Intergenerational Transfer And Face Competition: A Behavioral Study Of High Bride Price In Village

With the change of family structure,individualization and urbanization in the transition society,the amount of bride gifts in many rural areas is increasing,beyond the scope of many ordinary families.The high bride price not only changes the nature of the bride price,and makes the betrothal gift become a burden on most rural families,but also has a bad impact on the intergenerational relationship of families and the construction of local customs and civilization.In view of the fact that the previous studies on bride price involve not many in southwest China,most of the studies on intergenerational relations in bride price also advocate intergenerational responsibility or intergenerational exploitation,and there are few studies from the perspective of intergenerational transfer,and few results on the face competition motivation in bride price.The B village is located in the southwest region,the amount of bride price is more prominent than other villages in the same county,and the way to handling the bride price is also different.Therefore,this paper takes B village as the study case,and adopts the questionnaire survey method,interview method and participatory observation method to discuss the intergenerational transfer logic of the behavior and the face competition rules of high bride price from the two aspects inside the family and outside the family,and evaluates the influence of high bride price on the intergenerational relationship and face culture.The study has found that the high bride price has become a common phenomenon in B village.On the one hand,in the marriage market,it is difficult for the children to bear the pressure of high bride price alone,and then transfer the burden of bride price to the father.Out of the family ethics of "carrying on the family line" and the individual expectation of "looking forward to the old age with courtesy",the father is willing to become the person to be transferred.The parents completed the transfer of wealth between the generations and the parents through the act of bride price,which finally led to the social fact of the imbalance of intergenerational relations.But this transfer is different from the previous unidirectional wealth flow,which is a "parent-child" two-way expectation.The father looks forward to the old with courtesy,and the son expects the guilt of the father,which directly strengthens the return and care intention of the children to the father.The motivation behind it is still the traditional Chinese culture of feeding filial piety.On the other hand,the culture of high bride price in the marriage market causes the villagers to form face competition.Villagers bundle the high bride price with the female value,and internalize the high bride price into a hierarchical standard.This symbol is referenced and imitated by the social groups with strong homogeneity,forming a mimicry advance in the rural society.However,the high bride price in B village is supported by the "inverted paste" rule of the mother’s family.The in-laws family helps the newly married family with a high bride price,while the mother’s family responds with an "inverted paste".The two families form a joint force to make the newly married family more competitive,and then achieve advancement.Based on this,the article further points out that to regain the traditional balance of generations,the children and the father need to make appropriate power transfer and compromise;to correct the wrong idea of the bride amount and face,it is necessary to "de-label" women and "de-volume" the village bride culture.