Bride service has traditionally been portrayed in theanthropological literature as the service rendered by thebridegroom to a bride's family as abride price or part of one (seedowry). Bride service andbride wealth models frame anthropological discussions ofkinship in many regions of the world.[1]
Patterns ofmatrilocal post-marital residence, as well as the practice of temporary or prolonged bride service, have been widely reported forindigenous peoples of theAmazon basin.[2] Among these people, bride service is frequently performed in conjunction with an interval ofuxorilocal residence. The length of uxorilocal residence and the duration of bride service are contingent upon negotiations between the concerned parties, the outcome of which has been characterized as an enduring commitment or permanentdebt.[3][4] Thepower 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 bride service obligations are prevalent.[5][6]
Rather than seeing affinity in terms of a "compensation" model whereby individuals are exchanged asobjects, Dean’s (1995) research on Amazon bride service among theUrarina[7] demonstrates how differentially situated subjects negotiate the politics ofmarriage.[8]
"Bride service" involves a comparatively minimal amount of wealth transfer between families, especially if it is performed by a solitary prospective groom rather than by his entire family or clan. Thus, bride-service "may in many cases function more as a trial marriage than as a [form of] payment."[9] Bride service has traditionally been practiced byJivaro people in Peru–Ecuador andTimbira people in Brazil.[9]
An example of bride service occurs in theBook of Genesis, whenJacob labored forLaban for fourteen years to marryRachel. The original deal was seven years, but when the wedding day arrived, Laban tricked Jacob by giving himLeah, his older daughter, instead of Rachel. Jacob then had to work for Laban another seven years before he was permitted to marry Rachel.
Langenbahn, Hans-Jürgen (1989). "Bridewealth and bride-service among the Ingessana (Rep. of Sudan)".Sociologus.39 (1):36–53.JSTOR43645292.
Fricke, Tom; Thornton, Arland; Dahal, Dilli R. (1998). "Netting in Nepal: Social change, the life course, and brideservice in Sangila".Human Ecology.26 (2):213–237.doi:10.1023/A:1018766806955.PMID12293840.S2CID21202633.
Gose, Peter (2000). "The state as a chosen woman: Brideservice and the feeding of tributaries in the Inka empire".American Anthropologist.102 (1):84–97.doi:10.1525/aa.2000.102.1.84.JSTOR683540.
Jamieson, Mark (June 2000). "It's Shame That Makes Men and Women Enemies: The Politics of Intimacy among the Miskitu of Kakabila".Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.6 (2):311–325.doi:10.1111/1467-9655.00018.JSTOR2660898.
Hill, Johnathan; Moran, Emilio F. (1983). "Adaptive strategies of Wakuenai peoples to the oligotrophic rain forest of the Rio Negro basin". In Hames, Raymond; Vickers, William (eds.).Adaptive responses of Native Amazonians. New York: Academic Press. pp. 124–25.
^Rosengren, Dan (1987).In the eyes of the beholder: Leadership and the social construction of power and dominance among the Matsigenka of the Peruvian Amazon. Göteborg: Göteborgs etnografiska museum. p. 127.
^Gow, Peter (December 1989). "The perverse child: Desire in a native Amazonian subsistence economy".Man.24 (4):299–314.doi:10.2307/2804288.JSTOR2804288.
^Rivière, Peter G (1977). "Some problems in the comparative study of Carib societies". In Basso, Ellen B. (ed.).Carib-speaking Indians: culture, society, and language. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. p. 41.
^Mentore, George P. (September 1987). "Waiwai women: the basis of wealth and power".Man.22 (3):511–27.doi:10.2307/2802503.JSTOR2802503.
Maybury-Lewis, David (1971).Some principles of social organization among the Central Gê. Verhandlungen des XXXVIII Internationalen Amerikanistenkongresses. Vol. 3. p. 384.
Maybury-Lewis, David (1979). "Kinship, ideology, and culture". In Maybury-Lewis, David (ed.).Dialectical societies: the Gê and Bororo of Central Brazil. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 9.ISBN9780674202856.OCLC253693411.
Murphy, Robert F. (1956). "Matrilocality and patrilineality in Mundurucu society".American Anthropologist.50 (3):414–34.doi:10.1525/aa.1956.58.3.02a00030.
Siskind, Janet (1977).To Hunt in the Morning. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 79–81.OCLC918281851.
Turner, Terrence S (1979). "The Gê and Bororo societies as dialectical systems: a general model". In Maybury-Lewis, David (ed.).Dialectical societies: the Gê and Bororo of Central Brazil. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 159–60.ISBN9780674202856.OCLC253693411.
Whitten, Norman E.; Whitten, Dorothea S. (1984). "The structure of kinship and marriage among the Canelos Quichua of East-Central Ecuador". In Kensinger, Kenneth M. (ed.).Marriage practices in Lowland South America. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. p. 209.ISBN9780252010149.
