Why do men ask for a womans hand in marriage?
In the earliest days of the human race, the betrothal ritual involved an exchange of gifts or property from the groom-to-be to the bride-to-be’s parents. This was not only ceremonial, but an important part of the marriage contract because the bride’s family was losing her to another lineage forever, and sought compensation for this. The betrothal eventually gave way in the eighteenth century to a courtship whereby a groom chose his bride for reasons of love. Following the era of the arranged marriage when the groom would specify the exact payment he offered for his future wife, the formality of a groom asking the bride-to-be’s father for her hand in marriage preserves a trace of history and often serves to cement the relationship between the groom to-be and his future father-in-law.
