The Pride of Being Kidnapped: Women’s Views on Bride Kidnapping in Tetritskaro, Georgia

Abstract

Bride kidnapping was considered by Georgian ethnographers to be an alternative form of marriage in earlier times, when men were not able or willing to pay the high bride price. The capture of a bride was one alternative way to marry a woman and gain social status without going into debt. Nevertheless, society saw bride capture as a violation of existing traditional marriage rules that was punishable by traditional law. Since Soviet times, bride kidnapping has been forbidden by law; nowadays bride kidnappings do occur, but rarely in comparison to earlier times.