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True love
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
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i will never understand that stupid craze about expensive engagement rings... i engaged to my wife without a ring. It was just a very emotional situation, i was sure that i wanted to ask her... and then i just asked. No ring, no special event planned out or something... just asked her, and she said yes.
People paying cars worth of money for a ring is so unbelievable for me.
“Once upon a time” an expensive engagement ring worked as a sort of bride price and was a hedge against the risk of premarital sex.
How does buying/wearing a ring prevent premarital sex?
Back in ye olden times, you would pay a bride price to the parents of the bride, both symbolizing the eternal debt you owed to your wife and as a way to show you had plenty of money to spare to take care of your wife. You would then give your wife a dower, sonething they could hold onto in case you lost all your money or she became suddenly widowed. This historically was property but became rings or jewelry with expensive stones. The wife would take the dower as a sign she would no longer need to worry, and in exchange be a maiden on her wedding night. These practices were only for the wealthy, until indistrialization brought the practice to a growing middle class. Then, in the early to mid 1900s, marketing campaigns began associating the price of a ring to the love you felt for your wife, leading us to today.
Now this is capitalism.
I still don't see how an expensive dower would prevent the couple from having sex before getting married, but I guess I'm just too modern-minded.
It was more for the woman to not sleep around or sell her virginity.
That seems so much less likely to happen than the couple sleeping together themselves.