MATERIAL RESOURCE INVESTMENTS AT MARRIAGE: EVOLUTIONARY, SOCIAL, AND ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

Marriage transactions (e.g., bride wealth, dowry) using cross-cultural data from the 60-culture Probability Sample Files of the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) are considered from a neo-Darwinian perspective, focusing on the theories of kin and sexual selection. These theories account for a worldwide pattern of transferring wealth (1) from the groom’s family to the bride’s, and (2) from the couple’s parents to the bride and groom. Multiple regression analyses show that social and ecological factors can intensify or weaken this general pattern. These variables are a society’s paternal confidence level, polygyny rate, and amount of pathogen stress. Divorce rate and age at time of marriage were not significant predictors.