heortling courtship and marriage

From: Ian Cooper <coops_at_dial.pipex.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 15:43:56 -0000


Good to see this one back again.As usual some excellent insigths here John. This seems to be being discussed here [Hero wars e-group, posted here for info] instead of the digest this time, so I'll comment here:
>1. Marriage is *equally* a union of two INDIVIDUALS *and* an alliance
>between two CLANS. Wyrded romantics can take a year-marriage or a
>love-match, but even these will involve clan pressures. Children are a key
>resource, and marriage is partly about a clan's ownership of children.

Yes, but IMHO this is not quite the whole picture on year marriages. Year marriages have a number of causes. I agree that romance is one of them, but another may be economic. There are 3 different classes that I think fall into this category. From ROTO in KoS:

"5. Year-wife or husband. This is a temporary marriage, renewable after a year, subject to terms listed above {arrangements for children}. 6. Bed-wife or husband. No property changes hands, save for that publicly granted with witness. The children are raised by the individual who is not named in the title. Thus a bed-husband is not responsible for raising the children.
7. Love-wife. No property changes hands, even unto going to the children of the pair. A vow of monogamy for its own sake, or the sake of romantic love. Children go the father’s clan."

The love-wife would tend to be the romantic tie between two people. In effect it is an agreement to 'date exclusively'. It is probably used where no economic union is desired by the clans/bloodline. The legitimisation of the children by the father's clan is important, the children can inherit, and are thus protected by the relationship.

Year-wives and husbands are a likely to be an alternative to accepting outsiders as cottars, or taking thralls to increase the clan labor pool.The marriage contract confers temporary membership of the clan to the year partner. Patterson[1994] describes the Celtic analogy as follows:

"The primary intention of the union was merely to achieve social acceptance of the union and its progeny. Another goal was to set up a temporary working relationship, in which the man supplied the farm and the woman supplied the labor. Where CL [Cain Lanamna] discusses spouses who were brough to live on another's farm, it emphasised the labor pool aspect of the spouse's relationship; this was as true of a man supported on a woman's farm as it was of a woman supported on a man's property. CL depicts the woman in this case as keeping half her handiwork, and one-ninth of the milk, corn and bacon produced during the time the couple lived together. The relationship was evisaged as liely to end at Beltene, the spring festival of May 1st [Sea Season. Voriaravand (Voria's Holy Day) seems close any better analogies], which is also the time many women traditionally moved with the livestock to the summer pastures. THe departing woman was supposed to have 'a sack of produce for every month' she had spent on the man's farm."

Bed-wife is not necessarily temporary, bu does not include an exchange of property. This may be the form of marriage most common when neither sides kin have much to bring into the marriage in terms of property. Stickpickers, poor cottars, anyone without property probably marries this way. The lack of property applies on both sides. You both have nothing, but you still want legitimate children to care for you in your old age.

>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.

Celts had both, in a way. THe man paid coibche before the marriage; this was paid to the father of the bride, as a mark of the seriousness of the suitors intent, a 'deposit'on the girl. It was payable for all forms of marriage. It was set at half the bride's father's honor price (not quite the same as weregild, the honor price is more your credit rating. The Orlanthi do not really seem to have honor price but I suspect that we could abstract this in HW terms your wealth). In practice this gift amounts to about half a cow for a cottar, a cow for a carl, two cows for a thane). I guess it could be abstracted in HW as a test of your wealth against half the bride's fathers, your wealth is effectively your credit rating, with permanent reductions in your wealth representing indebtedness. Incidentally morning-gift was not so appropriate, becuase virginity was not the issue,and as viginity is not an issue for Orlanthi this might be closer to the brideprice mentioned in ROTO. Note that the Orlanthi seem to have a no fault deivorce clause for the brideprice, it goes back to the man, for the Celts it went to the wronged party.

Dowry is not payable in all forms of marriage. It is not payable for the temporary marriages above, dowry is only payable for the non-temporary marriages in which the woman's [for this also read Esrolian underhusband] property is joined with the man clans. Dowry is effectively your share of your father's estate, the same estate the son's will inherit. Celtic law set it at half of a son's inheritance (most values for women are half that of men). As we don't haVe Orlanthi women inheriting this is not necessarily that helpful a guide, but it does indicate that dowry was a serious payment of goods and chattles. A better inidcator is that the relationship is either equal - in which case the womens dowry MUST be equal to the wealth of the husband or under- in which case it should be 1/3 (drawn from celtic source). Exact numbers of cows etc is tricky, perhaps either the weregild for an equal marriage, 1/3 the weregild for an under- mariage. In HW terms you either bring a wealth rating equal to your partner or a third of it to the marriage (preusmably you could abstract this as wealth vs wealth or wealth vs one-third wealth test to raise the dowry). Non-temporary marriages are a serious commitment of wealth, that is why economics is far more important in these cases than romance.

Brideprice will generally be far less than dowry, so the two will rarely 'cancel out' and a far more than a ritual exchange.

In addition women were expected to provide the tools of women's work, as part of the dowry (pots, pans, loom. All the domestic goods my mother used to refer to as being for your bottom drawer, i.e. gifts collected for the day that you marry, and set up home).

Hope this helps,

Ian


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