Bride price, also known as bride wealth, bride token, is an amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom. This tradition is followed by many cultures.
Some brides told us how much they cost to their grooms.
Eliza Saralapova, 23.
Chief manager in Zepter International, Grozny, Chechnya.
Bride wealth: 665 dollars, a sheep, a sack of sugar, elite tea, a golden ring for the friend of the bride.
Her future husband proposed to her at the first meeting. She was hesitating to say “yes” and he stole her. Parents agreed to accept their marriage after that.
Inna Ibragimova, 24
Housekeeper, Grozny, Chechnya
Bride wealth: 665 dollars, a sheep, a sack of sugar and a sack of tea.
She was also stolen by her boyfriend and his friends, her relatives were “fighting” for her for three days and she finally got married anyway.
Zalina, 24
Housekeeper, Grozny, Chechnya
Bride wealth: 83 dollars, 21 packs of tea, a sack of sugar, a sheep and a carpet.
Her boyfriend met her in the bus and it turned out she lived in the same street. They exchanged their phone numbers. She called first. They had been dating for a year before they got married.
Raya Tulaeva, 51
Fortune teller, cultural worker, Grozny, Chechnya
Bride wealth: none (stolen bride)
She was stolen by her husband when she was sixteen. Raya became his sixth wife. Her husband was handsome and liked to have new wives. They had been living together for ten years but he finally drove her out. Now she has a handsome son who is 29. She says her brother has recently got married and paid the bride wealth – 500 dollars, three pieces of fabric, golden watch and an expensive shawl.
Natalia Simkaeva, 20
Housekeeper, Ketchenery village, Kalmykia
Bride wealth: ten boxes of vodka, a boiled sheep, a living sheep with a red ribbon, a dress for her mother and a suit for her dad, some fabric for making a dress.
Her husband is a fireman. They worked in the same building. The couple had been dating for three years before they got married. The boiled sheep was dressed in a special traditional way. The parents of her husband gave her a new name – Sakhlya.
Gilyana Bugurova, 23.
Student of the Academy of Law, Ketchenery village, Kalmykia
Bride wealth: six boxes of vodka, one box of cognac, two pieces of chintz, a set of headscarves, a box of sweets, a box of cookies, a box of sweet pastry, a boiled sheep, a living sheep with a ribbon.
They had been dating with her future husband for a year. After the marriage they moved to his native village. He is a policeman, Gilyana herself plans to work in a court. They are buddhists so the morning after the wedding night they went to a khurul (temple).
They gave white trousers of cotton to mother of the groom as a symbol of their gratitude for the good son. Mother had to dance in the trousers and guests had to put money into them. Guests are always quite generous.
The girl is holding a box of vodka.
Nadya Orzaeva, 20
Student of the Moscow Academy of Economics and Law, village Troitskoye, Kalmykia.
Bride wealth: eight boxes of vodka, one box of wine, one box of cognac, a boiled sheep, a living sheep, a bottle of koumiss.
They got married soon after the first meeting. They had 500 guests at the wedding. During the wedding various national traditions were followed. For example she was thrown pieces of fat at to live in wealth.
Victoria Ochirova, 25
Accountant, village Iki-Burul, Kalmykia
Bride wealth: two boiled sheep, one living sheep, eight boxes of vodka, four boxes of wine, a box of sweets, a box of cookies, a box of sweet pastry, seven shirts for men and three pieces of fabric for women and relatives of the bride.
They got married a year and a half after the first meeting. Her marriage portion was ordinary: some furniture, linen, a blanket, curtains.
Tamara Kuibina, 45
Museum curator, Gornoknyazevsk village, Yamal
Bride wealth: four castrated bulls.
She was 22, her future husband was 28. They were celebrating the wedding for seven years. Every year they came to her parents who gave presents to her to compensate the bride wealth (a fur coat, a watch, a sack of fish). If a groom is respected a bride cannot say “no” to him. Traditionally they marry for respect, not for love. Those who marry for love often divorce soon. Besides, if a couple divorces, a family of the bride has to return the bride wealth and nobody wants to do this.
Rita Kandygina, 28
Housekeeper, Karsaim village, Yamal peninsular
Bride wealth: eight skins of young deer, a skin of a beaver, a skin of a blue skin.
She made a nice fur coat of the skins given by her husband. They got married for love.
Tatiana Lar, 47
Singer, Salekhard, Yamal peninsular.
Bride wealth: none; they got married for love.
When she was fourteen one man aged 50 wanted to marry her. He offered fifteen deer for her to her farther. But father refused. She was a “happy kid”. Each kid is presented a deer from parents if the deer brings a good posterity the child is called “happy” and should stay with parents. So when she finally got married her dad could not forgive her. On the wedding day a wolf killed all her deer.
When her brother got married he was 20, his bride – already 50. She was chosen by the parents. They said she sewn well. But she could not have children and was always grumbling. But it was too late to change something.
Who knows, maybe one day it’s gonna be brides who will pay a wealth for grooms…
via esquire.ru
You may want refund.
Smash culture/tradition.
…and become what? Soul-less machines that obey your personal sick fantasies?
Become free from the binds of those who use tradition, and you beloved religion, to control you.
Religion is ‘man-made’ and requires a service to be provided for redemption.
Accepting Jesus is FREE and is not works based.
Since JESUS is part of an organized religion he must be ‘man-made’ and require a service fee. Accepting GOD, without Jesus or Mohammed or John Smith or any other ‘man-made’ interference is the only TRUE freedom !!
So the fact that there are many different organized churches venerating Jesus Christ it means that he was “man made”? You surely did not learn argumentation techniques at a Jesuit´s college?
Amen!
Oops, Amen to ProudGerman’s insightful comment that is.
and Jesus was nothing more then a proxy to God himself. A holy man and a prophet, yes, but just a man. His significance is overrated. Man made organized religion and it’s adherence to rigid dogma is the real sickness. Take about soulless…
Just because You Muricans have no traditions it does not mean that other nations must give up their own traditions.
Oh please, just because one bucks tradition doesn’t mean they’ve become “soul-less machines” who indulge in “sick fantasies” as you so narrow mindedly suggest. You sound ignorant and brain washed. Unable to think for yourself, bound by tradition and religious doctrine, and rigidly unable to accept anything other then the dogma you’ve been taught. How unfortunate for you. Keep drinking the Kool Aid…
Scumbag America:
Comes from a country that celebrates a Coca Cola Santa Claus holiday – Calls other people who stick to their authentic traditions brainwashed
You what kid, get a passport and go travel instead of wasting your time on the internet in a Southern Florida shack.
Once again your (in)tolerance for the culture and traditions of other nations shines bright! Keep drinking the Kool Aid and pounding out the insults, Dear Friend. You’re such an open minded individual. I apologize for having thought otherwise.
BTW it’s rather amusing that you think Americans have no traditions considering the world view seems to be that America is a backward nation of knee jerk religious conservatives, bound by Christian tradition and dogma, stubbornly so compared to our enlightened European brothers who have turned away from the Church in much greater numbers. Open your eyes. Europeans are giving up their religious traditions on their own, nothing to do with American influence.
Actually protestant and catholic Europeans are giving up their traditions. Orthodox do not so easily and muslims do not give their traditions even if they live in Europe.
Well then enjoy living among your new Muslim overlords, Dear Friend. After all we all know how much you respect their beliefs and transitions. (rolls eyes) Shut up you whiny closed minded hypocrite. The only beliefs and traditions you have any tolerance for are your own. And once Europe is a lost cause you’ll probably be eager to come live among you backward knee jerk religious “‘Merican friends”. lol
Pretty much like our dowry system back then. Only difference is that gradually we seemed to have abandoned the tradition (and instead just…bring in the rent money whenever we move in/buy a house).
Dowry, a concept which we had in Christian countries is exactly the opposite one – it’s the money bride’s family must pay in order to get her married. Muslims (like those Chechens shown here) buy (often literally) the bride – so, it’s the money groom and his family pay.
No, that dowry thing is not necessarily confession based. There some Christian region were the family of the bride pay, some regions where the groom pays and some where the dowry is mutual.
This “tradition” just reinforces the argument that women are “property” and can be bought for a mere pittance. I can see why families return an abused women to her “husband”: greed, they want to keep the bribes he paid.
any interaction with women comes at a financial cost. Incidentally Natalia Simkaeva, 20, is pregnant. The pedo has been porking her since she was 17.
Seriously? She met her future husband at 17, dated for 3 years and got married and he’s a pedo? lol
Please, amuse us some more with your definition of what a pedo is.
Brides’ fathers must be skilled negotiators. None of the brides are worth the price paid.
Nothing like a culture where women are kidnapped and become the kidnapper’s wives automatically
What is the problem to marry for love? Why do they say the one that marry s for love it never works? I think they mean marry for lust docent always work, but to marry for true love what more can a man or woman ever wish for.
Here in Japan we use a match maker to negotiate bride price and dowry (both are paid) Bride price is roughly about three months salary and the woman has to give a dowry equivalent to that. Customs are different in the countryside. When I got married, I had to give three months salary, but my wife had to bring two big cabinets and enough cloth for what she would wear for the rest of her life. We decided this was all too complicated and spent the money on a wedding feast instead.
What do they mean by “stealing” a bride?
The bride leaves her family home and moves to her new husband’s home but not his bed. This is often done with the help of the groom’s male relatives. My friend’s wedding involved a symbolic drinking contest between her male relatives and my friend’s. The groom’s gang won!!
Kidnapping her.
Ideally you ride on a white horse with your weapons, grab the bride from the field and take her to your lair. Then, in theory, nobody can be sure that you did not deflower her anyway, so her family finally agrees to the wedding. If she would return unmarried from a kidnapping, she would be damaged good, since nobody can be sure, that she is still a virgin. And marrying a non-virgin, means humiliation in those societies and is a real no-go. That´s what this kidnapping is about. If you are not sure if the bride or the parents agree, then you have to kidnap her and she will be yours anyway.