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CULTURES:
Control
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Ownership In the context of this site, the concept of ‘ownership’ is used to describe relationships in which one party feels they have rights over and control of the other because of a sense of believing they ‘own’ them as they would any other commodity. This is usually ownership by men of women and is most often occurs in cultures in which marriage also includes some concept of dowry or bride price, or in which the marriage ceremony or ritual includes the understanding of ‘giving’ the bride to the groom, so a woman passes from ownership by her father to ownership by her husband. A dowry (also known as trousseau) is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage. It is either paid to the groom, or used by the bride to help establish the new household. Bride price, also known as bride wealth, is an amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom. Dower is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. Information about the practice of bride-burning which occurs when a young woman is murdered by her husband or his family for her family's refusal to pay additional dowry and which may account for around 600-750 deaths a year in India alone Criticisms of the bride price custom include it being seen as a social custom that permits the sale and purchase of girls and women, women are assimilated to merchandise that men can exchange with other merchandise such as money or women and may, in poor families, lead to daughters being for sale to the highest bidder. Another problem that has been linked with the bride price custom is marriage by abduction. Men who cannot afford to pay the normal bride price may abduct and rape young teenage girls in an attempt to force their parents to agree to the marriage and to a reduction in the bride price. Mifumi sees Bride Price as a leading cause of abuse of women Traffickers may pay families for their relatives but then hold the individual in debt bondage to pay the amount back. even if the trafficked person does manage to do that, there may be too much shame in returning to their family and leaving their 'owner'.
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