Brideprice.

Trim Size: 170mm x 244mm ❦ Callan wbiea1369.tex V1 - 07/24/2017 7:56 A.M. Page 1 Bride-Price KELLY SILVA Universidade de Brasília, Brazil ❦ Bride-price is a social technology by means of which people negotiate rights in persons, identities, obligations, belonging, property transmission, alliance, and power relations. It has been characterized by the offering of particular valuables and/or money from wife takers to wife givers to seal genetricial rights (i.e., the rights of the husband as genitor) and access to a woman’s productive potential. By means of exchanges of valuables and money for a woman, marriages are constructed, as are other kinship relations. Bride-price may take various forms, which are all associated with the broader dynamics of social reproduction. The quality and quantity of the valuables offered, their potential usages thereafter, and the way they are transacted (in a single prestation or in installments, for instance) are all variables which, on the one hand, affect the social outcomes produced by it and, on the other, reflect the changing character of that institution. Broadly speaking, one can distinguish between the collective and individual effects of bride-price. Among the collective effects, one can further differentiate between those related to intragroup dynamics and those related to intergroup relations. Regarding intragroup dynamics, bride-price entails expectations about gender and generational relationships. The reproduction of origin groups and property transmission are key intragroup effects of bride-price. As for intergroup relations, the fact that the groom and bride’s original groups become wife giver and wife taker to each other means they acquire certain mutual duties. Regarding individual effects, changes in people’s status are worth noting. Bride-price entails—in various ways—changes in the bride and groom’s relations and their sense of belonging to their origin groups and, at the same time, to the new collective they come to be related to through marriage. It is important to point out that, in various collectives, a condition for a person to be considered a free and full adult is the presence of bride-price in her/his marriage. Those couples whose unions are mediated by bride-price are seen as more honored than others. Depending on the circumstances, the absence of bride-price in marriage is a risk for a man’s status; it bring with it the menace of his being perceived as a sort of slave, or in a permanent debt relation with his wife givers (McKinnon 1991). Women who are recognized as slaves or originated from low-rank groups may be given in marriage without bride-price. Thus, the existence of bride-price is taken as a signal of a woman’s or her family’s status. The perception of couples whose unions are mediated by bride-price as people of greater value derives, in part, from the association of bride-price with kastom, tradition, or culture. Such ideas are sometimes claimed as sacred and exclusively local. Thus, the reproduction of bride-price is also experienced as a way to foster and mark people’s identity as opposed to what is considered to be another people’s way of life (see Jolly 2015). The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Edited by Hilary Callan. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ❦ ❦ ❦ Trim Size: 170mm x 244mm 2 ❦ Callan wbiea1369.tex V1 - 07/24/2017 7:56 A.M. Page 2 B R I D E - P R I CE Although bride-price has been taken to be an autochthonous institution by many anthropologists, contemporary historical research suggests that it was introduced by missionaries or other government agents in various places in order to ban direct sister exchange (Jorgensen 1993). This exchange was considered as offensive to women, whose individual will was totally ignored. But, in many other places, missionary institutions and agents have been a leading force against bride-price. In other contexts, the emergence of bride-price was a product of local historical developments. As collectives broadened their relationships with groups with which they interacted, bride-pride facilitated a generalized exchange among them. Bride-price has been seen as a modality of gift exchange with long-term reproduction effects, involving persons and the collectives to which they are attached in a complex debt chain. The cohesive effect of bride-price is worth noting. When at least part of the goods that comprise bride-price is amassed only via other bride-price prestations, people become very dependent on each other. Bride-price may be taken as a particular sphere of exchange, subjected to a process of insularization in order to preserve its functions and meanings. Such insularization is produced by controlling the nature of the goods exchanged and the way people assess them. It is not uncommon that controversies about bride-price trigger social conflicts. The monetization of bride-price, extant since colonial times, has brought about new configurations and effects. First and foremost, the fact that money does circulate in other spheres of exchange allows people to obtain it in a more independent way, as through wage labor, for instance. The monetization of bride-price carries the potential disconnection of this institution from the relations and obligations that encompass it. Money in bride-price also entails the risk of its being interpreted as commodity exchange. There have been various discourses worldwide suggesting that bride-price is a device for selling and buying women—for instance, by Christian missionaries and nongovernmental development institutions. Aware of this risk, many people resort to social techniques that inscribe bride-price in the gift regime, stressing the correct time management of the exchanges, the mutual character of the exchanges, and the combined exchange of money and other valuables. The more individual and independent ways men have often accessed money are affecting women’s power positions. It lessens women’s power as sisters, mothers, or wives because men are no longer so dependent on women’s work to cultivate the material assets needed for marriage. Moreover, as it is easier for men to collect the goods and money requested by the wife givers, it is possible that the latter will lose control over their daughter sooner. As a consequence, this may put women in a more vulnerable position. Many people assume that as soon as all the goods and money requested for bride-price are delivered, the wife givers lose rights over the woman given in marriage. If the wife encounters trouble in her life with the husband’s family, she may have no legitimacy to seek help from her origin group. Another important impact of the monetization of bride-price is its inflation, which may make divorce still more difficult. For a divorce to occur, often all the assets and money received by the wife givers must be returned to the wife takers. This situation may cause women to live in very vulnerable positions for a long time. ❦ ❦ ❦ Trim Size: 170mm x 244mm B R I D E - P R I CE Callan wbiea1369.tex V1 - 07/24/2017 7:56 A.M. Page 3 3 As a result of new theoretical developments in anthropology, the current debate about bride-price is closely articulated with issues such as gender relations, child custody, Christianity and other global religions, polygamy, and divorce. Given all these changes, the question to be asked is this: under what conditions, contexts, and mechanisms does bride-price acquire particular meanings and affect sociality and identity? wbiea1391 wbiea1462 wbiea1604 wbiea1677 wbiea1885 wbiea2194 SEE ALSO: <BLIND: BE271>; <DRAFT: Kinship, Overview of>; Cultural Politics; Reproduction; Exchange of Women, Lévi-Strauss and Critiques of; Missionaries and Anthropology; Marriage; Economic Anthropology REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING ❦ Comaroff, John. 1980. “Introduction.” In The Meaning of Marriage Payments, edited by John Comaroff, 1–47. London: Academic Press. Goody, Jack. 1973. “Bridewealth and Dowry in Africa and Euroasia.” In Bridewealth and Dowry, edited by Jack Goody and Stanley Tambiah, 1–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jolly, Margaret. 2015. “Braed Praes in Vanuatu: Both Gifts and Commodities?” In “Gender and Person in Oceania,” edited by Anna-Karina Hermkens, John P. Taylor, Rachel Morgain, special issue, Oceania 85 (1): 63–78. Jorgensen, Dan. 1993. “Money and Marriage in Telefolmin: From Sister Exchange to Daughter as Trade Store.” In The Business of Marriage. Transformations in Oceanic Matrimony, edited by Richard A. Marksbury, 57–82. Association of Social Anthropology in Oceania Monograph 14. Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press. McKinnon, Susan. 1991. From a Shattered Sun: Hierarchy, Gender and Alliance in the Tanimbar Islands. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Parkin, David, and David Nyamwaya, eds. 1987. Transformation of African Marriage. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Valeri, Valerio. 1994. “Buying Women But Not Selling Them: Gift and Commodity Exchange in Huaulu Alliance.” Man (n.s.) 29 (1): 1–26. doi:10.2307/2803508. ❦ ❦ ❦ Trim Size: 170mm x 244mm Callan wbiea1369.tex V1 - 07/24/2017 7:56 A.M. Page 4 Please note that the abstract and keywords will not be included in the printed book, but are required for the online presentation of this book which will be published on Wiley’s own online publishing platform. If the abstract and keywords are not present below, please take this opportunity to add them now. The abstract should be a short paragraph of between 50 and 150 words in length and there should be at least 3 keywords. ABSTRACT ❦ Bride-price is a social technology by means of which people negotiate rights in persons, identities, obligations, belonging, property transmission, power, and alliance relations. Bride-price engages people in a complex debt chain. Bride-price has been characterized as the offering of particular valuables and/or money from wife takers to wife givers in order to seal genetricial rights and access to a woman’s productive potential. Among various peoples, a condition for a person to be considered a complete, free, and full adult is the performance of bride-price in her/his marriage. However, this institution is also the source of many controversies due to its potential association with commodity exchange. Aware of this risk, people resort to social techniques to inscribe bride-price in the gift regime. The current debate about bride-price is closely articulated with issues around gender, child custody, Christianity and other global religions, polygamy, and divorce. KEYWORDS capability and resource management; custom; economic anthropology; exchanges; marriage; social contract; social reproduction ❦ ❦