Bridewealth is both a monetary as well as a cultural component of Chinese marriage. Existing research employs two major frames to examine this phenomenon: marriage market theory and gift flow theory. However, neither of them ably facilitates the study of bridewealth as a social process, namely, the negotiations that take place between senior family members representing the engaged parties to decide the appropriate monetary value of the bridewealth. This article focuses on how the negotiations are initiated and progress until both families settle on a “decent” bridewealth amount. The ultimate ethical code in relation to marriage-making lies not so much in the mutual understanding of the two families as in their strategies to follow the moral sanctions of the dahang while negotiating a price that deviates from it. The necessity of adhering to the dahang and the strategic efforts to morally legitimize a price that fluctuates from it are central to theorizing the normative embeddedness of bridewealth in the moral fabric of the community.
AbbottA (2005) The historicality of individuals. Social Science History29(1): 1–13.
2.
AbbottA (2016) Processual Sociology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
3.
ChenWL (2009) Hierarchy of morality and the “face” of villagers. Jiangxi Journal of Social Sciences29(11): 197–200(in Chinese).
4.
DengZP (2004) On the reverse marriage transfer of female migrant workers. Chinese Journal of Sociology (Chinese version) 24(7): 49–53(in Chinese).
5.
EmirbayerM (1997) Manifesto for a relational sociology. American Journal of Sociology103(2): 281–317.
6.
FeiXT (2003) Extending the conventional frontier of sociology. Journal of Peking University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 40(3): 5–16(in Chinese).
7.
FligsteinN (1990) The Transformation of Corporate Control. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8.
FligsteinN (2001) The Architecture of Markets: An Economic Sociology of Twenty-First-Century Capitalist Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
9.
FreedmanM (2000) Lineage Organization in Southeastern China (trans. Liu XC). Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House.
10.
FuP (2009) Embeddedness: Divergence and controversy. Sociological Studies24(5): 141–164(in Chinese).
11.
GeertzC (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
12.
GoffmanE (1974) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
13.
GoodyJTambiahSJ (1973) Bridewealth and Dowry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
14.
GranovetterM (1974) Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Career. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15.
GuT (2012) The Chinese classical wedding rooted in human nature. Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 27(1): 86–95(in Chinese).
16.
GuiHYuL (2010) Charging in the marriage market: A framework to understand the exchange within rural marriage. Youth Studies3: 24–36(in Chinese).
17.
JiaZW (2008) The analysis of the marriage difficulties of young men in rural underdeveloped areas against the background of human migration—a case study of Fenshuiling Village. Youth Studies3: 37–42(in Chinese).
18.
KleinmanA (1999) Moral experience and ethical reflection: Can ethnography reconcile them? A quandary for “the new bioethics”. Daedalus128(4): 69–97.
19.
LiX (2008) Bridewealth and its evolution in folk customs. Folklore Studies3: 253–262(in Chinese).
20.
LiY (2011) Trends of status homogamy in China: A dual-trait analysis. Sociological Studies26(4): 122–136(in Chinese).
21.
LuCP (2017) Study of the husband’s side payment for marriage in northwest China’s rural area: In the case of W Village of east Gansu Province. Journal of Lanzhou University (Social Sciences)45(5): 107–112(in Chinese).
22.
McLeanPD (1998) A frame analysis of favor seeking in the Renaissance: Agency, networks, and political culture. American Journal of Sociology104(1): 51–91.
23.
PioreMJ (1996) Review of the Handbook of Economic Sociology. Journal of Economic Literature34(2): 741–754.
24.
PolanyiK (1971) The Great Transformation. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
25.
ScottJC (2001) The Moral Economy of the Peasant (trans. Cheng LX et al.). Nanjing: Yilin Press.
26.
StinchcombeAL (1991) The conditions of fruitfulness of theorizing about mechanisms in social science. Philosophy of the Social Sciences21(3): 367–388.
27.
SwidlerA (1986) Culture in action: Symbols and strategies. American Sociological Review51(2): 273–286.
28.
TangZP (2009) A historical investigation of the new economic sociology: The problematics of embeddedness. Journal for the Philosophical Study of Public Affairs3: 117–164(in Chinese).
29.
ThompsonEP (2002) Customs in Common (trans. Shen H and Wang JF). Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House.
30.
TianF (2016) On the analysis of the high bride price in rural marriages—a case study of Datian County, Fujian Province. Journal of Chinese Youth Social Science35(2): 62–67(in Chinese).
31.
TillyC (1995) To explain political processes. American Journal of Sociology101(6): 1594–1610.
32.
UzziB (1996) The sources and consequences of embeddedness for the economic performance of organizations. American Sociological Review61(4): 674–698.
33.
UzziB (1999) Embeddedness in the making of financial capital: How social relations and networks benefit firms seeking financing. American Sociological Review64(4): 481–505.
34.
WangDFXuJH (2014) The discolored wedding dress: Bridewealth as a means of intergenerational exploitation—study on the evolution of the nature of bridewealth in rural areas during the transformation period. Journal of Hubei Institute for Nationalities (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 32(2): 26–30(in Chinese).
35.
WeiYJiangQB (2017) Intragenerational exploitation and intergenerational exploitation? Study on bride price in rural China from hundreds of villages in nine provinces. Population & Economics5: 57–69(in Chinese).
36.
WeiGXXiongQQXieLH (2008) Expensive weddings in transition in rural China. Chinese Journal of Population Science4: 30–36(in Chinese).
37.
YanYX (2000) The Flow of Gifts: Reciprocity and Social Networks in a Chinese Village (trans. Li FC and Liu Y). Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House.
38.
YingX (2010) “Qi” and social action with rural Chinese characteristics: A study based on proverbs and traditional operas. Sociological Studies25(5): 111–129(in Chinese).
39.
YuL (2013) Peasant differentiation and changes of marriage circle structure—based on a site survey in Da Gu Village, Anhui. Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Social Science) 1: 114–121(in Chinese).
40.
ZelizerVA (1988) Beyond the polemics of the market: Establishing a theoretical and empirical agenda. Sociological Forum3(4): 614–634.
41.
ZelizerVA (1989) The social meaning of money: “Special monies”. American Journal of Sociology95(2): 343–377.
42.
ZelizerVA (2005) Culture and consumption. In: SmelserNJSwedbergR (eds) Handbook of Economic Sociology,2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
43.
ZelizerVA (2008) Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children (trans. Wang SX et al.). Shanghai: East China Normal University Press.
44.
ZhouFZ (2018) Values of social action in the Guanxi society: A path towards localization for Chinese sociology. Sociological Studies33(1): 41–62(in Chinese).
