Matrimonial prestations are of various types. The most common form of marital exchange is bridewealth (also called brideprice). Bridewealth refers to payments of money or goods from the groom's parents or other kin to the bride's parents or other kin.
The payment of bridewealth is usually said to “compensate” the bride’s group for the loss of her reproductive value. Beyond money, bridewealth usually represents the most valuable symbols of wealth for a particular culture, such as livestock or jewelry.
It has conventionally been associated with societies that practice horticulture or pastoralism, who do not have accumulated wealth and have no complicated social strata, and where labor rather than land is a prize resource.
The Nuer people of southern Sudan in Africa are a cattle-owning society and marriage was accomplished throughout payment of cattle y the groom’s family to that of the bride.
Bridewealth is practice in many parts of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia.
Bridewealth
