Ethiopians in Traditional Marriag
Marriage merely means a socially approved sexual and economic union between a woman and a man. It is presumed, both by the couple and by others, to be more or less permanent, and it subsumes reciprocal rights and obligations between the two spouses and between spouses and their future children.
Why the need of it?
Economic Aspects of Marriage
It is not man that marries maid,” the German peasant saying indicates that in many societies marriage involves economic considerations. The economic transaction may take several forms: bride price, bride service, exchange of females, gift exchange and dowry.
Bride price. Bride price (or bride wealth) is a gift of money or goods from the groom or his kin to the bride’s. the gift usually grants the groom the right to marry the bride and the right to her children. Of all the forms of economic transaction involved in marriage, bride price is the most common. Bride price payment can made in different currencies, livestock and food are two of the more common. Nowadays, money has increasingly become part of the bride price payments.
Bride price:
- Does not reduce a woman to the position of slave
- If the marriage fails, the family may not return the bride price to the groom
- The wife’s kin pressure her to remain because they do not want to return the bride price or unable to do so.
Bride service: Bride service requires the groom to work for the bride’s family, sometimes before the marriage begins, sometimes after. In some societies bride service sometimes substitute for bride price. Exchange of females. Of the societies that have economic transactions at marriage, 6 percent has the custom where by asister or female relative of the groom is exchanged for the bride.
Eg. Tiv in west Africa
Yonomamo of Venezuela- Brazil
These societies tend to be horticultural and to have a relatively high contribution of women to primary subsistence.
Gift exchange: Gift exchange, which involves the exchange of gifts of about equal value by the two kin groups about to be linked by marriage, occurs some what more often than the exchange of females. For example, as soon as a boy and girl indicate their intention to marry, their respective sects of parents cease all communication and begin sending gifts of food and other objects to each other through a third party.
Dowry: A dowry is usually a substantial transfer of goods or money from the bride’s family to the bride. Payment of dowries was common in medieval and renaissance Europe, where the...!