property—in the form of money, objects, real estate, or other assets—allotted to a bride by her parents or relatives upon her marriage. The custom arose during the period of the decline of the clan system, when monogamous marriage emerged. The dowry was originally an allotment from the common property of the clan, and it continued to be considered the property of the clan after a woman’s marriage. When a woman died childless, her dowry reverted to her clan. As the patriarchal social order became stronger, the dowry first represented the joint property of the married couple but later was usually the sole property of the husband.
The dowry survives and plays an important role in bourgeois marriage. In most capitalist countries, legislation gives the husband the right of sole control over the family’s property, including the wife’s dowry. The dowry has lost its significance in the USSR. It is retained among an insignificant portion of the population, chiefly rural, and is not subject to legal regulation.