[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
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,I20 MALEKULA
father's sister's daughter’s daughter being called vavzwe, like her
mother and grandmother, while the father's sister’s daughter's
son is addressed as a " kind of father “ tetlalo. In connection
with this same extension of terms to people of three generations
it is interesting to notice that the father's father's sister's
daughter's son is called by the term for grandfather, and that
reciprocally the mother’s mother's brother’s son's son is called
grandchild. It has been suggested by Rivers 1 that the grouping
of the paternal cross-cousins with the father and father's sister
and of the maternal cross-cousins with the children is the outcome
of a regular and recognized practice whereby a man married the
widow of his maternal uncle. That such a union is permissible
in Seniang we know, but as has already been pointed out, it is
prohibited in Mewun where the same classing together of relatives
obtains. Among the Big Nambas, too, this marriage is not
allowed, and the mother's brother's wife is even called a " kind
of mother â€ù (;15e;‘>e vlelekh). The peculiar extension in Malua of
the terms tate and vavwe and of natiik, nï¬Åghepï¬Åk, and puqï¬Åu to
include people no less than three generations, and of several
different clans, cannot be explained on the basis of an hypothetical
form of customary widow remarriage in the past.’ 1
Whereas the terms used in Malua for kindred on the maternal
and paternal sides of the family show in the main aclose similarity
of kinship grouping to those of Ten Marou, yet in the terms
used for alhnals and in the ways in which they are extended,
there appears to be a good deal of variation. Unfortunately the
lists are not equally complete, so that a full comparison is not
possible. In Malua the same terms are used for the parents of
the husband and the wife, the qualifying sufï¬Åx dorm being added
to distinguish those of the female sex ; the word for husband's
father used in Ten Mai-ou has not been recorded, but that for
wife's father is inr)'k and the mother-in-law is called erimik by
men and women alike. In Malua, too, as was mentioned above,
the elder brother's wife and the husband's younger brother are
called by the same term as that used for an elder and younger
‘ Rivers (1914, ii, pp. 23-5, 44).
‘ An examination oi this Malua list of kinship terms and correspondences
alone, suggests that in seeking to explain anomalous groupings of kindred by
reference to possible, hypothetical, obsolete, anomalous marriages, we are not
gkellgv ts’ attain to a true understanding of Malekulan kinship organization.-
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