1996
DOI: 10.1177/006996679603000104
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Dowry and prestige in north India

Abstract: This paper explores the current practice and representation of dowry marriage by members of Brahman, Gosain and Chamar families in semi-rural eastern Uttar Pradesh. The paper approaches dowry not primarily as an institution to do with the transfer of property at marriage, but more importantly as the currently most significant means of assessing and representing social status, honour and prestige in the region. As the most comprehensive public measure of social prestige, dowry was an important arena within whic… Show more

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Cited by 21 publications
(14 citation statements)
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“…Bloch and colleagues (2004) found that brides' families tend to hold more lavish celebrations when their daughters marry a high-quality groom from another village (such that his quality/prestige was previously unknown to those in the bride's village) than when the high-quality groom is from the same village (and his prestige had already been established, thus reducing the need for the bride's family to broadcast their increase in prestige resulting from the marriage). This suggests that these ceremonial expenditures are a form of conspicuous consumption driven by the desire of the bride's family to signal to the community their increased prestige through association with the new 105 Downloaded by [The University of British Columbia] at 12:18 27 June 2013 COMMENTARIES high-quality son-in-law (see also Rao, 2001;Roulet, 1996).…”
Section: Wealth Begets Prestigementioning
confidence: 99%
“…Bloch and colleagues (2004) found that brides' families tend to hold more lavish celebrations when their daughters marry a high-quality groom from another village (such that his quality/prestige was previously unknown to those in the bride's village) than when the high-quality groom is from the same village (and his prestige had already been established, thus reducing the need for the bride's family to broadcast their increase in prestige resulting from the marriage). This suggests that these ceremonial expenditures are a form of conspicuous consumption driven by the desire of the bride's family to signal to the community their increased prestige through association with the new 105 Downloaded by [The University of British Columbia] at 12:18 27 June 2013 COMMENTARIES high-quality son-in-law (see also Rao, 2001;Roulet, 1996).…”
Section: Wealth Begets Prestigementioning
confidence: 99%
“…Indeed, cultural participation and consumption may be better measures of status and status insecurities in many contexts (Bourdieu 1984). As recent demographic research has suggested, conspicuous cultural practices such as dowry in local communities may be stronger drivers of relative deprivation in low-income contexts where cash income is limited, but symbolic capital can be expansive, comes with substantial rewards, and can be converted to other forms of capital (Ellison 2002;Roulet 1996).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…By marrying a daughter to a high-status groom, the bridal family solidifies and increases social prestige (Bloch, Rao, and Desai 2004;Harrell and Dickey 1985;Mandelbaum 1988:24, 68;Roulet 1996). Using dowry, bridal families in a community vigorously compete for high status matches.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Thus, dowry at present has gained a status symbol and people who do not practice it are sometimes devalued in the society (Majumdar, 2001). According to Roulet (1996) dowry is not merely an institution confined to valorisation of marriage but serves more importantly as a central institution to define social prestige and status thus becomes an important dimension of people"s representation of themselves and other. Rajaraman (1983) agrees with the view that dowry and social prestige are closely associated.…”
Section: Mother's Attitude Towards Dowry In Daughter's Marriage:-mentioning
confidence: 99%