Pauline Kolenda's Dowry System As A Dowry System

In certain communities in South Asia, the low status of girls has to be compensated for by the payment of a dowry by the parents of the girl to the husband at the time of marriage. This has resulted in a number of dowry crimes, including mental and physical torture, starvation, rape, and even the burning alive of women by their husbands and/or in-laws in cases where dowry payments are not met.

According to Hinduism the female was created by Brahman as part of the duality in creation, to provide company to men and facilitate procreation, progeny and continuation of family linage. The Vedas suggest that a woman’s primary duty is to help her husband in performing obligatory duties and enable him to continue his family tradition. Her primary duty is to give birth to his children and take care of them. Hinduism is a predominantly male dominated religion. Woman play a secondary role. The situation is gradually changing. It is difficult to draw generalizations about the status of present day Hindu women because of society is complex. In general, life in cities is much different from life in the rural areas. Those who live abroad live in different conditions than those who live in the country. Yet, we have ample indications that women are still subject to many restrictions and disabilities in rural area as well as urban areas. The financial independence of woman and the education levels of the family play an important role in this regard. Women in urban areas face numerous challenges in their professions and personal lives. But overall, life is better for them compared to the past. Love marriage outside of the caste or community are scorned and sometimes the couples are killed or excommunicated by the elders in the family or village. Widows can now have a life of their own and even remarry. They draw a lot of sympathy. But

In the typical Indian family, gender construction manifests itself especially in the roles of men and women in the household. As Judith Lorber so aptly put, “gender is a process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities” which in turn, creates the social differences that define a “man” and “woman” (Lorber). It is these differences that are used to construct and maintain an established gender order within the family. In the conventional Indian family, the order is such that the roles of the women in the household revolve around the roles of the men. This structure was something that I saw from an early age in my parents’ marriage. Though my parents defied the Indian norm of the arranged marriage, they still represented the quintessential model of an Indian couple in many other ways. My mother left her job to become a stay-at-home mom when I was about six years old. However, even before she left her job, she was implicitly expected by my father to shoulder most of the housework including cooking, cleaning, and caring for my older brother

When a ‘bacha posh’ is ordered by her parents to return to womanhood, it often indicates that it is time for her to get married. Many would struggle with their identity of once again being a woman oppressed in such a society considering they were used to years of liberated lifestyle as a man. They reported to have problems acting and behaving like a woman and have problems restricting themselves to acts that are only deemed appropriate. Although so,

This joint family, like any social organization, must face problems such as acceptable division of work, relationships and specific family roles. These familial relationships are managed on the basis of a secular hierarchical principle. In fact, all Indians owe respect and obedience to the head of the family, who usually is the father or the oldest man of the family community. In The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder by Nanda and Gregg, it is explained that, “females [are] placed under the perpetual guardianship of first their fathers and elder brothers, then their husbands.” (Nanda & Gregg 22) Thus, all the spending decisions, studies and profession, or marriage, are exclusively the responsibility of the father after the possible discussions with the other men of the family. Age and sex are the basic principles of this hierarchical system. The eldest sons enjoy greater unchallenged authority than their cadets. Of course men have more authority than women, but older married women have an important role within the family. In fact, the authority of a woman depends on the rank of her husband inside the group. Traditionally, the wife of the patriarch rules over domestic affairs and has considerable power over the other women in the community, especially her daughters- in-law.

Nevertheless, it’s important to distinguish between what a culture can promote as a norm and what a traditional culture can enforce. In the informational text “What is Cultural Identity?” Trumbull and Pacheco use the example of arranged marriage in India. For many years, children went along with this practice because they had no choice. Back when children were totally dependent on their parents for support, the consequences for defying one’s family would be disastrous; however, in modern India “individuals reject the practice of arranged marriage; this is partly due to the sense of independence from family brought on by both men’s and women’s participation in a rapidly developing job market” (Trumbull and Pacheco 8-9).

Describe the correlation between bride wealth and stability of marriage. How is your understanding of this relationship impacted by the status of women in pastoral societies?

Parent understand that their girls are a burden and their sons are a gift, and this is what their sons and daughters grow up believing. The dowry placed on girls plays greatly into the sex-selected abortion rate in India. Boys are plainly and simply a better financial investment. Boys will not cost the parents money for marriage, in fact, with a marriage, they are guaranteed to make the parents money. Parents forced with the decision to have a girl and deal with the financial consequences, or abort and hope and pray for better luck in the gender of their child next time around. Quite often they chose the

Throughout history, women have been treated as if they were belongings. Not only were rights given only to men, but those so called rights gave men power over women. The power relationships in the household of China started in the marriage negotiations, with the intricate dances of the gift exchanges and dowry, and continued on through the rest of the woman's life. The negotiations for the bride were conducted not with love, or feeling, or her interest in mind, but for the family, for the money, and for the benefits of marriage. An elaborate tradition whose roots were set in the ownership of women by men, marriage was often a cruel institution. The mistreatment did not end there. It continued on the wedding day, after the wedding

In the UN article they talk about an increased in number of dowry murders especially in south Asia. Furthermore, this same point is tackled on by MacKinnon where she says that you cannot say that women are human if they are still being burned when their dowry is not enough. Consequently, the above views all enforcing the fact that women are killed when their dowry was not enough; reinforce violation against

Today, Indian society is surrounded with many problems such as unemployment, illiteracy, population growth, terrorism, etc. Among these problems, a problem which is deep rooted in Indian society is the problem of dowry system. It has become the every day news item, no day passes away when we don't hear news relating to dowry death or

Summary and Reaction In her 2001 film, Dorothy Fadiman highlights the plight of women in rural India and brings to light the extreme gender bias they face. We are told that women are regularly barred from education and given less food. Young girls are expected to work on family farms and for long hours that cause them to become educationally stunted. These long hours also contribute to significant pain in their later years.

A family in Sikhism is formed by caste and gender. Where, a marriage “is based upon broad kinship relationships” (Pechilis 239). Uniting the “two groups of kin rather than two individuals” (Pechilis 239). Signifying the relationship of family in the many cultural norms of honor, as modesty that takes place in it. While in the caste system there is the view that the divine name is the way of liberation for all the castes. Breaking the rigidity that exists upon them, like placing the Khatri above the Brahmins. Since in the religion of Sikhism there is no discrimination due to the caste system and each member of the Sikh religion is seen equally. In demonstrating this equality Sikh members “eat together in the community kitchen, share the same sanctified food and worship together” (Pechilis 239). In accordance to gender family is seen in this aspect by the women’s role, as “a good daughter or sister and a good wife and mother within the context of family life” (Pechilis 239). This view of the ideal women, also accounts to men and whoever does not follow these norms placed on them are condemned. Since they don’t only harm themselves with the decision they have taken to not follow the norms. They, also harm their family and their status as a women or men. For example rape is one of the ways one can lose their honor. This is what family in Sikhism constitutes

Daughters are considered to be an economic problem to her parents mainly because of the heavy dowry payment demanded by the groom's family, as well as the high cost of the wedding,

At last, today's marriage is getting involved into materialism as well. True love is changing to the relationship of money. People do not treat marriage as serious as before. So many young girls are having sex with rich men. A young girl told me, "Marriage is my bridge to be the rich. Meanwhile, many people do not want take the traditional family responsibilities because they are strongly influenced by materialism. For example, my cousin, a 42-year-old successful man, wound not marry one of his girlfriends. He said, "Family duties are too much. Comparing with spending too much money of raising children, I prefer to enjoy single's life as spending money on luxurious things for myself." Family values become very poor in some people's mind.