Bride price

Description:	Among many of the indigenous peoples of Papua New Guinea, items from their environment, like shells and ivory from boars tusks, were valuable. Traded from group to group, resources from the coasts could be obtained by people living further inland. The more exotic the material, the more valuable it was considered. Bride price, valuable objects given by a grooms family to his future brides family as an exchange for their loss, was often made of such valuable materials. Large bride price shells like this one were traded around the region and were valuable, in part, because they attested to the owners success with exchanging items from other villages and cultures. The maker would use spiritually symbolic imagery in the shell attachment. Unfortunately, as bride price was traded from family to family, the original meaning became lost. However, the older a bride price, the more power and value it was believed to have.
Source:	http://www.digitalindy.org/cdm/ref/collection/tcm/id/1982
Collection:	The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
Rights:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/;
Copyright:	Creative Commons (CC By-SA 3.0);
Subjects:	Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea - social life and customs Marriage customs and rights Shells Dowry Brides

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