On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 7:37 PM, underscore <[email protected]> wrote: > tribal states , no baggage of indian/hindu religious or cultural dogma > .... in meghalaya traditionally men pay dowry etc.... and of course no > elaborate arrangement of marriages.
Just to nitpick, in Southern Africa (and other parts as well, I suspect) marriage contracts are also traditionally sealed by a payment by the groom to the bride's family. As the name for this transaction -- "bride price" -- indicates, this doesn't really correlate with better treatment of women. They're often bought and sold like cows that are the usual currency for these transactions. -- b
