J. Pouwer Social structure in the Western interior of Sarmi (Northern Netherlands New Guinea): a response to a response. (Zie nr. 1552)

In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 116 (1960), no: 3, Leiden, 365-372

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forthcoming article of mine,1 devoted principally to a discussion of New Guinea as a field for anthropological researchA, will link up with the admirable observations of a more general tenor by A. C. van der Leeden contained in a rejoinder to my review of his doctoral thesis.2 I wish here to go further into his reply con- cerning the interpretation of the data published in his thesis about the social structure of two tribes in the interior of Sarmi. In doing so I shall follow as far as possible the lines of his own exposition. Van der Leeden is of the opinion that, given the minimal stability in the composition of the local kin groups, nothing is contributed to their characterisation by calling them ambilateral ramages,3 and that no new element is thereby added to the interpretation. I think, how- ever, that something is indeed added. If we look at the situation from the point of view of lineal or bilineal descent, as does van der Leeden, then it will certainly give the impression of "structural looseness". But if, on the contrary, we approach it from the angle of non-unilineal descent, based on bilateral reckoning of , with the continuity of the kin groups through the generations guaranteed by the aid of territorially-limited membership, then the conclusion is obvious that we are dealing with a peculiar type of structure; one which has moreover the merit of according excellently with an unstable demo- graphic, economic and territorial situation. An ambilineal system is flexible, and always permits change in the composition of the kin group, without thereby being describable as loose or incoherent. Furthermore, I should like to state 4 that I should equally seriously

1 This article will probably appear in the first 1961 issue of the Bijdragen. 2 "Social structure in New Guinea." Bijdragen tot de Taal-, land- en Volken- kunde, 116, 1960, pp. 119-149. 3 Van der Leeden, op. cit., p. 126, bottom. 4 I shall return to this subject in the article mentioned in footnote 1. Dl. 116 24

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 11:14:11AM via free access 366 j. POUWER. take into account as factors in the definition of the degree of inte- gration in a culture, factors just as weighty as e.g. the operation of the principle of reciprocity, the extent to which the succeeds in adapting itself to, makes use of, and maintains itself in a certain natural environment. An ambilineal system is in fact a system deserving a place next to a unilineal system; it is by no means simply a phenomenon of adapt- ation. Moreover, "being suited to" and "being adapted to" must nevertheless be clearly distinguished. The question of in what economic circumstances a unilineal system can appear, and in what circumstances another system, is in every way scientifically justified.5 I would deny that the concept of rests on a quantitative analysis of genealogical material.6 It is not the case that we can straight- away speak of ambilineality whenever the total of deviations from the rule of greatly surpasses the number of confirmations of it. Such a situation can only be taken as a very useful signpost which permits the supposition that an ambilineal system probably exists. In this way the researcher arrives at a supposition, a hypothesis, which he then proceeds to test. No more may we rely simply on the importance of the sibling group, since this is a basic feature of every form of kinship organisation. In New Guinea, as van der Leeden correctly remarks, the sibling group has everywhere an especially important function in the realisation of the social structure. and regulations, for example, are frequently defined by the Papuans with reference to the sibling group. The material for testing referred to above must be sought in the totality of bilateral phenomena, expressed in the kinship ter- minology, criteria for membership of the kin group, and rules of inheritance, as well as in the importance of the sibling group discussed above and in the composition of the kin groups. Naturally, qualitative factors such as the ideas of the people themselves are at the same time

5 See Meyer Fortes, "The structure of unilineal descent groups", American Anthropologist, 55, 1953, p. 24: "it does seem that unilineal descent groups are not of significance among people who live in small groups, depend on a rudi- mentary technology and have little durable property... Where these groups are most in evidence is in the middle range of relatively homogeneous, pre- capitalistic economies in which there is some degree of technological sophis- tication and value is attached to rights in durable property." 6 Van der Leeden, op. cit, p. 127.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 11:14:11AM via free access SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN THE WESTERN INTERIOR OF SARMI. 367 of great importance. It should be remarked, in this connexion, that I nevertheless attach great value to van der Leeden's own view, when he ascribes the indistinctness in the definition of the groups to the fact that the individual feels himself equally a member of both his father's and his mother's kin group. Does he refer to filiation or to descent ? If the structural significance of the bilateral phenomena has been thus assessed, an investigation can then be undertaken into the way in which the kin group is perpetuated through the generations. Is there, ideally and in practice, any choice possible? And is this choice precipitated in descent lines containing male as well as female persons ? Or does one belong automatically, as it were, to the kin group of the father and the father's father? In this connexion I should like em- phatically to call attention to the fact that one may only speak of unilineality or ambilineality when the corporate descent line comprises at least three generations. It is not permissible, then, to see the mother's brother-sister's son relationship, as van der Leeden does, as in itself an expression of an elementary matrilineal reckoning of kinship. This relationship derives from that between brother and sister; and this in its turn is among other things defined by the idea that the woman (sister) is an object in the exchange of women, while the man (her brother) constitutes a subject. Hence the fact that the mother's brother- sister's son relationship can be of great functional importance in either patrilineal or matrilineal systems, as well as in non-unilineal systems. Very many New Guinea are themselves telling examples of this. The phenomenon is thus not linked to a particular mode of reckoning descent, and cannot therefore be employed in itself as evidence for the existence of matrilineal descent. Van der Leeden thinks that I attribute patrilineal and matrilineal tendencies to the elasticity of the ambilineal framework.7 But this is not what I said. I merely wrote that the ambilineal framework leaves room for matrilineal and patrilineal tracing of descent within any one kin group. The explanation for these ways of tracing descent and of the tendencies which are presented in them must be sought elsewhere; e.g. patrilineal tracing in the factors named by van der Leeden, viz. a preference for patrilocal marriage together with the asymmetry of the sexes. With respect to matrilineal tracing of descent, a distinction must be drawn between tracing within the localised kin group and

7 op. cit., p. 131.

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outside it. In the review I was referring to matrilineal tracing within the kin group, but expressed this unclearly. During research in eastern Vogelkop, where within an ambilineal structural framework a patrilineal tendency exists, I encountered a significant number of cases in which persons belonged to, and lived in the territory of, local kin group by reason of matrilineal descent. I should like to ask van der Leeden how he would try to explain this on the basis of a patrilineal or a bilineal system. I have related this phenomenon to bilateralism, to the flexibility peculiar to an ambilineal system, and to a particular demographic situation. When a group threatens to become too small, from the point of view of its continued existence, or is still too small, it keeps the married female members at home. The children of these women thus constitute part of the ramage, and increase the potential of the group. As the group expands, more and more women are married out to other places, and the lines of descent are masculinised. This is the case on the Anggi lakes. If the group remains small, however, then there is a good chance that a certain number of women will continue to be kept in the group. Thus one meets people who trace their descent from a founder in the matrilineal line. This is the case especially in the Arfak range. A matrilineal tracing of descent which leads outside the corporate kin group can indeed be attributed to the operation of circulating con- nubium through the generations. The phenomenon of "marrying back" which I myself also observed in Mimika, eastern Vogelkop, and in the Sterrengebergte, need not however be coupled by hook or by crook with a latent matrilineal tracing of descent. According to my own data, it can rest simply on the wish to bring back to the group a descendant of a man or woman who has moved away or has married out and has thus been lost to the group. This means a descendant of any sort at all, and not exclusively a matrilineal descendant or even per se a female descendant. Thus a loss is compensated for, and furthermore a relation- ship which through the generations has threatened to fade away is re-established. Lines which have been receding from each other are brought together again. In the Arfak range I noted cases in which a male descendant of a woman married elsewhere "came back" after three generations via a matrilocal marriage. If a kin group is bilaterally organised, or if it exhibits significant bilateral traits, then the wish to "marry back" may be more strongly evinced, because the departure of men and women together with their descendants is felt as a loss to a greater extent than in a unilineally-organised kin group.

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There is as little need to place the idea of a cycle in the foreground as there is to ascribe primary importance to unilineality in the case of marrying back. The primary factor may simply be that it is desired to maintain a certain genealogical distance between marriage partners. A cycle comes into existence as a consequence of this. In eastern Vogel- kop the relation between siblings is thought to be so close — "they are of one blood" — that a marriage between their children, i.e. between cousins, is not permitted. Marriage is indeed forbidden, though reluct- antly, between the children of cousins. Against marriage between the children's children of cousins there is no objection. Is a marriage in Sarmi between cousins not just as much forbidden because they are of one blood ? Now when a woman is married out to another similarly localised kin group, the daughter of this woman must marry into another group than that of which she is a member, as a consequence of the exogamous character of the kin- group, and so forth. When there is a "marriage back" after some generations, a cycle naturally comes into existence; the circle is closed, formed by a number of men and/or women coming from a number of kin groups. The cycle comes into being in consequence of the combination of marrying back, prohibition on marriage between cousins, and exogamy of the kin groups. These three factors are primary, not the cycle. Wherever the phenomenon of "marrrying back" is discovered, then, there is no need immediately to postulate a line of matrilineal descent leading outside Ego's kin group, any more than there is to postulate a circulating fixed connubium through the generations. I should there- fore like to put the question to van der Leeden of whether the pheno- menon of marrying back in the area he studied is actually connected with an existing and for the most part latent tracing of matrilineal descent, and with a clear idea of circulating connubium through the generations. Which is thought to be primary: "marrying back" or circulation ? I still think it significant that in his thesis van der Leeden is unable to cite any clear matrilineal case of "marrying back". Van der Leeden thinks that I approach the social structure, not from the angle of the total system of social relationships, but only from the local kin grouping,8 and that among other things I disregard the connexions between the local groups. It is true that in my review I hardly touched upon such relationships between local groups, but instead focussed attention on the corporate kin groups. But if van der

8 op. tit, p. 131.

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Leeden will examine my official report on means of subsistence and social structure in eastern Vogelkop — as I have the impression he has in fact done — he will notice that I have indeed paid attention to relationship between local groups in an ambilineal system. Since the kin groups in such a system are by definition localised, the system could have disintegrating effects for the totality of social relations if it were not that the dispersion of marriage relations between groups, brought about by the system of indirect exchange with bridewealth, forms an extremely important counter-balance to the tendency to distintegration. I have stated this clearly in the report. I readily concede to van der Leeden that when there is a strong tendency towards patrilocal marriage, in an ambilineal framework, and patrilineal descent is thus dominant, it may well be asked whether it is still meaningful to speak of ambilineality. However, I in my turn now point out a decisive qualitative factor, viz. the possibility of choice. There is an unmistakeable patrilineal tendency within the ambilineal framework of the tribes around the Anggi lakes. But one is free, according to the ideal pattern, to attach oneself to the mother's group as well as to the father's, and after marriage a man can establish him- self either in the settlement of his wife or can remain in his own. Further, cases are also met with there of membership in a kin group on the ground of matrilineal descent. If the asymmetry of the sexes in the marriage relation is really a general phenomenon, then this asymmetry will not be lacking, and will even be the more developed, in an ambilineal system. Lineality in an ambilineal system is always in large degree a function of the rule of marital residence,9 and patrilocal marriage is in its turn connected with the asymmetry of the sexes. We may thus have to do with unilineal tendencies in a fundamentally bilateral structure, or with bilateral deviations in a fundamentally uni- lineal structure. It is not easy to decide which of the two systems is indicated by any particular observed social reality. I have already indicated above what criteria this reality must satisfy if it is to be termed ambilineal. Van der Leeden expresses himself inexactly when he writes that I characterise the of Sarmi as "Hawaiian".10 I

0 It is noteworthy that van der Leeeden's own informants in the western interior of Sarmi explain as patrilocality. See van der Leeden, op. cit., p. 130. 10 op. cit., p. 130.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 11:14:11AM via free access SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN THE WESTERN INTERIOR OF SARMI. 371 merely said that the terminological system resembles the Hawaiian type.1! I have already dilated on the point that the existence of separate terms for father's younger sister and for mother's brother can be explained by the asymmetry of the sexes in the marriage system (the relationship of brother-sister). The existence of such terms need thus not at all be taken as indication of a particular descent system. The remark of van der Leeden that these terms cannot be attributed to a bilateral tendency is thus irrelevant. I still attach great value to the fact, seen in the light of the native concepts of descent, that the term for siblings can also be used for cross-cousins. Van der Leeden has come to realise that the comparison which he drew in his thesis between the social system in the area he studied and the Australian Aranda system does not entirely hold. In the place of collective bilineal kinship categories, which are lacking in Sarmi, the prohibition on marriage between "real" relatives, and the preference for between "traditional" relatives, are held to give a broad impression of the bilineal exogamy rules of the system.12 But from these bilineal kinship categories to real and traditional relatives seems to me theoretically a far cry. Moreover, is it in fact the case that marriage must be contracted within the circle of traditional relatives? Or is it simply a matter here of certain preferences? If the latter is the case, is this choice then so surprising, considering that the associ- ation related = trusted, witnessed to by e.g. what van der Leeden calls the navel gesture, 13 also certainly exists in Sarmi? A man prefers to marry his daughter or sister out to a traditional relative, rather than to a non-relative with whom he has no connection in any way. Marriage with a traditional relative offers the bride giver a greater security con- cerning exchange-obligations, and a good treatment of the woman. Is it really necessary to postulate structural factors behind this choice? On the prohibition on marriage with "real" relatives I have already written in my review of van der Leeden's thesis. To sum up: van der Leeden has still not convinced me that the corporate kin groups he studied exhibit a patrilineal structure; neither can I accept his idea of matrilineal tracing of descent outside the corporate kin group as a structural phenomenon, because "marrying back" is not necessarily linked to a circulation of women, nor to a

" op. cit, p. 111. 12 op. cit., p. 124 & p. 142. 13 See his thesis, Hoofdtrekken der sociale structuur in het westelijke binnenland van Sarmi, Leiden, 1956, p. 67.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 11:14:11AM via free access 372 j. POUWER. matrilineal tracing of descent. Only when van der Leeden demonstrates that belonging corporately to the kin group of the mother and the mother's mother is not an alternative (which may be little practised in fact, even while indubitably existing), but is seen as a deviation, which is something different from an exception, and only if asymmetry appears to have through the generations a clear matrilineal tendency, shall I be prepared to accept unilineality and bilineality for the western interior of Sarmi. J. POUWER

ERRATUM

Abusievelijk zijn in de vorige aflevering van dit tijdschrift bij de foto's in het artikel van Dr. K. W. Galis de onderschriften verwisseld. Het tegenover p. 272 afgebeelde bijltje is ten rechte afkomstig van Ifar-ketjil, dat tegenover p. 273 van Abar. REDACTIE

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