Welcome to Sisyphus Highway: In Depth.

The previous episode discussed the “price” in bride price. Here we turn to the other part: the “gift.”

People often seem to be discussing money when they discuss bride price. Yet within an actual family, every side repeatedly weighs more than the number itself.When should negotiations begin? What amount should be discussed? Why keep negotiating a figure both sides accept? And why can even a little more or less sometimes feel “undignified”?

Combining sociological fieldwork with real cases, this episode discusses the “gift” in bride price: how it shapes relationships and affects our understanding of marriage, family, and society.

 

- Beginning with From the Soil: why is bride price not merely a matter of personal preference?

- Why is “negotiating the bride price” itself part of bride price?

- “Moral sensitivity”: propriety and dignity in bride price

- How does bride price become a form of social evaluation in an acquaintance society?

- Why do women and their families still regard bride price as a guarantee of commitment?

- From The Flow of Gifts to Lunar New Year gift-giving: what does “ritual gift” mean to Chinese people?

 

- The Grand Mansion Gate (television series)

- Fei Xiaotong, From the Soil (book)

- Yan Yunxiang, The Flow of Gifts: Reciprocity and Social Networks in a Chinese Village (book)

- “‘Negotiating Bride Price’: Moral Embeddedness in the Formation of Rural Bride Price—A Case Study of County L, Gansu” (paper)

- “Marriage Strategies of Rural Women Born after 1995: Six Villages in Township T, City L, Shanxi” (paper)

 

- Hosts: J and Kang

- Production: Arry and Lizi

- Music

· Main Theme I - Opening

· Whirlpool - The Mini Vandals

· Why Does It Have to Be This Way? - Yohji Yamamoto