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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page paper assessing whether bridewealth and dowry practices in Africa protect women or further gender inequality. Both bridewealth and dowry have had the effect of redistributing wealth within the areas in which the people practicing it live, and in so doing also provide a homogenizing effect on class and status in Africa. The nature and uses of both forms have been changing in recent years, however, so that at present bridewealth among the elites often fills a role traditionally reserved for dowry. Though the concepts of bridewealth and dowry seem backward to those not practicing them, they have the effect of protecting women rather than undermining the advance of gender equality in Africa. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: CC6_KSafrBridew.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
dowry have had the effect of redistributing wealth within the areas in which the people practicing it live, and in so doing also provide a homogenizing effect on class and
status in Africa. The nature and uses of both forms have been changing in recent years, however, so that at present bridewealth among the elites often fills a role
traditionally reserved for dowry. Though the concepts of bridewealth and dowry seem backward to those not practicing them, they have the effect of protecting women rather than undermining the
advance of gender equality in Africa. Definitions Both bridewealth and dowry refer to the transfer of wealth from one family to another.
In the case of bridewealth, the future husbands family transfers ownership of goods and services to the family of the future bride. Tradition holds that the brides family then
gives the received bridewealth to the newly married couple as a stake in the beginning of their lives together. Dowry moves in the
opposite direction. It originates with the brides family and is designated for the couple rather than for the husbands family. It is an important economic institution as well
in that it effectively gives the bride her share of the familys fortune. Traditional Uses Hanson (2002) explains that dowry can take the
form of moveable or stationary property, cash or a combination of assets. Examples of moveable property include "bedding, cooking utensils, jewelry, animals" (Hanson, 2002); stationary property of course refers
to land or buildings. Goody (n.d.) was the first to describe dowry as more than only the transfer of wealth from the brides
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