I just have one thought and a question or three on the subject...
First, the thought: You wrote:
>
> 7. According to ROTO, Heortling marriage contracts involve a *two-
way*
> exchange - both bridewealth (from husband's bloodline to his future
wife's)
> and dowry (which the wife receives from her kin and retains: a kind
of early
> inheritance). I don't know of any real world social structure that
practices
> both bridewealth *and* dowry - if they cancel out then the exchange
becomes
> purely ritual.
In a society where so much of wealth is tied up in livestock, this is probably a useful tool to mix the blood of your herds as effectively as that of the humans. Besides, once the women have decided what is going to happen, it lets the men feel useful by spending long stetches quibbling about exactly *which* cow, bull, or whatever will go and which will be kept. The fact that this lets the men go up to the upper pastures together with skins full of ale all afternoon is purely a minor side benefit to this important business *grin*
Now, onto the questions.
What about Cottars? Granted, their weregild is lower, but I would think that most cottars would have almost no chance of raising the necessary amount. Sure, maybe they could borrow it from a sponsor (or patron, or other similar term), but really, would a well off carl loan cows to a cottar?
Also, cottars marriages don't have anywhere near the same diplomatic impact that carl's bondings do. At a guess, most cottars marriages are much less formalised than those of carls. There may or may not even be the same strict insistance on marrying outside of the clan (most cottars may very seldom get outside of clan lands). I would guess that the bride gifts and dowry, while still substantial to the cottars, would be much lower.
IF (and I have no clue if this is the case) cottars are almost always associated with higher classed patrons, then there may be some gifting to your prospective brides patron too.
Another if....if, like me, you believe that cottars are as much a social standard as an economic one, there will be "cottar nobility" with higher than usual wealth and great influence amongst their peers (god talkers of the pig aspect of Ernalda, for example), then in this upper crust of cottars things may be almost as formal as amongst carls.
Finally, if you look back at early medeival european marriage law (before the church took near total control), most of the law only really applied to people of property. Poorer folks could pretty much decide that they were going to be married, move in together, and be treated by all as married. (Well, not really that simple socially, of course, but legally speaking). This may essentially apply, with very minor ceremonial obligations, amongst the stickpicker set.
Finally, what about thralls? Can they marry at all? If so, do they get any say in the matter?
--Bryan
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