MARITAL PAYMENTS: THE CASE OF TIBETAN NOMADS

Among most ethnic groups of the world, marriage is associated with economic exchanges which customarily take the forms of bridewealth or dowry. Bridewealth is a gift of money or goods given to the bride's relatives by the groom or his kin, whereas dowry involves goods or money given by the bride's family to the bride, the groom, or the groom's family. Although discussions of bridewealth and dowry are long-standing, some questions remain. For example, why should bridewealth be more common in horticultural and pastoral societies, while dowry is more common in agricultural European and Asian societies? Jack Goody (l974) has theorized that the nature of marriage payments depends on the extent of women's contributions to the domestic economy and that such contributions are more substantial under horticultural and pastoral regimes. Moreover, he explains dowry as a kind of inheritance system for women, paid out in advance of their parent's deaths. Here we will utilize first-hand materials based on our own field research among Tibetan pastoral nomads, together with published data on these populations, to test Goody's theory. We will consider whether his explanation accurately represents the circumstances of Tibetan nomadic communities and whether marital payments indeed relate to the level of women's economic contributions to their families. Finally, we will consider whether there are any relationships between marital transactions and inheritance patterns. Research sites and methods Our research was conducted in the summer of l994 with Tibetan nomads in Sertha