[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
140 MALEKULA as to their respective ages. Their relationship seems to be sufficiently distant to make it very possible that Tota was not very much older than his wife, especially when we take into consideration the fact that Lining is descended from the elder sister of T0ta’s paternal grandmother. The account given 0f the way in which a young man selects a wife and of the wedding ceremonies suggests that normally the instinct of youth to mate with youth is not violated, and certainly it would be rash to assume that the not infrequent cross-generation marriages observable in the genealogies, indicated that disparity in age between husband and wife was a normal feature of Seniang society. <3‘ = 9 (On Nevet) I 5‘ = ii SIB = AIMBEL ‘ (Tivutip) 3‘ = Q AIMBONG = Liirnbal (Bametamp) [ ‘ (Um qzi) Litamwis = 3 Tom { (Luha) Lnustavu = Aitin. TAVU (N embï¬Årï¬Å) Lining - TABLE G Genealogy showing Tota’s relationship to his wife ‘Lining, Poblgyny and Polyandry Though it would seem, from the genealogies, that it is common for a man to have only one wife, nevertheless polygyny is by no means rare, and a rnan will take several wives ii he can afford to do so. Economically, there is a deï¬Ånite advantage in having a plurality of wives, ior they work in their husband's garden, and tend his pigs, the most valuable of his possessions. Besides polygyny there are a few cases of polyandrous marriage, that is of one woman with two or more recognized ) 2! ., 1‘! .l
