Economic Aspects of Marriage
Bride Price :
Bride price also known as bride
wealth is an amount of money or
property or wealth paid by the
groom or his family to the parents
of a woman upon the marriage of
their daughter to the groom.
• In the anthropological literature bride price
has often been explained in market terms,
as payment made in exchange for the
bride's family's loss of her labor and
fertility within her kin group.
The tradition of giving bride price is still
practiced in many Asian countries
although the amount changing hands
may range form a mere token amount to
continue the traditional ritual to many
thousands of US dollars in some Thai
marriages.
•
A traditional
presentation
of the bride
price at a
Thai
engagement
ceremony
• In Thailand, bride price (locally known as "sin
sot") is still extremely common in both Thai-Thai
and Thai-foreign marriages. The bride price may
range from nothing, (if the woman is divorced,
has a child fathered by another man, or is widely
known to have had premarital relations with
many men), to ten million Thai Baht
(US$300,000) or more for a woman of high
social standing, a beauty queen, or a highly
educated woman. The bride price in Thailand is
paid at the engagement ceremony, and consists
of three elements: cash, Thai (96.5% pure) gold,
and the traditional diamond ring.
• The most commonly stated rationale for
the bride price in Thailand is that it allows
the groom to demonstrate that he has
enough financial resources to support the
bride (and possibly her family) after the
wedding. In many cases, especially when
the amount is large, the parents of a Thai
bride will return all or part of the bride price
to the couple in the form of a wedding gift
following the ceremony.
• In traditional Chinese culture, an auspicious date
is selected to Ti Qin (literally meaning "propose
marriage"), where both families will meet to
discuss the amount of the bride price
demanded, among other things. A couple of
weeks before the actual wedding, the ritual of
Guo Da Li (literally meaning "performing the
rites") takes place (on an auspicious date of
course). The groom and a matchmaker will visit
the bride's family bearing gifts like wedding
cakes, sweetmeats and jewelry as well as the
bride price. On the actual wedding day, the
bride's family will return a portion of the bride
price (sometimes in the form of dowry) as a
goodwill gesture.
• In Islamic marriage laws, Mahr is paid (or
promised to be paid in case of divorce) by
the groom to the bride (as opposed to the
bride's father). It is compulsory.
Dowry :
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate
that a woman brings to her husband in
marriage .In many societies it is a part of
marriage contact.
Through this custom the bride has to
give a large amount of money,
furniture, ornaments and many things
to the bridegroom. It is a very terrible
situation for the society. Women &
their family suffer a lot for this dowry
system.
• 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 condition that the groom would take the
surname of his bride. The Indian city of Mumbai
(Bombay), which is one of the biggest cities in
the world, and the city of Tangiers, in Morrocco,
were given as a dowry by the Portuguese crown
to the British when King Charles II of England,
Scotland and Ireland married Catherine of
Braganza, a princess of Portugal in 1661.
Dowry in Bangladesh
• In Bangladesh poverty, illiteracy, narrow
mentality, negative attitude to the women,
dependence on husband and living on their
income, social corruption etc are the main cause
of dowry.
• Some time bridegroom wants money to do
business or want to make his life settle with that
money. In the village if brides are not beautiful to
look at or if they get late married then they are to
give a lot of money as dowry to the bridegroom.
• It is a much unexpected situation for the
bride’s family members. They are to
collect a huge amount of money for their
daughters’ or sisters’ marriage. Sometime
they are to take loan, sell their lands,
furniture, ornaments and even their own
house to collect the money. They are to
lose many things and face many problems
for this dowry system.
• We saw that women are tortured when
they can not give any money to their
husband. Some time we hear and see in
the newspaper that some women are
killed, some are hung and some are burnt
by their husband, in-law’s family members
and others.
• For this dowry system divorce, doing
suicide, mental and physical tortures,
number of broken family are increasing
day by day. It is also affecting on the new
generation. They can not give attention in
their education; can not contribute in any
development activities. It hampers their
mental development.
Religion
• Emile Durkheim viewed religion as an
integrative power in human society. He
defined religion as a “unified system of
beliefs and practices relative to sacred
things.”
• Sacred
• profane
Studying Religion
• Religion is a cultural universal. It plays a
basic role in human histories.
Functionalist perspective:
- Religion defines the spiritual world and
gives the meaning to the divine.
- Religion provides an explanation for
events that seems difficulty to
understand, such as what lies beyond the
grave
- Religion also serves to bind people
together in times of crisis and confusion.
- Religion supports the broken heart of
people. It allows people to do some
religious works to face calamities.
- Religion encourages us to view our
personal misfortunes as relatively unimportant
in the broader perspective of human history.
- In today’s world religion is used as a
political effort to eliminate poverty,
discrimination, and other forms of injustice
evident in the society. This practice is
called liberation theology.
• Conflict perspective :
- Religion encourages the oppressed
people to focus on other-worldly concerns
rather hen on their immediate poverty or
exploitation.
- Religion often drugged the masses into
submission and obedience by offering a
relief for their harsh lives on earth, giving
them hope of recovery in the afterlife.
The dominant religion always try to have
control over the others .It helps to create
social inequality.
• Interactionist perspective :
- All religions have some religious behaviour
that enables the people to interact with
one another and even in groups.
- Interactionist school focus on human belief
towards religion, practiced religious
rituals, and religious experiences.