Supply-and-demand demographics: dowry, daughter aversion and marriage markets in contemporary north India
Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: The gendered character of India's fertility decline has attracted considerable academic attention. In this paper, I offer a critique of the arguments of some demographers about the linkages between dowry, daughter aversion and the marriage squeeze that predict that increasing shortages of marriageable women will result in declines in dowry. I argue that such economistic readings seriously oversimplify the complexities of marriage arrangement ‘on the ground’ in contemporary India. Further, whilst one aspect of dowry might relate to the supply and demand of brides and grooms, dowry and daughter aversion are not simply outcomes of demographics alone. First, marriage migration is crucial in understanding daughter aversion. Second, dowry is not just a matter of marriage and kinship practices. Dowry is a polyvalent institution that also connects with conspicuous display in status competition in a hierarchical society and with people's rising aspirations to possess consumer goods within the wider context of contemporary India's rapidly changing political economy. Crucially, marriage migration, status competition and consumerism do not necessarily push in the same direction as the demographics of the marriage squeeze might imply when it comes to dowry and daughter aversion.
Source: Contemporary South Asia
Author: Patricia Jeffery
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Language: English
Topic: Marriage and Family Dynamics
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Gender equality
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1998180467