Dowry and consumption

Drs. Prasad and Wasdani received Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funds to research the South Asian dowry system and the physical and the symbolic violence resulting from it.

The most pervasive cultural practice that organizes gender relations in South Asian countries is, arguably, the dowry system. The dowry loosely represents financial and material payments transferred from the bride’s family to the groom (or to the groom’s family) during marriage rites. Several scholars have observed how under such a market-based system women’s bodies are reduced to being commodities, readily available to be exchanged among men (i.e., between bride’s father and groom/groom’s father). This reading is consistent with findings reported in a study on prostitution, which considers the ethical and the social implications that emerge when the market renders women’s bodies as being the very objects of exchange and consumption. In this study, we will advance this debate by undertaking a rich qualitative approach on South Indian women who experienced firsthand the physical and the symbolic violence emanating from the dowry system.