Bride Money

Contentious Custom on Malaita, B.S.I.

THE much debated question of bride * money, against which certain mis sionary interests on Malaita, Solomon Is lands, had brought their influence to suppress, was raised by Dr. H. lan Hogbin, lecturer in anthropology at the Sydney University, when addressing the Anthropological Society of N.S.W. in March.

Mr. Eric Ramsden, who presided, said that Dr. Hogbin was regarded as one of the best known members of the anthro pological school in the Pacific, and he had carried out valuable work both in the Solomons and in New Guinea.

“Chaperons are still in demand in Malaita,” declared Dr. Hogbin, “whatever may be their debatable status elsewhere.”

He explained that when a young man on that island went courting he was only permitted to stand back to back, in the presence of a chaperon, with the object of his affection. Later he went to her father and handed over part of the bride price. Then the girl was permitted to go and reside for some months with the relatives of her fiance.

“But do not think that the marriage is consumated then,” lie added, “for she is really on probation. The system is really an excellent one, for it permits the young man to get to know his future wife, and if the young woman does not like either the man or his relatives, she is at liberty to return to her village.”

If the girl proves satisfactory, she re turns to her home, and then the balance of the bride money, in so-called “shell money,” is paid to her father.

By suppressing that payment, Dr.

Hogbin said, the South Sea Evangelical Mission had caused commotion in the native life. Some of the natives had followed the lead of the mission, others had persisted in the custom in a more modified form. The Melanesian Mission, however, did not lay down any specific direction in the matter.

As many of the Malaita natives had been married in Church by native clergy according to Christian rites, and such marriages were not recognised by the civil authority, it had been said that they were “living in sin.” Only marriages by European ministers were recognised. On the whole he thought the payment of bride money was a custom suited to the people, and one with which they had been familiar from time immemorial Major H. S. Robinson, secretary of the Melanesian Mission, when proposing a vote of thanks to the lecturer, remarked that the missionary of to-day was much better equipped to understand native problems than his predecessors. “Almost invariably the missionaries now in the field have received a course in anthro pology,” he said, “and they are all the better for it. Not a few of them, too, are trained in medicine.”—E.R.

The United States fleet will carry out its Spring manoeuvres this year in the Pacific, using Hawaii as a base.