The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

THE SOCIAL SYSTEM yz
The Family
Very few men have more than one wife.
Occasionally a chief whose wife has borne him
no children during some years of married life, or
has found the labours of entertaining his guests
beyond her strength, will with her consent, or even
at her request, take a second younger wife. In
such a case each wife has her own sleeping apartment
within the chiefs large chamber, and the
younger wife is expected to defer to the older one,
and to help her in the work of the house and of the
field. The second wife would be chosen of rather
lower social standing than the first wife, who in
virtue
easily.
of this fact maintains her ascendancy more
A third wife is probably unknown public
;
opinion does not easily condone a second wife, and
would hardly tolerate a third. In spite of the
presence of slave women in the houses, concubinage
is not recognised or tolerated.
The choice of a wife is not restricted by the
existence of any law or custom prescribing marriage
without or within any defined group ; that is to say,
exogamous and endogamous groups do not exist.
Incest is regarded very seriously, and the forbidden
degrees of kinship are clearly defined. They are
very similar to those recognised among ourselves.
A man may under no circumstances marry or have
sexual relations with his sister, mother, daughter,
father's or mother's sister or half sister, his brother's
or sister's daughter ; and in the case of those
women who stand to him in any of these relations
in virtue of adoption, the prohibitions and severe
penalties are if possible even more strictly enforced.
First cousins may marry, but such marriages are
not regarded with favour, and certain special
ceremonies are necessitated ; and it seems to be
the general opinion that such marriages are not