david bowie wrote the song the man who sold the world.
david bowie wrote the song the man who sold the world.
who wrote the song the man who sold the world?
david bowie
the man who sold the world









































"the man who sold the world" is a song written and performed by david bowie. it is the title track of his third album, which was released in the us in november 1970 and in the uk in april 1971. the song has been covered by a number of other artists, notably by lulu, who had a uk no. 3 hit with her version in 1974, and nirvana, whose 1993 performance of the song for the television program "mtv unplugged" introduced it to a new audience.
the man who sold the world
in northern tanganyika, in the masai district, in 1955, according to robert f. gray, the sonjo transfer "wives—that is to say, wife rights". among the sonjo, wrote gray, "a lively system of economic exchange ... also encompasses the sale and purchase of rights in women, who in their economic aspects are dealt with much like other commodities." according to gray, "when a husband dies, his wife rights are inherited by his eldest surviving brother. in this respect wives are dealt with in a different manner from other forms of property ... a brother may take the widow as his wife ... a brother may also sell the wife rights in the widow to another man, but in order to understand this transaction we must consider a mystical aspect of sonjo marriage. it is believed that when a married person dies he will ultimately be reunited with his spouse in the spirit world. this belief is expressed in a myth: in former times the dead sometimes returned to earth to help their relatives here, but the last spirit to so materialize on earth was insulted and vowed that thereafter the dead would remain forever in the spirit world; she explained before departing that the spirits of dead husband and wives waited in the spirit world for their spouses to die, and were then reunited with them there. this belief has a practical bearing on bride-price transactions. thus when a husband dies, the brother who inherits the widow may sell his rights in her to another man for the fixed price of thirty goats. this relatively small sum of less than half the woman's normal bride-price is explained by the belief in spirit marriage, for the new husband only acquires full wife rights in the woman in this world; after she dies she will rejoin her original husband in the spirit world. a second husband loses possession of her ghost. [¶] this reduced bride-price for a widow cannot be explained as resulting from a deterioration in her value as a wife." in case of divorce, stated gray, a "husband exchanges his wife rights with another man for a sum of goats. it is convenient to say that he 'sells' his wife, because the form of the transaction is basically the same as those in which he exchanges or sells other goods. thus a young wife is treated economically as a commodity. later in life she outgrows this status, partly because her sexual attractions wane, but of more importance is the fact that her children grow up and are betrothed ... this stabilizes her position in the community". gray continued, a "young woman's value as a wife is not generally thought to be depreciated just because she was previously married, and a husband in selling a wife attempts to regain the same bride-price that he paid for her, which was originally based mainly on the social status of her parental family ... [with the price subject to] supply and demand ... [some] restrictions limit the probability of finding a buyer in the same village ... after a buyer has been found, the wife is always given a grace period for finding a more desirable second husband before she is required to marry the man found by her husband. no physical coercion on the part of the husband is involved in the sale of a wife. the compulsive factor resides in the social structure, in which there is no regular position except as a wife for a young woman who was once married. however, a sonjo husband has a special power, sanctioned by the community, over a wife whom he wishes to sell: if no acceptable buyer can be found within the tribe, he can sell her to the masai, whose demands for sonjo women and children seem to provide an unfailing market." gray wrote, "if a woman ... behaves so as to make herself unsatisfactory as a wife she may induce her husband to sell her to another man of her choice, and thus has some means of protecting her own interest. this system of wife purchase is quite flexible in operation and seems to allow a woman as much freedom of choice—admittedly little—as is found in most other african societies." according to gray, "children ... stay with their mother ... when she is sold and are adopted by her new husband." gray wrote, "only young wives, childless or with young children, are normally considered saleable, and the price paid usually equals or is near the original bride-price, though that is never exceeded. in at least one case an older woman ["of about forty"] was sold by her husband for a considerably reduced price." gray continued, "in these divorces ... payment is made ... only to her original husband [not to her father]. the village council, however, levies a tax of seven goats on these transactions ... this fee or tax is no doubt indicative of some underlying disapproval of the selling of wives. most of these goats, like those collected in fines, are sacrificed ... when wives are exchanged rather than sold, the tax is only four goats ..., which accords with the general opinion that exchanging wives is preferable to selling them."
wife selling