Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
4-2012
Abstract
This study analyses data from the Vietnam Study of Family Change to document trends and determinants of marriage payments in Vietnam from 1963 to 2000. We investigate the extent to which structural and policy transformations influenced the practice of payments, and estimate how societal changes indirectly impacted payments via their effects on population characteristics. Results indicate that marriage payments surged following market reform, but also reveal nuanced trends during earlier years. While the socialist attempts to eradicate brideprice appear to have been successful in the North before economic renovation, they were unsuccessful in the South. Structural and policy change explained most of the observed variations in payments. The changing characteristics of the married individuals mattered relatively less. We interpret the re-emergence of marriage payments as attesting to the resilience of traditional values and the unravelling of the socialist agenda, but also as a reflection of Vietnam's economic prosperity in the 1990s.
Keywords
brideprice, dowry, Vietnam, marriage
Discipline
Asian Studies | Family, Life Course, and Society
Research Areas
Sociology
Publication
Asian Population Studies
Volume
8
Issue
2
First Page
151
Last Page
172
ISSN
1744-1730
Identifier
10.1080/17441730.2012.675677
Publisher
Taylor and Francis
Citation
TEERAWICHITCHAINAN, Bussarawan, & KNODEL, John.(2012). Tradition and Change in Marriage Payments in Vietnam, 1963-2000. Asian Population Studies, 8(2), 151-172.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1135
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1080/17441730.2012.675677