Paper long abstract:

The case study looks at the dowry involved in Bengali women's weddings in Italy and in migration. It focusses particularly on:

* The gift: the direction matrilineal;

* The gift: honor and rivalry;

* Family structure and role of women: the conjugal family;

* The role of women: relationship fictitious and patriarchal logic

* Marginality marginalization of historical or capitalist?: amoral familism;

* Exclusion capitalist.

The case of northern Italy is the Bengali women and its identification in the current practice of dowry, which coupled with the Laws of 1974 mahr on - the bride price - as pre-nuptial contract, sees substantial balance, even at the psychological level, as well as material, value of man and woman in the family Bengali. Immigration becomes an extra resource for the young couples who acquire a consciousness more complex than their parents and the tradition of respecting the interests of social ascent faster, by marriage, from Italy to Bagladesh. So at the same time a change in the hierarchical structure of family and social life of the Bengalis in Bangladesh against the backdrop of a country that has just met capitalism and its port, which is particularly disadvantageous to women.