Marriage Payments

There are various ways in which societies mark a marriage. In some societies, payments are made by the groom and his family to the family of the bride. This payment is known as bride wealth. In other societies, the bride brings property with her at the marriage. This is known as dowry. When dowry is paid, goods move in the opposite direction from bride wealth payments. In societies that practice sister exchange, there may be an option to give bride wealth if one does not have a sister to exchange. However it is also common to find sister exchange accompanied by the payment of bride wealth, so that groups are exchanging both women and bride wealth payments. Sometimes the groom exchanges labour for his bride, in lieu of the payment of bride wealth. When the groom works for his wife’s family, this is known as bride service. It may be recalled that in the Old Testament Jacob laboured for seven years in order to marry Leah and then another seven years to marry Rebecca, Leah’s younger sister, thus performing fourteen years of bride service for his father-in-law.

Bride service is also practiced by the Yanomamo. During this time, the groom lives with the bride’s parents and hunts for them. Since the Yanomamo have, in addition, sister exchange, one might say that during this period of bride service, when men move to live with the bride’s parents, they really control women, they do not view this as two women exchanging brothers. After the period of bride service is over, the husband takes his wife back to his group. Yanomamo women prefer to be exchanged within the same village, and not exchanged to make an alliance with some distant village, so that they will remain close to their families after marriage.

Answer the questions:

1. Explain what bride wealth dowry and bride service are.

2. Do you think these things exist in contemporary societies?

3. What do you think about wedding contract in contemporary cultures?

Task 10

Read the text ‘Numbers of Spouses” and write a 150 – word commentary on the problem, giving pros and contras if any.

Numbers of Spouses

Another set of rules concerning marriage is exemplified by the biblical case of Jacob – rules concerning number of spouses. Some societies, like our own, practice monogamy that is only one spouse at a time is permitted. However, in biblical times husbands could have more than one wife. This is known as polygyny and is permitted in a majority of societies in the world. Sometimes, as in the case of Jacob, a man marries several sisters. This practice is known as sororal polygyny. In the societies in which it occurs, it is usually explained by saying that sisters have a good relationship with one another, and this will help to overcome the inevitable jealousy that arises between cowives. On the other hand, there are many societies, such as the Trobriand Islanders and the Kanuri of Nigeria, who explicitly forbid sororal polygyny. The Kanuri explanation for this prohibition is that the good relationship between two sisters should not be allowed to be undermined by the unavoidable friction that that arises between two cowives. This simply demonstrates that whatever rules a society has, the people of that society will offer a perfectly rational explanation for their existence. This is the reason why the anthropologist’s analysis must go beyond that provided by the people themselves. An alternative form of marriage, known as polyandry, in which one woman may have several husbands, occurs but is rather rare. In almost all cases, a woman marries several brothers, and this is known as fraternal polyandry. Sometimes, anthropologists wish to refer to plural spouses, either husbands or wives. The term polygamy is used to refer to this, to contrast it with monogamy. Because of the frequency of divorce in the United States, it is sometimes said that American society practices serial polygamy. We may not have more than one spouse at a time, but some people have numerous spouses, one after the other.