Reinventing Rights in Change:The Price-changing Logic of High Betrothal Gift and Its Influencing Factors
The governance of high betrothal gifts in rural areas is an important part of the civilization construction of rural conventions in rural revitalization.A semi-structured interview is done among rural female in marriage stage which is analyzed in framework of"institutional culture—moral embedding—transaction cost."This paper proposes that the trend of high betrothal gift is the result of the reshaping of women's rights in the process of urbanization.New urbanization has expanded marriage circles;in the process,rural women experience two processes in the negotiation of betrothal gifts:the"conflict—passive deembedding"process or the"empowerment—active deembedding process."Thus it is more likely for them to demand high betrothal gifts.The differentiation of transaction cost in betrothal gift bargains creates three kinds of price-exchanging logic:the consideration of relationship maintenance,women's anticipation and management of marriage risk,and the active exchange of family rights.Since a bride's betrothal gift and dowry can be controlled by different parties,the logic of the change of high betrothal gift and dowry is heterogeneous.Based on the above mechanism and logic,the governance of betrothal gift should focus on intergenerational responsibility,disposal of betrothal gift and dowry,and women's marriage rights.
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