Dowry, the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband or his family in marriage. most common in cultures that are strongly patrilineal and that expect women to reside with or near their husband’s family (patrilocality), dowries have a long history in europe, south asia, africa, and other parts of the world.a young woman sitting in front of her dowry, consisting of a variety of appliances, in nolda, …apone of the basic functions of a dowry has been to serve as a form of protection for the wife against the very real possibility of ill treatment by her husband and his family. a dowry used in this way is actually a conditional gift that is supposed to be restored to the wife or her family if the husband divorces, abuses, or commits other grave offenses against her. land and precious metals have often been used in this form of dowry and are frequently inalienable by the husband, though he might otherwise use and profit from them during the marriage.a dowry sometimes serves to a new husband discharge the responsibilities that go with marriage. this function assumes special importance in societies where marriages have regularly been made between very young people; the dowry enables the new couple to establish a household, which they otherwise would not have been able to do. in some societies a dowry provides the wife with a means of support in case of her husband’s death. in this latter case the dowry may be seen as a substitute for her inheritance of all or part of her husband’s estate.in many societies, dowries have served as a reciprocal gesture by the bride’s kin to the groom’s kin for the expenses incurred by the latter in payment of bridewealth. these exchanges are not purely economic but instead serve to ratify the marriage and consolidate friendship between the two families.britannica storiesin the news / health & medicinepollution responsible for one in four deaths of small childrendemystified / scienceis climate change real? spotlight / historythe legacy of order 9066 and japanese american internmentin the news / health & medicinesickle cell disease reversed with gene therapyin medieval and renaissance europe, the dowry frequently served not only to enhance the desirability of a woman for marriage but also to build the power and wealth of great families and even to determine the frontiers and policies of states. the use of dowries more or less disappeared in europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. in some other places, however, dowries grew in popularity at the end of the 20th century, even when declared illegal or otherwise discouraged by governments. in south asia, for instance, parents of the groom have sometimes demanded compensation for their son’s higher education and future earnings, which the bride would ostensibly share. learn more in these related articles: in india: family and ) in occasional female infanticide, and increasingly in the abortion of female fetuses following prenatal gender testing. this pattern of preference is largely connected to the institution of dowry, since the family’s obligation to provide a suitable dowry to the bride’s new family represents a major financial liability. traditionally, women were expected to treat their husbands as more in hinduism: the religious situation after dealt by legislation in 1955 and 1956 that gave full rights of inheritance to widows and daughters, enforced monogamy, and permitted divorce on quite easy terms. the 1961 law forbidding dowries further undermined traditional hinduism. although the dowry has long been a tremendous burden to the parents of daughters, the strength of social custom is such that the law cannot be more in inheritance (law): roman at all. as long as any relative, no matter how remote, could be found, the family wealth was not to be diverted from the bloodline. but a widow’s needs were ordinarily taken care of by the dowry, which, given to the husband, usually by her family, at the time of the marriage, was to be hers after the husband’s death. for the exceptional case of a “poor widow”—i.e., a dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband or his family in marriage. dowries are most common in cultures that are strongly patrilineal-that is, descent is traced through the father in the male line. property in such cultures is passed on from fathers to sons (not daughters). the woman also usually lives with or near her husband’s family after marriage. dowries are common in societies that favor arranged marriages (in which a person’s spouse is selected by his or her family). dowries have a long history in europe, south asia, africa, and other parts of the world
