A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3Howard, George Elliott
History
A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3
Howard, George Elliott
Families; Marriage -- History
3. Between these extremes of one-sided freedom and entire
prohibition of divorce various intermediate phases appear.
Sometimes the only method is mutual agreement of the parties. So,
for instance, according to Post, among the Karo-Karo, a Batak
tribe on the east coast of Sumatra, neither harsh mistreatment,
wicked desertion, nor even adultery gives either the wife or the
husband singly the right to demand a separation. Only in case
of life-assault is one-sided divorce permitted; and this rule
is perhaps a mitigation of the older and severer law.[740] In
West-Victoria "a man can divorce his wife for serious misconduct,
and even put her to death; but in every case the charge against
her must first be laid before the chiefs of his own and his wife's
tribes, and their consent to her punishment obtained. If the wife
has children, however, she cannot be divorced. Should a betrothed
woman be found after marriage to have been unfaithful, her husband
must divorce her. Her relations then remove her and her child to
her own tribe, and compel the father of the child to marry her,
unless he be a relative. In that case she must remain unmarried. If
a husband is unfaithful, his wife cannot divorce him. She may make
a complaint to the chief, who can punish the man by sending him
away for two or three moons; and the guilty woman is very severely
punished by her relatives." But there are other ways of dissolving a
marriage; and under some conditions the woman has a chance. Exchange
of wives, when both are childless, is "permitted only after the
death of their parents, and, of course, with the consent of the
chiefs." A couple without children may separate by mutual consent;
and "when a woman is treated with cruelty by her husband, she may
put herself under the protection of another man, with the intention
of becoming his wife. If he take upon himself the duty of protecting
her, he must challenge her husband and defeat him in single combat
in presence of the chiefs and friends of both parties." When a
"husband knows that his wife is in love with another man, and if
he has no objection to part with her, he takes her basket to the
man's wuurn and leaves it. But as no marriage or exchange of wives
can take place without the consent of the chief, the wife remains
with her husband till the final great meeting, when the bargain is
confirmed. This amicable separation does not create any ill feeling
between the parties, as the woman is always kind to her first
husband without causing any jealousy on the part of the second. Such
transactions, although lawful, may not be approved of by the woman's
relatives, and she is liable to be speared by her brother."[741]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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