• introduction

• cultural isolation

• tiwi marriage

• marriage by betrothal

• widow remarriage

• naming rules

• levirate,sororal, polygyny and cross-cousin marriage

• bibliography

LEVIRATE, SORORAL POLYGYNY AND CROSS-COUSIN MARRIAGE

Besides the marriage by betrothal and widow marriage, there are also a few other marriage systems in the Tiwi society. The first one is known as the levirate, which is when a deceased spouses’ brother marries the widow. For the Tiwi men, this type of matrimony was very reputable and demanded diplomatic sharpness and achievement. Next, there was sororal polygyny, in which sisters were wedded to the same male at the same time. It developed either by one father bestowing all of his daughters to the same male, or through widow remarriage. And last but not least is the cross-cousin marriage. “The Tiwi consider cross cousin marriage to be the proper form of marriage arrangement.” (Goodale, 1962). Given the fact that women had to be married at all times, it was inevitable for some sort of cross-cousin marriage to be performed in the Tiwi society. “...in theory all Tiwi marriages were rather idealistically approximated to marriages between cros-cousins, but in practice they departed quite far from such an ideal; so far, in fact, that extra kinship terms had been introduced to take care of the relationships created by such departures.” (Pilling, 1960).