dowry
Dowry ( Middle High German mitegift "the cogiven") or dowry (also dowry, formerly home control) designated assets in the form of goods and household items , a bride with the marriage brings. The dowry is a culturally determined form of the exchange of gifts on the occasion of a marriage . It is given from the father of the bride (or her kin ) to the father of the groom (or his kin) or directly to the couple.
In Germany it was common until the late 20th century for young women to have accumulated a basic set of goods for the future household by the time they got married . These goods, known as trousseau , often consisted of high-quality home textiles, crockery and other items required in the household ("trousseau quality"), which were usually acquired in the form of gifts and kept until they married. The word component tax is derived from the Old High German stiura "help, aid". The dowry was chosen in quantity and quality with the appropriate financial possibilities so that it lasted well into old age. This tradition lost its importance in the course of the 20th century and is practiced occasionally in the present.
species
The British ethnologist Jack Goody made a distinction in 1973 between direct and indirect dowry: the direct dowry is paid by the bride's relatives (mostly her parents), while the less common indirect dowry is paid by the groom's family.
The Roman historian Tacitus describes the marriage customs of the Teutons in his work Germania around 100 AD : The dowry is not given by the wife to the husband, but by him, namely cattle and a bridled horse and a shield with a Germanic lance and sword. Parents and relatives checked the presents, whereupon the husband received his wife; she too gave the man some weapons.
Other systems of marriage gifts
The counterpart to the dowry is the " counterpoint ": assets that are contributed by the husband to the marital assets and above all serve to protect the widows . The “ morning gift ” also goes directly to the bride from the husband or his family and is at her disposal; traditionally it was paid the morning after the wedding night.
While the dowry benefit the young couple, a " bride price " (bride price) before the wedding the groom to the father or the bride's family paid.
purpose
The dowry should enable the (young) couple to have their own household . If the husband dies, it will serve as financial security for his widow.
In societies that exclude daughters from the line of inheritance (see patrilinearity ), the dowry can also be viewed as a preferred inheritance.
Cultural impact
The amount of the dowry depends primarily on the social position of the groom, which effectively prevents women from lower social classes from marrying into higher classes without explicit prohibitions being required.
In addition to the wives themselves, this development is also problematic for society as a whole, as daughters are seen as an existential risk of poverty in many families. As a result, female fetuses are frequently aborted after a prenatal sex determination (see sex-selective abortion ). In some areas of South and East Asia, the ratio of men to women is now 10: 7. There is a demographically unfavorable development.
history
The custom of the dowry was widespread in many parts of the world, especially in Europe in the Roman Dotalrecht (from dos "dowry"), as well as in Africa and India. The dowry was already regulated in the Codex Hammurapi , a roughly 3700 year old collection of laws. While it is practically no longer common in Europe today, it has survived in other parts of the world.
Legal situation today
In German law, the so-called equipment of the child is a special form of donation from the parents' assets on the occasion of marriage or setting up a business, gender-neutral ( Section 1624 BGB ). There is no actionable claim. In the event of the death of her father, the daughter only has to have the dowry credited to her inheritance in accordance with §§ 2050 ff. BGB if she was also financed vocational training , according to the Federal Court of Justice . A legal guardian is allowed to grant equipment as an exception to the prohibition of donations ( § 1804 BGB) by § 1908 BGB.
See also
- Dowry murder (especially common in India)
- Morgengabe (German and Islamic tradition)
- Paraphernalia (legal history: personal property of the bride)
literature
- Jack Goody, Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah: Bridewealth and Dowry (= Cambridge Papers in Social Anthropology. Volume 7). Cambridge University Press, London / New York 1973, ISBN 0-521-20169-1 (English; excerpt in the Google book search).
- Tileman Dothias Wiarda , Asega book an old Frisian law book of the Rüstringer p.109 The trousseau in Frisian law
Web links
- Helmut Lukas, Vera Schindler, Johann Stockinger: dowry. In: Online Interactive Glossary: Marriage, Marriage, and Family. Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1997 (detailed notes, with references).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helmut Lukas, Vera Schindler, Johann Stockinger: Mitgift. In: Online Interactive Glossary: Marriage, Marriage, and Family. Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1997, accessed on May 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Tacitus , Germania 18.2 ( online with translation at gottwein.de).
- ↑ Jochen Buchsteiner: Demography: Nine women for ten men. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . November 29, 2005. Retrieved May 18, 2019 (Female Embryonic Abortions in India).
- ↑ Distribution map : Gender balance: Map of Kerala. In: mapsofindia.com. Compare Infobase Ltd., Delhi, accessed on May 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Wiki entry: The dos (dowry). In: Theoria Romana: Ehe. 2013, accessed on May 18, 2019 (in Imperium-romanum.info , on the Manushehe ).
