page_title: Bride kidnapping
section_title: Slavic tribes
hierarchical_section_title: Bride kidnapping / Europe / Slavic tribes
caption_attribution_description: Radzivill chronicle. Olga's avenge to the Drevlians. Четвертая месть Ольги за убийство мужа: сожжение древлянского города Искоростеня и расправу с его населением.
context_page_description: Bride kidnapping, also known as bridenapping, marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice in which a man abducts the woman he wishes to marry.
  Bride kidnapping has been practiced around the world and throughout prehistory and history, among peoples as diverse as the Hmong in Southeast Asia, the Tzeltal in Mexico, the Romani in Europe, and tribes in the Amazon jungle. Bride kidnapping still occurs in various parts of the world, but it is most common in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
  In most nations, bride kidnapping is considered a sex crime rather than a valid form of marriage. Some types of it may also be seen as falling along the continuum between forced marriage and arranged marriage. The term is sometimes confused with elopements, in which a couple runs away together and seeks the consent of their parents later. In some cases, the woman cooperates with the kidnapping, typically in an effort to save face for herself or her parents. Even when the practice is against the law, judicial enforcement remains lax in some areas. Bride kidnapping is often a form of child marriage.
context_section_description: East Slavic tribes, predecessor tribes to the Russian state, practised bride kidnapping in the eleventh century. The traditions were documented by Russian monk Nestor. According to his Chronicles, the Drevlian tribe captured wives non-consensually, whereas the Radimich, Viatich, and Severian tribes "captured" their wives after having come to an agreement about marriage with them. The clergy's increase in influence may have helped the custom to abate.
  Marriage by capture occurred among the South Slavs until the beginning of the 1800s. Common in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the custom was known as otmitza. The practice was mentioned in a statute in the Politza, the 1605 Croatian legal code. According to leading intellectual and Serbian folk-chronicler Vuk Karadzic, a man would dress for "battle" before capturing a woman. Physical force was a frequent element of these kidnappings.
  Bride kidnapping was also a custom in Bulgaria. With the consent of his parents and the aid of his friends, the abductor would accost his bride and take her to a barn away from the home, as superstition held that pre-marital intercourse might bring bad luck to the house. Whether or not the man raped his bride, the abduction would shame the girl and force her to stay with her kidnapper to keep her reputation. As in other cultures, sometimes couples would elope by staging false kidnappings to secure the parents' consent.
caption: Early Drevlian tribe in battle
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