15. Visit a Marriage Market
Early human marriages were very rarely a result of any sort of affection and were far more likely to be arranged as a matter of property transfer or alliance building. In ancient Babylonia, a man selecting of a wife was more akin to buying a slave in a slave auction. Babylonia had marriage markets where men bid on women they wanted to take as wives.
The chronicler Herodotus wrote that the markets opened with the auctioning of the most beautiful and desirable women, with such women achieving the highest prices and marrying the wealthiest men. They would descend in order down to the least desirable women who were often disabled, old or unattractive. Frequently the leader of the market would actually pay men to take these women as wives, with the proceeds from the auctions of the beautiful women serving to create a dowry for the men who wed the less desirable women.
The sales reportedly came with a money-back guarantee, and men had to bring proof of their ability to pay for the women as well as people to vouch for their intent to marry the woman selected. Fathers were not allowed to marry their daughter to anyone of their choosing and had to “sell” them at the market. While paying men to take undesirable women is horrifying, the creation of a dowry at the expense of the beautiful women may well have created more social safety and security for these women than was found in later eras.
