Situating marriage payments
There are very few contextual accounts of bride-price payments among north Indian communities. Despite the paucity of ethnographic data, assumptions regarding transitions in the practice are commonplace. This article discusses marriage payments among the Bedia community within the broader context of their survival upon familial prostitution and focusses upon how they construe bride-price and dowry, both practiced under varied circumstances. I argue that Bedia marriage payments do not neatly fit into the prevailing assumptions regarding transitions from dowry to bride-price and are constructed differently under different conditions. The internal variations and contradictions in these constructions are interpreted in light of the social location and practices of Bedias.
Modernization, inter-caste marriage, and dowry: An analytical perspective
As economic growth and development occurs in India, it has been thought that dowry would decline as an institution. However, the practice of dowry has rapidly spread to regions in India where previously it was not extensively practiced and dowry inflation may be occurring. In this paper, a simple analytical model of dowry, based upon caste determined status differentials, is developed. The model assumes that some inter-caste marriage occurs. The implications of the model are that gross dowry inflation is fueled by economic growth, but net dowry remains unchanged. More importantly, unequal growth stimulates an expansion of the practice of dowry to lower castes.
Marriage and remarriage among Bombay Roman Catholics.
Data from the records of four Roman Catholic parishes in Bombay India are analyzed to examine trends in marriage age and remarriage during the period 1869-1984. The author notes that "remarriages were prevalent...even in the nineteenth century...[and remarriage] showed a continuous decline indicating that the age at first marriage and the age at widowhood increased steadily among Roman Catholics in the recent periods." (EXCERPT)