Bride price

Bride price, best called bridewealth, also known as bride token, is an amount of money, property or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the parents of the woman he has just married or is just about to marry. Bride price can be compared to dowry, which is paid to the groom, or used by the bride to help establish the new household; and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The bride price agreed may or may not be intended to reflect the perceived value of the woman.

Some cultures may practice both dowry and bride price simultaneously. Many cultures practiced bride price prior to existing records.

Function

In anthropological literature, bride price has often been explained in market terms, as payment made in exchange for the bride's family's loss of her labor and fertility within her kin group.

The bride price may be seen as similar to the payment of alimony (maintenance) to the wife in the event of divorce and the payment of family maintenance in the event of the husband not providing adequately for the wife in his will. Another function of the bride price was or is to provide a disincentive for the husband to divorce his wife: If the amount is high enough, it isn't easy for him to be able to pay for a new wife.