The idea, practice, and politics of dowry in two north Indian villages.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the ways in which dowry marriage is constructed in discourse and practice among members of three caste communities within two neighboring villages in eastern Uttar Pradesh, north India. The research is based on methods of participant observation during residence in one of the villages. Dowry marriage is generally interpreted as a kind of property transfer at marriage, in the form of a pre-mortem inheritance by daughters. In north India, it is argued, since daughters often do not retain control over that property, dowry acts as an affinal gift, and the institution is detrimental to the status of women. Given the widespread adoption of dowry marriage throughout India, this is viewed as a serious problem for increasing numbers of women, whose social status is threatened. The dissertation questions the assumptions inherent in these predictions and argues that one must reconceptualize dowry in the north Indian context. Rather than operate only as a transfer of property, dowry here acts more significantly as the most comprehensive prestige system that is available to people. The dissertation looks at the institution of dowry in terms of its discursive and ideational elaboration, its practice, and the everyday political uses to which it is put by people. It explores how dowry marriage is discursively constructed in terms of the idioms of demanded versus voluntary gift; traditional versus modern practice; and a transaction that is imbued with a sense of trust versus distrust. It then examines how dowry marriage is practiced by people of the Brahman, Gosain, and Chamar castes within the villages, and it is noted that there are significant differences in how the institution is practically elaborated and configured within a broader system of social relations. Finally, it looks at how dowry marriage is represented and manipulated by people in their everyday negotiations of status within family, household, and village contexts. Overall, dowry marriage is understood, not as a uniform transfer of property at marriage, but as a multivalent practice, symbol, and tool that is used by men and women in the definition and representation of self and other within the villages.