essay
Structural change and primitive law: consequences of a Papuan legal case
Law in culture and society • Chicago • Published In 1969 • Pages: 208-229
By: Pospisil, Leopold J..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article, the author documents changes in the incest law of a Kapauku lineage when its influential headman broke the taboo on intra-sib marriage by eloping with his third paternal parallel cousin. The couple escaped capital punishment by becoming fugitives. Tired of their search, the in-laws finally came to terms with the headman over the bride price, thus recognizing the union. The headman legitimized his violation of the incest taboo by changing the regulation to permit marriage among second cousins within the lineage. In addition, he divided his village into two moieties by drawing a line across which sublineages could marry. Pospisil argues that support for these changes was due to hostility among local confederacies and the need to find loyal women from within the confederacy who could not desert, keeping the bride price.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Regulation of marriage
- Mode of marriage
- Clans
- Community heads
- Sex and marital offenses
- Kinship regulation of sex
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Kapauku
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1998
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Oceania
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Melanesia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 1996
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1954-1955, 1959, 1962
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1935-1962
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Kamu Valley, central Highlands, Irian Jaya, Indonesia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Leopold Pospisil
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 68008157
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Kapauku (New Guinea people)