. Dowries were important components of Roman marriages.

The opposite direction, property settled on the bride by the groom, is called dower. Normally the bride would be entitled to her dowry in event of her widowhood, prior to the evolution of her dower rights; so common was this that the terms "dowry" and "dower" are sometimes confused.

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[edit] Code of Hammurabi

It is described in the oldest records, such as the Code of Hammurabi as a pre-existing custom, prescribing only regulations for how it was to be handled and also included regulations for a bride price. If a woman died without sons, her husband had to refund the dowry but could deduct the value of the bride price, the dowry would normally have been the larger of the sums. It marks the first record of long-lasting customs, such as the wife being entitled to her dowry at her husband's death as part of her dower, her dowry being inheritable only by her own children, not by her husband's children by other women, and a woman not being entitled to a (subsequent) inheritance if her father had provided her dowry in marriage.

[edit] In Europe

In Homeric times, the usual Greek practice was of a brideprice, and when dowries were practiced in classical times, there would also be a (smaller) brideprice being given by the groom to the bride's family. Ancient Romans also practiced dowry, though Tacitus noted that among the Germans, the practice was the reverse: a groom settled a dower on the bride.

With the advent of Christianity and religious orders, women also brought their dowries with them when they became nuns.

Dowry was widely practiced in Europe, and continued to Victorian England[2]. It was seen as an early payment of her inheritance, such that only daughters who had not received their dowry were entitled to part of the estate when their parents died, and if the couple died without children, the dowry reverted to the bride's family.

Failure to provide a customary, or agreed-upon, dowry could call off a marriage. William Shakespeare made use of this in King Lear -- one of Cordelia's wooers ceases to woo her on hearing that King Lear will give her no dowry -- and Measure for Measure -- Claudio and Juliet's premarital sex was brought about by their families' wrangling over dowry after the betrothal, and Angelo's motive for forswearing his betrothal with Mariana is the loss of her dowry at sea.

Folklorists often interpret Cinderella and its variants as competition between the stepmother and the stepdaughter for resources, which may include the need to provide a dowry. Gioacchino Rossini's opera La Cenerentola, makes this economic basis explicit: Don Magnifico wishes to make his own daughters' dowry larger, to attract a grander match, which is impossible if he must provide a third dowry. [3]

One common penalty for the kidnapping and rape of unmarried women was that the abductor or rapist had to provide the woman's dowry.

Providing dowries for poor women was regarded as a form of charity. The custom of Christmas stockings springs from a legend of St. Nicholas, in which he threw gold in the stockings of three poor sisters, thus providing for their dowries. St. Elizabeth of Portugal and St. Martin de Porres were particularly noted for providing such dowries, and the Archconfraternity of the Annunciation, a Roman charity dedicated to providing dowries, received the entire estate of Pope Urban VII.

In some parts of Europe, land dowries were common. In Grafschaft Bentheim, for instance, it was not uncommon for people who had no sons to give a land dowry to their new son-in-law with the stipulation attached that with the land comes the family name whence it came, thus a condition of the land dowry was that the groom would take on the family name of his bride.

In Europe it is common for the bride's family to pay for the majority of the wedding costs.

[edit] In India

Further information: Dowry law in India

The practice of dowry exists across India. Despite laws against dowry, the practice continues. The girl child's dowry and wedding expenses often sends her family into a huge debt trap. As consumerism and wealth increase in India, dowry demands are growing. The dowry trap pushes many families into debt. In rural areas, families sell their land holdings, while the urban poor sell their houses.

The practice of the bride giving a dowry to the groom is said to have originated in the system of recognition that not only the husband was responsible for providing for his wife, but her father shared this responsibility. It is not clear when the practice began in India. In the recent times, as women have better economic opportunities, this tradition no longer holds valid. While the burden is removed from a woman's father and brothers, it still remains with the husband. In India, the practice of giving women a dowry on breakage of marriage by husband still holds and is assisted by the judiciary and the police through threat of imprisonment.

Many times the transaction never ends; the women can come back to the courts for more dowry if she feels it necessary.

What began as a sharing of the economic burden of protector and provider role between the two families in an essentially agricultural economy has degenerated into gifts of gold, clothes, consumer durables, and large sums of money, in a few rare cases impoverished or heavily indebted poor families. The dowry is often used by the receiving family for business purposes, family members' education, or given to the husband's sisters, mostly as dowry in their marriage. Unfortunately, many times the bride’s family is unable to continuously provide such gifts to the groom’s (depending on whether or not the groom will continue to ask for gifts) after the wedding. Therefore, the bride’s family will disown her because they can not afford her and eventually, the groom will no longer “want” her. In some cases, this results in the death of the bride, either by suicide or murder. Dowry related deaths are still on the rise in the rural areas.

To curb the practice of dowry, the government of India made several laws detailing severe punishment to anyone demanding dowry and a law in Indian Penal Code (Section 498A) has been introduced. While it gives boost to a woman and her family, it in the same time also put a man and his family in a great disadvantage. Misuse of this law by women in urban India and quite a few incidents of extortion of money from the husband done by the wife and her family have come to light. The law states jailing of ANY person the wife names in a written complaint. Old people and children have been jailed by the misuse of this law. The law has a misandry tone to it. The Indian government's main motive for ensuring that removing evidence requirement (under section 113B) which is required in other penal cases is currently not clearly understood.

There are reports of domestic violence associated with dowry related demands, these include homicide, see the articles on dowry death & bride burning.

[edit] In China

The similarity between the dowry system in China and the dowry system in India is that it serves as a way for the family to secure some of its wealth for its daughters, as women could not inherit property in the orthodox Confucian society of China. However, there are many important differences between the two and these include:

  • Unlike the Indian dowry system which was brought in by the foreign colonialists and imperalists, the Chinese dowry system is indigenous and has lasted for thousands of years.
  • Unlike the Indian dowry system in which the transactions seldom end with the wedding, the Chinese dowry system is often an one-shot deal that ends with the wedding.
  • Ancient China (as well as modern China to a certain degree) is a patriarchal society dominated by the orthodox Confucian traditions, in which it is a great shame for a man who cannot provide for his wife and thus has to survive on his wife's assets, such as her income or her dowry. Since dowry is one-shot deal, it is optional for the bride's family to contribute additional financial support after the wedding in order to improve the family relations. It is commonly considered as a shame if the groom's family is requesting additional support. As a result, the dowry is often served as a private savings, properties, jewelries. The groom and his family have control over the properties, but far less power in controlling the private savings and jewelries. Although the Chinese wife might have greater automony than her Indian counterpart, the orthodox Confucian tradition dictates that the dowry assets should be used in the following order to support her husband when the assets of husband is not enough. The bride would only allow to use her private savings and personal properties to support:
    • the eldest son's education when his livelihood can be provided but not enough for his education,
    • the remaining sons' education when their livelihood can be provided but not enough for their education,
    • the livelihood of the eldest son when there is not enough to do so,
    • the livelihood of the remaining sons when there is not enough to do so,
    • the livelihood of daughters until they marry,
    • the livelihood of the parents,
    • the education of the groom's brothers when there is enough for their livelihood but not enough for their education (often until the brothers marry),
    • the education of daughters.
  • Most importantly, due to the patriarchal society dominated by the orthodox Confucian traditions in ancient China (as well as modern China to a certain degree), bride price was and still is far more prevalent than dowry in Chinese society than Indian society. As a result, the amount of wealth for the bride price in China was (and still is) often greater than that of the wealth for the dowry. Furthermore, it was customary for the traditional Chinese society to accept the fact that the bride and her family have little or no dowry, but it is not acceptable for the groom and his family having little or no bride price.
  • In the traditional Chinese society, dowry is also a symbol of social status, and thus in China, especially in the northern part of China, dowry is shown in public during the traditional Chinese wedding: when the wedding procession from the bride's home is on its way to the groom's home, the wealth of the dowry in forms other than money was carried behind the sedan of the bride and maids of honor. The presence of dowry is more important than maid of honor because in China, particularly the northern part, it was acceptable to lack the maid of honor, but not acceptable for lacking a form of dowry, no matter how small it is.
  • Unlike the relatively stable Indian society, there were drastic changes in the customs and practice of dowry and bride price in China due to the political movements in China (especially due to the Cultural Revolution). During Mao's reign, both the dowry and the bride price were denounced as being feudalistic and materialistic, thus degrading morals, and traditional Chinese weddings that were associated with dowry and bride price became nearly extinct. Due to the Chinese economic reform, there was a resurgence of traditional Chinese weddings and along with it, there is a gradual come back of both the dowry and the bride price in China since 1980s, and then rapidly in recent years because the current economic development in China has accelerated this comeback greatly. Again, this recent comeback reflects the Chinese tradition in which the bride price is far more important than the dowry.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://m-w.com/dictionary/dowry
  2. ^ Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace, To Marry An English Lord, p166-7, ISBN 0-89480-939-3
  3. ^ Marina Warner, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales And Their Tellers, p 213-4 ISBN 0-374-15901-7

[edit] External links

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