How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
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How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
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Re: How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
#2Dowries are a plague on humanity. They’re rooted in the idea that women are property.
I lived in India in the 1970s as a child. At that time the shorthand was “cooking accident” when new brides were killed. As in, “The bride’s father couldn’t pay the dowry. Too bad she had that unfortunate cooking accident.”
The local man who did our laundry had four daughters, and it was considered a curse. He killed himself because he couldn’t pay their dowries, and he knew he’s spend the rest of his life in shame with daughters who were spinsters, or dead.
Re: How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
#3[deleted]
Re: How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
#4Re: How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
#5I was reading about dowery/dower/brideprices in the past week, mostly on wikipedia but chased a few links. There is a very interesting hypothesis about the origins of these practices in prehistoric human cultures.
in hoe-based agriculture, which tended to predominate in mobile/migratory cultures, farming was "women's work"
in plough-based agriculture, which tended to predominate where people were stationary and land was "owned", farming was "men's work"
Where women did agricultural work, a brideprice was paid, as per the theory, because a women's productive output was valuable.
Where men did agricultural work, a bride was expected to bring a dowery, paid as a transfer from her family's land-based wealth.
I find it interesting how very rough "logic" from many thousand years ago would continue to affect us today.
Re: How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
#6Dowries are a plague on humanity. They’re rooted in the idea that women are property. I lived in India in the 1970s as a child. At that time the shorthand was “cooking accident” when new brides were killed. As in, “The bride’s father couldn’t pay the dowry. Too bad she had that unfortunate cooking accident.” The local man who did our laundry had four daughters, and it was considered a curse. He killed himself because…
Awful, all of it.
Re: How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
#7Dowries are a plague on humanity. They’re rooted in the idea that women are property. I lived in India in the 1970s as a child. At that time the shorthand was “cooking accident” when new brides were killed. As in, “The bride’s father couldn’t pay the dowry. Too bad she had that unfortunate cooking accident.” The local man who did our laundry had four daughters, and it was considered a curse. He killed himself because…
> spend the rest of his life in shame with daughters who were spinsters
Perspective is a hell of a thing.
Re: How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
#8I was reading about dowery/dower/brideprices in the past week, mostly on wikipedia but chased a few links. There is a very interesting hypothesis about the origins of these practices in prehistoric human cultures. in hoe-based agriculture, which tended to predominate in mobile/migratory cultures, farming was "women's work" in plough-based agriculture, which tended to predominate where people were stationary and land…
Standard religious practice.
In the US, it has a huge impact on our politics. Other nations have their own issues with religion, as in India.
Also, as any engineer can attest, “We’ve always done it this way” is quite powerful.
Re: How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
#9I don't completely understand how dowries are a thing - isn't there a massive gender imbalance in India, wouldn't dowries go the other way? Curious why this is not the case. This is awful.
Re: How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
#10the whole dowry thing is dreadful, but it is not going away onless better articles (and documentaries) are done on it than this one - write clearer, write shorter, and despite the horrible subject, use some wit.