Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Dowry
(1,487 words)

1. Legal contexts and practice

Many legal texts from Antiquity to the 19th century defined the dowry (Latin dos) as the wife's contribution to the "burdens of marriage” - thus portraying the bride primarily as a consumer and not a producer. On the whole, the dowry is an ambivalent institution, since it depended on concepts of women's need for protection and their limited agency whil…

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Lanzinger, Margareth, “Dowry”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_024159>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20170626



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