Women in Between

'I .

S e m i nar Stu d i es i n Ant h ro p o l ogy 1. Maurice Bloch. PLACING THE DEAD. 1971 2. Marilyn Strathern. WOMEN IN BETWEEN. 1972 Carlos Maxia. THE NURAGIC CIVILIZATION OF SARDINIA.

In preparation

Andrew Strathern. THE WIRU.ln

preparation

Geoffrey Benjamin THE TEMIAR RELIGION.

In preparation

.1

Women in Between Female Roles in a Male World: Mount Hagen, New Guinea

Marilyn Strathern New Guinea Research Unit The Australian National University Canberra, Australia

1972

SEMINAR PRESS London and New York

Seminar Press Limited

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Note o n o rthog raphy a mid, open, front, rounded vowel, a s i n German "horen". raised e a mid, close, central, unrounded vowel (the schwa) , as the first vowel in English "banana". y a high, close, front, rounded vowel, as in French "mur". o

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Not all phonemically relevant distinctions are indicated transcription.

III

my

Note o n case h isto r i es Since one of my fieldwork interests was disputes and the way these are settled, during the course of my stay in Hagen I witnessed several quarrels and enquired into others. Some of these were quite open and made public within the local community ; others were affairs which people expected only a few would know about. In neither case, how­ ever, would those concerned necessarily invite the participation of a wider audience. I therefore use pseudonyms throughout in all references to particular individuals. My thanks are to the people of Kawelka, Elti and other groups for their generosity in discussing such matters with me ; I hope the fact that I tend to concentrate on quarrels and disputes, and use these to illustrate points at several junctures , will give them no offence. "Cases" based on informants' accounts alone are distinguished by an asterisk. I take these as revealing about attitudes even if they are not accurate as to behaviour.

P reface

The case of t h e g ood wife

I n 1967 I was told about a young girl who had recently married a youth from one of the Northern Hagen tribes. Her kin were said to be dis­ satisfied with the bridewealth they had received, and with hopes of finding better elsewhere, had tried to persuade the new wife to leave her husband. But, so the account went, she protested that this would harm her reputation, make her name bad : they had taken her bridewealth in the first place and now they wanted to throw it back at the husband ! Her husband's relatives were full of praise for her desire to stay; she had proved herself a good wife indeed, with their interests at heart, and in resisting the influence of her parents had really become one of them. "She has come inside us," they said, tin-tin-kin rukrung onom. At marriage, Hagen women usually go to live on their husband's clan territory. However, they by no means automatically "go inside" their husband's group-it is expected that strong ties will be maintained with ) the wife's own kin. Hagen society fits Barnes' characterization of New . Guinea Highlands systems in which "a married woman neither remains fully affiliated to her natal group nor is completely transferred to her husband's group but rather sustains an interest in both", and where "the division of rights in and responsibilities towards the woman is not exclusive" ( 1 962 : 6) . In examining such systems, one can talk of the degree to which women become incorporated into their husband's group, and their jural status vis-a.-vis this and their natal group. Aspects of female incorporation have been considered important, variables in general discussions of such topics as marital stability, concepts of mystical power and descent principles'! The quality of women's attachment to groups with descent ideologies has bearing on the whole nature of group formation, and the significance of male 1

See for example, Fallers ( 1 957), Leach ( 1 961), Douglas (1966), Middleton and Winter (1 963) , Lewis and Goody E. N. and]. R. ( 1 967) .

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P REFACE

membership. A principal focus of New Guinea Highlands ethno­ graphies has been comparative analysis of group structure, and in a sense this book touches on the same theme. My main interest, however, is the rather narrower one of women's roles and the way aspects of group membership from women's point of view compare with men's involve ­ ment, loyalties and values. Women's affiliations to corporate groups are sometimes discussed in either/or terms, as though the more rights the husband's group acquires in respect of a wife, the fewer her natal group can hold ; as though loyalty to the husband must be proportionately detrimental to sibling solidarity. The woman's position is thus seen as an outcome of the way rights in her are distributed or of the balance of influences over her. She is "interstitial" between groups, "peripheral" in terms of the power structure. These concepts have limitations if they imply entirely passive roles on the part of women themselves. In common with other High­ landers, Hageners operate an elaborate system of ceremonial exchange. Relations between groups may be expressed through prestations as well as through confrontation in warfare. Indeed, the nature of descent groups in the Highlands cannot be understood without considering also the kinds of alliances set up between them (cf. Strathern, A. j., 1 969a) . Hagen women traditionally had little part to play in warfare, although their transference between clans sometimes signified friendly intentions ; in the exchange system, however, their participation is more active. It is because of this that my analysis stresses not only women's dual and partial group affiliations but their positive mediatory roles. It is not the simple fact of alliance at issue here. Groups may be linked in ways which concern men only (e.g. by circulating male cults) ; and even where marriages are used as the basis for a link, the wife or sister herself may be no more than an object of transfer. The point is that Hagen ceremonial exchange makes certain requirements of women as actors in the system. These in turn assume a degree of personal commitment to men's interests, so that women are seen as having loyalties to distribute. The young girl who "came inside" was praised for aligning herself with her husband's kin. Although Hageners are using an idiom of incorporation when they refer to a wife having "come inside" her husband's clan, parallel idioms put the emphasis on alliance. A married woman may be described as "in between" (ruk ile morom) , that is, between two sets of in-laws. From the viewpoint of the men on each side the woman

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between them is their link, their "road" (nombokla) , as It IS put, for mutual transactions. She will act as a go-between, and is referred to as bearing valuables from one side to the other. Her own prestige derives in part from this. But women's prestige is not quite the same as men's. Men are always the major public actors in an exchange transaction, and the phrase, "in between", carries a further derogatory connotation. Brothers-in-law may assert their own joint interests against the wife/sister, for between them they control the woman, who is powerless to act on her own accord, and has no "road" of her own. Unlike a man, a woman has limited contacts ; she serves men, and what prestige she has derives from her dependence on males. By herself she is nothing. These are statements men quite op �nly make about women. Nevertheless, the fact that women are seen as intermediaries perhaps leads them to put more emphasis on, to seek more from, their active participation in transactions than men admit is the case. A Hagen man analyzing the power structure of his own society might well categorize females as peripheral, maintaining that women are really irrelevant to the important processes of decision-making. Women, however, not only see things a little differently but sometimes behave as though they were rather more important than men usually allow. For in some contexts it is in men's interests to foster if not exploit women's involve­ ment, and they sometimes find themselves being taken literally. Indeed, women are able to claim, and to achieve, a degree of autonomy. *

*

*

Two major accounts of traditional Hagen society have been written by missionary-anthropologists whose knowledge of Hagen dates from the early years of contact (cf. Vicedom and Tischner, 1 943-8 and Strauss, 1 962) . Vicedom's impression of Hagen women was that they "occupy a higher status than elsewhere in Melanesia" (Vicedom and Tischner, 1943-8 ; 2 : 232) . He notes that (ibid, 227f) women did not participate in religious activities, that a "woman's task is merely to help the male blood of a new generation come into life" since it is through men that clans have continuity, and that it is men who decide the life of the clan and tribe: "they wage wars and bring success or failure to the clan . . . the women have no influence in these public matters but must endure

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what men impose on them". Yet for all this, "the relationship between the sexes is easy and natural. The woman . . . is considered a full member of society. She is expected to be reserved in the company of men, but she nevertheless sits and talks quietly with them. By this fact alone, the women at Mount Hagen occupy a far superior position to that of the women of the Gulf and the Huon Peninsula." Within the New Guinea Highlands alone, the reported tenor of rela­ tions between the sexes differs from society to society. Meggitt's article (1964) , Malejemale relationships in the Highlands of Australian New Guinea, deals with just such differences. He suggests that the social status of women in everyday life is a factor to be considered in the overall assess­ ment of relations between the sexes. A certain amount of antagonism or opposition marks such relations throughout the Highlands ; this inter­ sexual conflict can be divided into at least two types. The one is found among the Mae-Enga, western neighbours of Hagen, the other in Kuma, neighbours to the east. Hagen ( Medlpa) itself Meggitt ascribes to those with the "Kuma syndrome". He remarks that women's status is highest among societies of this cluster. The hypotheses Meggitt set up were primarily intended as a basis for comparisons between several Highlands societie