As I started reading I found myself distracted by a thought so I'll write it now so as to read without distraction. To what extent does the payment transferred with the bride stay with her? ie if she leaves the relationship for another (or else returns to her family of origin) does she take the value of the payment with her or does she l…
As I started reading I found myself distracted by a thought so I'll write it now so as to read without distraction. To what extent does the payment transferred with the bride stay with her? ie if she leaves the relationship for another (or else returns to her family of origin) does she take the value of the payment with her or does she leave it behind (or any intermediate division of the resource)?
I read somewhere that societies that practice dowry tend to be societies that do not practice divorce. So women with dowries simply don't leave a relationship for another. In Mother Nature, Sarah Hrdy writes that dowries explicitly tends to be reserved for the grandchildren of the dowry-givers. If a married woman dies, for example, her dowry is not supposed to support children her husband has with another woman.
That's interesting. Yes, dowry as a social norm for the sustenance of the woman's children makes sense. I hadn't thought of it that way. So having it tied to the family unit rather than the wife discourages divorce.
You have very interesting things to say about how this applies to western society which I'll have to think more about.
As I started reading I found myself distracted by a thought so I'll write it now so as to read without distraction. To what extent does the payment transferred with the bride stay with her? ie if she leaves the relationship for another (or else returns to her family of origin) does she take the value of the payment with her or does she leave it behind (or any intermediate division of the resource)?
I read somewhere that societies that practice dowry tend to be societies that do not practice divorce. So women with dowries simply don't leave a relationship for another. In Mother Nature, Sarah Hrdy writes that dowries explicitly tends to be reserved for the grandchildren of the dowry-givers. If a married woman dies, for example, her dowry is not supposed to support children her husband has with another woman.
That's interesting. Yes, dowry as a social norm for the sustenance of the woman's children makes sense. I hadn't thought of it that way. So having it tied to the family unit rather than the wife discourages divorce.
You have very interesting things to say about how this applies to western society which I'll have to think more about.