BRIDEWEALTH

also called Bride-price, or Marriage Payment, the payment made by the groom or his kin to the kin of the wife in order to ratify a marriage. The practice is common in all parts of the globe in one form or another, but, as an instrument for the legitimation of a marriage, bridewealth is most highly developed in Africa. In many African societies the husband may not assume full rights over the sexual, economic, or procreative powers of his wife until a standard portion of the bridewealth has been transferred. Consistently, a marriage is not reckoned to have ended until the return of bridewealth has been acknowledged, signifying divorce. The payment of bridewealth is most often a matter of social and symbolic as well as economic reciprocity, being part of a long series of exchanges between the two intermarrying families, consolidating friendly relations between them if they are not already united by ties of kinship. It is a pledge that the wife will be well treated and is also in some sense a compensation for her loss. Payment may consist of goods or, less frequently, of services; and it may be paid in one sum or regularly over a long period of time. The goods transferred vary considerably from specified amounts of livestock or spears to bolts of cloth, drink, food, money, or even an exchange of women.