Marriage By Betrothal
As explained before, the Tiwi are a tribe of Australian aborigines that live in a remote island. For this reason, they are very isolated from the outside world. Thus, this isolation is the main cause of their type of marriage beliefs and also their culture. The Tiwi have the elaborate thinking that women must always be married during their lifetime. The main reason why these people have these ideas is because the Tiwi do not believe that human life is generated by reproduction. The Tiwi believe that women become pregnant because a spirit generates life within them. Thus sex to the Tiwi is not an act of reproduction but only an act of interaction between men and women. Due to these believes the Tiwi culture has a very different point of view regarding marriage. Later on we will explain the effects of their culture which acts upon their marriage system and their sex control concept.
In the Tiwi there are different bands living within the same territory. Just as in America, we have Californians and we also have New Yorkers. The Tiwi have different people living at different locations thus they call themselves by their territorial names; “Malauila” or “Rangwila” Tiwi. Because the Tiwi are somewhat of an isolated tribe, interaction between different type of Tiwi is mostly limited but none the less they do have interaction with one another. In the case of cross band marriage, it is rare to see women marrying men from other tribes but it does happen. The main reason is due to betrothal of women to other men, in other worlds they trade women as business between bands.
The main type of marriage among the Tiwi culture is that of marriage by betrothal. As mentioned, the Tiwi believe that no woman should be without a husband through her life. For this reason, women are given in marriage by betrothal at a very young age. In most cases, their fathers make arrangements with influencing man to give him his girl in marriage even before she is born. In other words, they make arrangements for certain goods or favors in exchange for the betrothal of the child. We must note that although women have arranged marriages even before they are born, usually the husband will not claim the child until she is old enough to leave her family; usually this happens when she becomes a teenager. Although most women are married by betrothal, the process of marriage is somewhat complicated. The Tiwi don’t happen to have somewhat of an age where someone becomes an adult, but most men don’t marry until they reach their late 30s. The process of becoming and eligible bachelor is very complicated and somewhat harsh for the men. Most men are not even considered as qualifying bachelors at a young age and other just live in bachelor status for the rest of their life. The process by which husbands are chosen is by prestige and influence. According to the Tiwi, the best bachelor would be someone with political power and with lots of influence over the Tiwi population. Thus the most influential man would be the guy with the most women. Therefore the rule of thumb for the Tiwi is that if the husband has many wives then he must be an influential man; thus the parent of a female child would give his child in betrothal to such powerful man. The reason why parents do this is because women are the actual currency of the Tiwi. If the parent gives the female child in betrothal to a wealthy and powerful guy he is then entitled to ask for a favor in return. But then again, since the probabilities of an unsuccessful man having a female child are very low; parents that trade female child usually get in return another female child as his new wife. Thus all the females are mostly married to man way older than themselves. Among the Tiwi the usual successful man is of about 60 years old, and the younger male is just about to start his way into the process of becoming a husband. Therefore, in order to be successful as a Tiwi male, you must be old and have many wives.
The Following is a typical contract made for marriage by betrothal which in this case we will call type A contract.
“A type A contract is made during the five-day period in which a girl is isolated in the bush at the time of her first menstrual period. Although she has been living with her first husband, she is separated from him at this time. When she again returns to the husband’s camp, she is not only considered to have reached the status of a woman but also that of a mother-in-law. While she is in the bush, her father places a spear between her legs as she sleeps and then presents it to a boy or man whom he selects to serve his daughter as a son-in-law. The spear is regarded by the recipient as a symbol of a bestowed wife yet to be born to this young mother-in-law. By accepting the spear, the son-in-law becomes obligated to his mother-in-law; from that moment on he must supply her with food and goods and such services as she may request at any time. In return, she is held solely responsible for seeing that her first daughter is sent to his camp when she reaches the wifely age of eight or ten. After receiving the first daughter the son-in-law is expected to continue his services to his wife’s mother, in return for which he can expect to receive other daughters subsequently born to her. The initial contract continues until either the son-in-law or the mother-in-law dies. If either fails to honor his obligation, however, the other may terminate the contract.” [3]
