Bride Prices Rising In Papua

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31077, 4 June 1966, Page 5

Bride Prices Rising In Papua

(By

DAVID WHITE

in the

‘‘Sydney Morning Herald”) QF the many and varied customs of the people of PapuaNew Guinea few would arouse as much interest among Europeans as the payment of bride prices. The custom is also frequently discussed by Papuans and New Guineans themselves as happened at a recent local government conference at which delegates debated ways of limiting the prices. But in spite of this interest and constant debate, few aspects of Territory life would be so frequently misunderstood by outsiders.

The term “bride price” In itself is probably largely to blame for this misunderstanding. It tends to imply that a girl in Papua-New Guinea is much the same as a car or a washing machine—available to any man who can afford to pay a fixed price for her. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The bride price—“marriage payment” as some anthropologists now prefer to call it—is fixed by a complicated process, and girls do not have set values. It is also part of the traditional social structure of Territory communities and therefore is designed to meet definite social needs.

Price Analysis It is always diflicult to generalise about customs in the Territory which has so many scattered tribal groups with different traditions, but an analysis of bride price among the Motu people of Papua will give some idea of how the system works. The Motu live in a series of villages around Port Moresby and range from the relative sophisticates of Hanuabada on the edge of the town to other people who still live in a fairly traditional way.

Marriages take place among the Motu for a number of reasons. One may be arranged by parents to suit their convenience. It may be that a father asks his son if there is anyone he wishes to marry and then arranges the match with the girl’s parents. A couple may marry simply because they are in love (although traditionally they would still need the approval of their parents). Or quite commonly the marriage may result from a boy getting a girl pregnant. Whatever the reason, once a marriage is decided upon a complex chain of events follows.

First, the prospective bridegroom’s parents make engagement payment to the parents of the bride. Traditionally this was comparatively small payment and served as an earnest of things to come. The Motu word for it is maoheni—“giving of yams.” This payment is divided among the relatives of the parents of the bride-to-be who also retain some of it

Cyril Belshaw, an anthropologist who studied the

Hanuabadans in the fifties, noted that during the period of engagement, the bride-to-be took bowls of cooked food to the young man’s house perhaps twice a week as an indication that she recognised her duty to her future parents-in-law and that she respected the bond she had entered into.

Onus On Relatives During the engagement period, which traditionally would last up to two years, but which is now shorter, the young man’s parents gather the bride price which is necessary for the marriage to go ahead. The parents’ close relatives are expected to contribute as much as they can afford, but money and other goods also come from more distant sources.

In the gathering of a large bride price hundreds of people make contributions. The reason for this is that a villager might offer, say, £2 and three armshells (a usual part of the payment) even though he is not even distantly related to the recipient family. He will do this because he has a son who is due to get married sometime later.

By making a contribution he ensures that he will be helped in return when he is gathering a bride price for his own son’s marriage. At the same time, the people he helps become obligated to him until they have returned the favour and thus are more likely to assist him in other ways, perhaps by supporting him in a village dispute. The bridegroom’s parents keep a book in which each contribution is carefully noted. Later, if someone who has contributed is raising a bride price he will send them a message announcing the fact. They will consult their book, see how much they are indebted to him for and make a return contribution. The book would only serve as a rough guide in deciding what to give a dose relative as in tins case they would be expected to give as much as they could afford.

Money On Pole Once an amount which the bridegroom’s parents consider satisfactory has been collected they will make the payment to the bride’s parents. Between a quarter and half the money and shells will be tacked to a long pole and this will be carried through the village to the bride’s home. The rest of the payment is carried by hand. The money and shells on the pole are for the relatives of the bride’s parents and are divided among them. The money carried by hand is meant for the bride’s parents, but even this is divided among relatives and friends. For example, if a bride price of £lOOO is paid, £750 of this might be carried by hand to the bride's parents, but they would probably end up with only about £lOO or £l5O for themselves. They would be considered greedy if they kept much more. None of the money goes to the couple getting married, although the bride’s relatives do give her cooking utensils and some other household goods. The important thing to note here is that the t bride’s

parents do not set a figure for the bride price. Virtually the only influence they might have on the amount is that they might not agree to their daughter marrying the son of a family whom they would not expect to be able to pay very much. But apart from this possibility the amount is entirely up to the bridegroom’s parents. The standing of a man in a community will help determine the amount as people are more likely to contribute to the payment for the son of a respected village leader. Prestige is also a big factor. A man may make a large payment for his son to prove that he is a man of substance. The attractions of the bride do not appear to have any direct bearing on the price. The professor of sociology at the University of Singapore, Professor Murray Groves, an authority on the Motu, told me recently that he had never known a marriage payment to be rejected as too small.

The bride price fulfils definite social and economic functions in the Motu villages where people still have a fairly traditional way of life. As can be seen from the intricate way in which the pay-

ments are collected and distributed, each bride price involves the incurring of many obligations. As marriages take place progressively, a great numer of interlocking obligations are built up. These obligations are of great importance in village life as they tend to bind people together. They provide security for the villagers as they always have people they can turn to for help. They also have economic advantages if the villagers are dependent on fishing, hunting and gardening for their livelihood as people can call on their relatives and friends to help in these activities.

Prevents Divorce

Another benefit is that the payment of bride price helps stabilise marriages—a fact that has been recognised by missionaries. If a woman leaves her husband for no good reason, her parents are obliged to pay back the bride price and thus she will be subjected to considerable pressure to return to her husband. In turn, if a man leaves his wife, her parents automatically retain the bride price, so that he will find himself subjected to some pressure from his

family who will resent the waste of money involved. Unfortunately, a number of disadvantages have crept into the system in recent .years The principal one is that in some Motu areas the marriage payments have become nothing less than exorbitant In other areas of Papua, the payments still tend to be small and are often accompanied by an equivalent return gift from the bride’s parents to the bridegroom’s family. According to Professor Groves, there is some reason to suspect that similar return gifts were given in Motu villages at least until the time of European contact. But this characteristic has long since disappeared from the Motu scene. The prices have remained relatively low in places where the people have little cash income. But in Hanuabada where people work for wages the situation has got out of hand. Payments have gone as high as £lBOO and a Hanuabadan friend told me that the average payment was now about £750. Prestige appears to have become too big a factor in Hanuabada. Families try to outdo one another by making higher and higher payments to prove their status and this

has gradually forced the average price level up. Even engagement payments can go as high as £5OO in this village. A young educated Hanuabadan told me that men of his generation were becoming increasingly restive about the system. “I incurred so many obligations when I got married that I am forever having to pay money to help other people in return,” he said. “I find it almost impossible to save any money for myself and my family.” He does, however see some advantages in the retention of the system with lower prices—because of the security provided by interlocking obligation.

Obsolete In Area

But even the value of the obligation has diminished in Hanuabada since people gave up fishing, hunting and gardening as their main means of livelihood to work for wages. A man does not need the help of his neighbours to work in an office or as an employed labourer. The dismal fact is, according to Professor Groves, that the bride-price system appears to have out-lived its real usefulness in Hanuabada.