Modes of Acquiring a Wife
- Acquiring a wife by bridewealth
("bride price," "progeny price")
Bride Price -- Wikipedia
- occurs in almost one-half of the World Ethnographic Sample (HRAF)
- Arranged Marriages often involve bridewealth . . .
- Bride Wealth -- Brian Schwimmer
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"Gypsy bride Narcisa Tranca, 15, walks with relatives and friends during her wedding in May."
"[Narcisa's] parents reached a deal with Marin's family, a clan of prosperous horse traders: $2,000 for Narcisa."
"With the blessing of both households, a cousin brought Marin to meet Narcisa seven months ago. Until the wedding, the two saw each other briefly just four times."
Michelle Kelso, Voluntari, Romania, AP, 6/28/2003
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UMD Graduate meets his bride
at their wedding ceremony in India. |
Nuer Bridewealth
Bride Price -- Wikipedia
Source: E. Adamson Hoebel, Anthropology: The Study of Man, 4th ed. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1972. p. 347 - 349.
kinds of descent groups
Nuer segmentary lineage
multiple maximal lineages
Nuer Distribution of 40 Cattle in Bride Price:
- Primary Family of the Bride (20)
father of the bride
8 head:
3 cows and their 3 calves
2 oxen
brother of another mother
2 cows
brother of the same mother
7 head:
2 oxen
3 cows
1 cow and its 1 calf
mother
1 cow and its 1 calf
1 heifer
- Siblings of the Bride's Father (10)
bride's father's eldest brother by the same mother
4 head:
1 cow and its 1 calf
1 calf
1 ox
bride's father's youngest brother by the same mother
1 cow
1 ox
bride's father's sister
1 heifer
bride's father's brother by a different mother
1 cow and its calf
1 ox
Acquiring a wife by suitor service
- a substitute or equivalent of progeny price, in which the potential groom works for his intended bride's kin
- e.g., Jacob worked 7 years for Rachel, plus 7 for Lea who was not part of the bargain
Source: E. Adamson Hoebel, Anthropology: The Study of Man, 4th ed. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1972. p. 407.
- Acquiring a wife by gift exchange
- frequent with bilateral descent
- equivalent exchanges of gifts between the families are an alternative possibility
- e.g., Cheyenne
- Acquiring a wife by capture
- J. F. McLennen, Primitive Marriage, 1865, thought sham battles at marriage were a symbolic "survival" of earlier thefts of wives
- "Bride kidnapping, also known as marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a form of marriage practiced in a few traditional cultures, in countries spanning Central Asia, the Caucasus region, parts of Africa, and among the Hmong in southeast Asia [and among the Yanomamö]. In most countries, bride kidnapping is considered a sex crime, rather than a valid form of marriage. However, some versions of it may also be seen as falling along the continuum between forced marriage and arranged marriage." -- Bride Kidnapping -- Wikipedia sa. Raptio
- Acquiring a wife by inheritance
- levirate -- marriage of a woman to her brother-in-law
- most common affinal marriage form among the peoples of the world
- Levirate Marriage -- Brian Schwimmer
- sororate
- husband married his deceased wife's sister
- widely distributed throughout the world
- is not sororal polygyny where the man takes the younger sister of his wife when she becomes of age
- extended affinal marriages
- marriage of a man to his wife's brother's daughter
- marriage of a woman to her father's sister's husband
- marriage of a woman to her husband's sister's son
- Acquiring a wife by elopement
Elopement -- Wikipedia
- generally is a safety valve
- provides an acceptable form to deviate from custom
- occurs in every known society
- difficult to generalize
- can be validated by gift exchange and / or the birth of a child
- Acquiring a wife by adoption
- in Indonesia and Japan it was possible for a man to obtain a wife by being adopted into her family
- is a device where a patrilineally organized family may maintain its line where there are no sons
- Dowry (also known as trousseau)
- the money, goods, property, or material goods that a woman brings to her husband in marriage
- Dowry -- Wikipedia
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"falling in love"