Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Brideservice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since October 2006. |
| Close Relationships |
|
Affinity • Attachment • Bisexuality • Bonding • Cohabitation • Compersion • Concubinage • Courtship • Divorce • Friendship • Family • Homosexuality • Heterosexuality • Incest • Infatuation • Intimacy • Jealousy • Limerence • Love • Marriage • Monogamy • Nonmonogamy • Passion • Partner • Pederasty • Platonic love • Psychology of Monogamy • Relational aggression • Sexuality • Separation • Widowhood • |
Brideservice has traditionally been portrayed in the anthropological literature as the service rendered to the bride’s family by the bridegroom as a brideprice or part of one (see dowry).
Brideservice and bridewealth models frame anthropological discussions of kinship in many regions of the world, see for instance: Langenbahn 1989; Fricke, Thornton and Dahal 1998; Hagen 1999; Gose 2000; Helliwell 2000; and Jamieson 2003.
Patterns of uxorilocal post-marital residence, as well as the practice of temporary or prolonged brideservice, have been widely reported for Native Amazonia (among others, see Arvelo-Jiménez 1971:104; Dumont 1978:75; Harner 1973:79-80; Hill & Moran 1983:124-25; Holmberg 1969:217; Kracke 1976; Maybury-Lewis 1971:384; 1967:97f; 1979:9; Murphy 1956; Rivière 1984:40f; Renshaw 2002:186ff; Siskind 1977:79-81; Turner 1979:159-60; Whitten & Whitten 1984:209). In Amazonia, brideservice is frequently performed in conjunction with an interval of uxorilocal residence. The length of uxorilocal residence and the duration of brideservice are contingent upon negotiations between the concerned parties, the outcome of which has been characterized as an enduring commitment or permanent debt (Rosengren 1987:127; cf. Gow 1989a:187-8). The power wielded by those who “give” wives over those who “take” them is also said to be a significant part of the political relationships in societies where brideservice obligations are prevalent (Rivière 1977:41; Mentore 1987:511-27).
Rather than seeing affinity in terms of a "compensation" model whereby individuals are exchanged as objects, Dean’s (1995) research on Amazonian brideservice among the Urarina demonstrates how differentially situated subjects negotiate the politics of marriage. (See Bartholomew Dean "Forbidden fruit: infidelity, affinity and brideservice among the Urarina of Peruvian Amazonia." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1995 (1)
A famous example of brideservice occurs in the Book of Genesis, when Jacob labors for Laban for fourteen years to win Rachel and Leah.