DERAP Working Paper
| 1990
Dowry and bridewealth presentations in rural Bangladesh: Commodities, gifts and hybrid forms?
Bergen: Chr. Michelsen Institute (DERAP Working Paper D 1990: 10) 165 p.
This study investigates marriage presentations of Bengali Muslims, Rajbansis and aboriginal Oraons on the basis of a comprehensive review of theories of marriage in general and marriage presentations in particular. Based on empirical evidence from the period 1915-1988 the study questions a number of assumptions: the radical opposition between dowry and bridewealth, and that the market only recently has eaten its way into social relations, distorted primary bonds and rendered women kinship impregnated commodities.
