Rural Bride Price Research From The Perspective Of Social Change

Since the western Zhou Dynasty,bride price has been an indispensable part in the process of marriage.After the reform and opening up,Chinese society has undergone a dramatic transformation.Every corner of China has seen traces of modern development.The vicissitude of rural betrothal gifts is a mirror reflecting the development of political economy and cultural psychology in rural society.On the basis of literature review and from the perspective of social changes,this paper conducts an investigation and analysis on the content,form and amount of betrothal gifts paid by married people in B village of S city,H province in 1980 s and 2010 by using the interview method centering on the changes of betrothal gifts.This paper is divided into four parts.The first part is the introduction,mainly describes the background and significance of the topic;This paper summarizes the related research on bride price from the aspects of its classification,form and function.Define the core concept of this paper;Research methods are proposed from the perspective of social change.The second part firstly introduces the basic situation of B village.Secondly,based on the "six rites of marriage",the paper comprehensively studies the bride price and describes the content of the bride price in B village in each stage.The third part mainly analyzes the reasons for the vicissitude of bride price in B village from the macroscopic,mesoscopic and microscopic aspects.Macroscopically,it mainly explains that the vicissitude of bride price is easy to be affected by the national policy.The influence of community culture on the vicissitude of rural bride price is studied on the medium level.On the micro level,the paper analyzes the reasons for the change of betrothal gifts from the aspects of family size,family economy,family relationship change,individual occupation,education level and love style.At the same time,it also introduces the flow trend and nature change of bride price.Betrothal gifts are gradually transformed into four mobile trends: the indirect dowry of the bride,the marriage expenses of her brothers,the "private money" of the bride and the possession of her parents.The nature of betrothal gifts has changed from the compensation for parents' upbringing to the support for the newly-married families and from the expressiveness of gifts to the instrumentality.The fourth part introduces the payment results and countermeasures.The bride price will change the concept of fertility and the concept of "equality between men and women" will be deeply rooted in people's minds.However,the bride price will also result in the economic hardship of the male father's generation,the upsurge of unhealthy atmosphere and the generation of abnormal marriage.The payment of bride price has both advantages and disadvantages,but its disadvantages are more serious.Therefore,this paper puts forward three countermeasures and Suggestions: developing rural economy and increasing farmers' income;Purify folk custom custom,build good atmosphere;Strengthen marriage control to ensure a happy life.