Final answer:
Bride wealth, also known as dowry, is the practice in some traditional European and Asian societies where the wife's family provides inheritance to the husband's family as part of marriage compensation, studied by anthropologists.
Step-by-step explanation:
The practice referred to in traditional European and Asian societies where a wife's family is expected to give the woman's inheritance to the husband's family is known as bride wealth or dowry. This custom is a form of marriage compensation that formalizes the alliance between the two lineages involved in the marriage and is intended to compensate one lineage for the loss of a member and their potential offspring to the other lineage. Anthropologists study these practices to understand the social structures and cultural customs of different societies. For example, in patrilocal societies, which are common in traditional European contexts, the policy dictates that the wife moves in with or near her husband's family, making her an outsider in her own home and separating her from her blood relatives.