1. Can the category 'culture' (or religion) be used?	​Yes. The culture category can be used if it refers to the payment of a sum of money (or material gifts) by the groom's family to the bride's family in order to achieve certain socio-relational goals.
2. Description of the cultural (or religious) practice and group.	‘Bride price'   (please note that in this Guidebook we use ‘bride price’ to reflect the naming used by Italian judges. Nevertheless, it should be noted that anthropologists prefer to speak of bridewealth)  refers to a payment with a strong symbolic character that is made by the husband, and/or his relatives, to the bride's family, in order to have the consent to formalise the marriage. These payments usually have a very important social value, which varies according to the context in which they occur: they often define relationships between clans, families or other social groups, while at other times they serve to demonstrate access to economic resources, so as to guarantee the bride's family a good life for their daughter in the new family. Traditionally, payments were made in the form of valuables, though nowadays they may consist of cash or basic necessities, but also luxury goods. Payments between families at the time of marriage have existed in various cultures on all continents, and are currently still widespread in many social groups in different areas of the planet, including some rural areas in China, in various urban contexts in Thailand, in several African countries and in many Arab contexts in Syria, Zaire, Uganda and Iran. In Europe, on the other hand, it is most widespread among Roma cultures. Among the latter, the bride price is generally paid in cash, and the amount varies according to the customs of each group, the economic situation and previous family relationships. For instance, among the Korturare Roma of Transylvania, the bride price may consist of an economic payment of between EUR 2,000 and 5,000, whereas among the Spoitori Roma of the Danube area, this amount is greatly reduced to between EUR 30 and 300 and may be supplemented by other goods, such as livestock for food production. This price is meant as a sign of respect for the girl's family, a form of appreciation for the hard work done to raise her; but it is also intended as a form of compensation for the loss of work, both productive and reproductive, that the bride's family suffers when the daughter marries and moves away. In fact, in the new married life, the bride's work benefits her husband and the husband's family, giving access to a transfer of rights over the wife's sexuality, labour services, residence and fertility. It is important to consider, therefore, the symbolic value that the 'price' may take on in the attentive eyes of relatives and the community, just as it is important to take into account the fact that women are proud of the high amount they receive and, on the contrary, are ashamed if the amount received is low compared to the custom.
​3. Embedding the individual practice in the broader cultural (or religious) system.	The 'bride price' is a determining element of the wider institution of marriage. It is a compulsory step in proper matrimonial practice that serves to 'formalise' new social ties between different groups, to open kinship lines between the bride's and groom's families, and/or to formalise a new alliance between different clans. In many Roma groups, the transition from childhood to adulthood is not determined by reaching a certain age, as is the case in our legal system, but by the onset of menstruation. It is upon reaching this condition that women are considered fit to begin the journey towards marriage, which not only represents the formalisation of the transition from youth to adulthood, but is also decisive in defining membership of the social group. In these contexts, one can clearly see that marriage is accompanied by a well-defined rituality linked to tradition, which follows socially established practices - among which the bride price is one of the most important - that are therefore binding for a successful marriage.
4. Is the practice essential (to the survival of the group), compulsory or optional?	​Although that of Roma marriages is a dynamic and potentially changing ritual, the "bride price" continues to be a decisive moment, an indispensable step for the marriage to be recognised by the community. The "price" plays a key role in the personal and social identification of individuals and families, and is an indispensable part of the marriage rite, thus being obligatory in some circumstances.
​5.     Is the practice shared by the group, or is it contested?	The practice is beginning to be challenged by younger generations who adhere to the values of the dominant culture. It is noteworthy, however, that the complaints of young Roma often do not seem to be about 'bride price' per se, but about the mistreatment associated with married life. Although it is quite evident that there are no similarities with the 'selling of daughters', the practice of 'bride price' is often criticised by the dominant culture for the alleged personal and social impact it has on women. In fact, although quite distinct, it happens that the practice is associated with early marriages and forced marriages, a phenomenon that fosters domestic violence and is an obstacle to women's rights. These discursive practices of the majority, as is easily understood, are often reproduced by those Roma women who, unhappy with their marital life, want to distance themselves from it, and who use the arguments of the dominant culture in doing so.
​6.     How would the average person belonging to that culture (or religion) behave?	Generally speaking, it can be said that the practice is closely linked to the attainment of a social 'status' not only of the bride and groom, but also of the families; therefore, it is presumable that there are often social and family pressures that drive people to perpetuate the practice. Indeed, 'bride price' is a mediating tool between families, and is central in establishing bonds between family groups.
​7.     Is the subject sincere?	In order to ascertain the sincerity of the adherence to the cultural practice of 'bride price' as a simple traditional gesture, and to avoid an instrumental use of the cultural defence in trafficking incidents, it might be useful to carry out some factual investigations concerning: the existence of a kinship link between the defendants and the young woman involved in the proceedings. These are in fact situations involving not close family groups (parents of the spouses) but also wider ones (grandparents and aunts and uncles); the content of the communications and agreements between the families involved, whether they reveal a mere willingness to conclude the marriage rite or whether there are other factual circumstances that may be symptomatic of trafficking and/or exploitation; adherence to the cultural practice by the bride herself and the family unit in general; verification of the person who reported the facts - whether it was a person involved in the case (e.g. the young bride) or a person external to the facts (social service workers, teachers, etc.) - and the reasons for the complaint (especially in the case of young brides who reported the facts, checking whether the action was due to a momentary disagreement with the shared life project or whether it was linked to other facts symptomatic of mistreatment and abuse); the family context in which the alleged victim is placed, whether psychologically healthy or abusive.
8.     The search for the cultural equivalent: the translation of the minority practice into a corresponding (Italian) majority practice. ​	While it's difficult to pinpoint defined and ritualized practices of the conjoining of the groom's family and the bride's family in the current Italian culture, we can find similarities in the recent past. In fact, in past generations, marital alliances between two families was certainly more ritualized than it is today, and it was customary, especially in southern Italy, for the groom's family to visit the bride's family to ask for the daughter's hand in marriage. Often they would augment the request with attempts to demonstrate possession of a wealthy or at least sustainable economic condition for the new family unit. Even more ritualized, especially in southern Italy, was the practice of the dowry (abolished in 1975), which was the set of goods that the bride's family provided to the groom's family for the marriage with the aim of contributing to the establishment of the new family unit. Often characterized by household items such as furniture or general furnishings, as well as jewelry or luxury goods, the dowry, like the "bride price", served the function of formalizing the bond between the two families; that is, of formalizing the new kinship created by the spouses through marriage. It is also possible to find a similarity between the ritual of the bride price and the traditional escort of the bride to the altar by her father at the wedding. This gesture originated from certain types of Roman marriages (such as the coemptio), in which there was a real transfer of guardianship and other powers exercisable over the woman from her father to her husband. Born as an expression of powers typical of a patriarchal family structure, the practice survives to this day, albeit with different connotations, covering a symbolic and emotional, yet still ritualistic, significance. The practice of the father escorting the bride to the altar thus originated in ancient Rome in a context of transferring powers over the bride, but in the context of modern Italian marriage, no one interprets it in that way anymore, and no one would think of suing a father for enslavement for performing this gesture, even though its original meaning is not far different from that of a sale or a denial of agency for the bride.
9.      Does the practice cause harm? ​	‘Bride price', established as a cultural practice, does not harm the person or legal assets. It is a traditional exchange of money between the groom's family and the bride's family, set in a consensual context and part of a specific rite, marriage. It is therefore a ritual and collateral element that does not have a detrimental significance in its own right, nor is it capable of being unequivocally symptomatic of dysfunctionality or oppression of the newly constituted family unit into which the bride is welcomed. It is a necessary starting condition like other ritual and normative elements, which alone is not sufficient to be symptomatic of slavery or harmful situations.
​10.  What impact does the minority practice have on the culture, constitutional values, and rights of the (Italian) majority?	In the culture of the host group, the majority, the practice is divorced from the ritual context of which it is part and perceived in a detrimental way, as a real buying and selling of a person: a mere exchange of price between adult and prevaricating subjects, with the sole purpose of buying a human being, specifically a female and sometimes even a minor. The 'bride price' evokes in the common imagination the ancient practice of slavery, now rejected and abhorred by the majority culture, which is why it is considered a practice detrimental to certain core values of society: human dignity, freedom, and equality. On a legal level, the practice is considered to infringe upon the fundamental rights of personal freedom and equality and to be contrary to criminal law. In fact, in the absence of an anthropological investigation into its function and its close link with the traditional Roma marriage rite or the culture of origin, it is currently traced by living law to the crime punishing enslavement, (Article 600 of the criminal code - Reduction or maintenance in slavery or servitude) and identified with the corresponding process of "reification" of the person envisaged in the case in point. In this sense, it is considered detrimental to the legal asset protected by the provision, the "status libertatis", understood as the complex of manifestations that are summarised in this state and the denial of which entails the annihilation of the individual's very personality.
​11.   Does the practice perpetuate patriarchy?	The practice might be a symptom of a patriarchal system as understood in Western culture (systems of oppressive practices and institutions of women), but alone, it is not sufficient to integrate and perpetuate it. Additional elements must be present, including: unequal family life conditions, mistreatment, lack of adherence to the ritual on the part of the victim, and other elements indicating the insincerity of the person invoking the practice in his or her defence. The fact that the ritual has its origin in historically patriarchal family patterns, such as those, indeed, of the Italian tradition (think for instance of the ritual of the father accompanying the bride to the altar, mentioned above, or of the until recently widespread practice of carrying one's husband's surname), does not mean that it is a priori capable of perpetuating such patterns. Moreover, as anthropological investigations have shown, the bride price ritual in the family and traditional system of the Roma family, far from aiming to realise a reification of women, is a ritual that in the multiplicity of its functions aims to enhance their social value for family building.
12.  What good reasons does the minority present for continuing the practice? The criterion of an equally valid life choice.	Traced back to the traditional rite, 'bride price' is not a practice that infringes on any fundamental right; on the contrary, it is the object of the protection of fundamental rights, namely cultural rights. Individuals have the right to perpetuate it, along with other traditions of their own culture, to choose the kind of rites associated with marriage. It is, in fact, a marriage ritual act, capable of assuming the different functions widely recalled above, which also vary according to the groups referred to. In the past, the role of marriage and the family as the primary form of fulfillment of individuals' existence was also presented as a 'valid criterion of life' in Italian culture/society, although it has now been replaced by a vision of fulfillment understood in a more individualistic and professional sense. It should be pointed out that within this framework of different views on the concept of "fulfillment" of the individual, one must necessarily include the fact that the prospects of professional and personal fulfillment offered by the Italian social context are not always the same for the young generations of Roma ethnicity as for the Italian ones. This is why, also due to the different life perspectives offered, marriage continues to be an important point of social life for part of these minorities, a way of participating in the life of society from which derives the importance of preserving the rituals connected to it.