Courtesy Demands Reciprocity:A Transitional Study Of Wedding-gift Giving In Rural China

Since the founder of the gift theory,Mauss,the research on gift has been a hot topic among anthropologists.Marriage is one of the most important occasions with gifts in one's life or life.In the process of marriage,there are mainly three types of gifts: bride price,dowry and gift-giving.At different stages,different types of gifts are given to different recipients,and their influence often goes beyond the newlyweds and their families.Therefore,as a branch of gift research,the gift in marriage has become increasingly important and meaningful.This paper chooses W Village in Yu Zhong County of Gan Su as the research object,and mainly uses participatory observation and interviews to collect first-hand information.On the basis of describing the basic situation and marriage process of W village,this paper expounds the meanings,characteristics and changes of the bride price,dowry and gift-giving in W village,and emphatically analyses the functions and significance of the bride price,dowry and gift-giving in W village and its changes.Through the above research,this paper finds that bride price,dowry and gift-giving of the wedding ceremony in W village have different functions and significance.Bride price can restrain marriage,subsidize women to hold banquets,and have the function of expressing and testing sincerity and credit guarantee.Dowry helps to establish a new family in reality,reflects the social status of the families of men and women,and also has a certain impact on the status of the bride in the mother-in-law's family.Gift-giving can let villagers help each other,also meet the personal emotional expression and needs of suitors,and let local people share information resources,emotional communication.To a certain extent,the bride price is the display of social capital,and compensates for the loss of woman's home,but also inherits the culture.To a certain extent,dowry makes up for the shortcomings of the traditional mechanism of division and inheritance of family property.It also successfully contributes to the transformation of the roles of newly married couples,and plays an important role in their better future to play their respective new roles.Gift-giving plays a key role in local politics and contradictions.It also maintainsthe basic social relations in rural society.