A dowry is a transfer of parental property at the marriage of a daughter.
Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment by the groom or his family to the bride's parents, dowry is the wealth transferred from the bride's family to the groom or his family, ostensibly for the bride. Similarly, dower is the property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage and which remains under her ownership and control. Locally, dowry is called
dahej in Hindi,
jahez in Arabic,
çeyiz in Turkish,
dot in French, and in various parts of Africa a
s serotwana, idana, saduquat, mahari, mugtaf, and wine-carrying.
Dowry is an ancient custom, and its existence may well predate records of it. Dowries continue to be expected, and demanded as a condition to accept a marriage proposal, in some parts of the world, mainly in parts of Asia, North Africa and the Balkans.
Anthropologist Jack Goody's comparative study of dowry systems around the world utilizing the Ethnographic Atlas demonstrated that dowry is a form of inheritance found in the broad swath of Eurasian societies from Japan to Ireland that practice "diverging devolution", i.e., that transmit property to children of both sexes. This practice differs from the majority of Sub-Saharan African societies that practice "homogenous inheritance" in which property is transmitted only to children of the same sex as the property holder. These latter African societies are characterized by the transmission of the ill-named "bride price," the money, goods or property given by the groom or his family to the parents of the bride (not the bride herself).
China
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ge_closeup.jpg/220px-Jade_cabbage_closeup.jpg
Jadeite Cabbage - Jin received it as part of her dowry for her wedding to Guangxu, in 1889; originally displayed in Forbidden City (Beijing), it is now in National Palace Museum (Taipei City).
Dowry was common in different historic periods of China and continued through the modern history. Locally called Jià zhuÄng (å«å¦), the dowry ranged from land, jewelry, money to a collection of clothing, sewing equipment and collection of household items. Mann and others find that dowry was a form of inheritance to daughters. In traditional China, the property owned by a family, if any, was earmarked for equal division or inheritance by sons only. Dowry was the only way assets were transferred to a daughter. It include immovable property such as land, and movable property like jewelry and fine clothing. The dowry she brought with her was typically sequestered from the property of her husband and other male members in a joint family. She would often sell this property for cash to overcome hard economic times or needs of her children and husband. In few cases, she may transfer the property she brought as dowry to her daughter or daughter-in-law. Dowry assets once transferred in turn constituted separate wealth of the woman who received it (sifang qian, etc.). Often a woman who brought a large dowry was considered more virtuous in Chinese culture than one who didn't. In parts of China, both dowry and brideprice (pinjin) were practiced from ancient eras to the 20th century.
Dowry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia