Economic Aspects of Marriage Bride Price Bride price

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 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 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.