When marital institutions break down: Impact and adaptation among the Enga of Papua New Guinea

Wiessner, Polly; Pupu, Nitze

doi:10.1017/ehs.2021.13

Cited by 3 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Relatives imposed sanctions to protect the virginity of unmarried girls and restricted contact with the opposite sex (Burt, 1988;Rosi & Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993;Buchanan-Aruwafu et al, 2003;Wardlow, 2006a;Guo, 2006;Buchanan-Aruwafu & Maebiru, 2008;Zorn, 2010a;Jourdan & Labbé, 2020;Servy, 2020). Institutions such as men's houses reinforced gender segregation while belief in menstrual pollution discouraged sexual transgressions (Pflanz-Cook, 1993;Wardlow, 2006a;Wiessner & Pupu, 2021). Ritual seclusion, puberty initiations and bachelor's cults regulated young people's entry into the marriage market (Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993;Wiessner & Pupu, 2021).…”

Section: A Changing Levels Of Control Over Marriage (De)regulation Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Institutions such as men's houses reinforced gender segregation while belief in menstrual pollution discouraged sexual transgressions (Pflanz-Cook, 1993;Wardlow, 2006a;Wiessner & Pupu, 2021). Ritual seclusion, puberty initiations and bachelor's cults regulated young people's entry into the marriage market (Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993;Wiessner & Pupu, 2021). Relatives monitored young people and enforced prohibitions with fines, corporal punishment and social stigma (Rosi & Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993;Dureau, 1998;Buchanan-Aruwafu et al, 2003;Guo, 2006;Buchanan-Aruwafu & Maebiru, 2008).…”

Section: A Changing Levels Of Control Over Marriage (De)regulation Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Missionaries also undermined cousin marriage and arranged marriage (Carrier, 1993). Missions and colonial administrations suppressed pollution beliefs and gender segregation, and promoted mixed-sex family homes, churches and schools (Wiessner & Pupu, 2021). Co-ed schooling and church activities, urban migration, mobile phones and motor transport have increased contact with the opposite sex (Carrier, 1993;Rosi & Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993;Buchanan-Aruwafu et al, 2003;Wardlow, 2006a;Buchanan-Aruwafu & Maebiru, 2008;Servy, 2013;Guo, 2020;Wiessner & Pupu, 2021).…”

Section: A Changing Levels Of Control Over Marriage (De)regulation Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Missions and colonial administrations suppressed pollution beliefs and gender segregation, and promoted mixed-sex family homes, churches and schools (Wiessner & Pupu, 2021). Co-ed schooling and church activities, urban migration, mobile phones and motor transport have increased contact with the opposite sex (Carrier, 1993;Rosi & Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993;Buchanan-Aruwafu et al, 2003;Wardlow, 2006a;Buchanan-Aruwafu & Maebiru, 2008;Servy, 2013;Guo, 2020;Wiessner & Pupu, 2021). In diverse urban environments, youth also encounter people from other ethnolinguistic groups, which enlarges their dating pool (Marksbury, 1993;Rosi & Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993).…”

Section: A Changing Levels Of Control Over Marriage (De)regulation Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bride price reflects complementary gender roles: traditionally, women bear children, grow crops and breed pigs while men provide gardening land and political leadership, and participate in ceremonial gift exchange (Strathern & Strathern, 1969; Strathern, 1984; Burt, 1988; Rosi & Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993; Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993; Salomon, 2000; Wardlow, 2002; Eves, 2019; Jourdan & Labbé, 2020; Wiessner & Pupu, 2021). Women rely on men to access land but men rely on women's labour to meet their exchange obligations and grow their prestige (Strathern, 1984; Burt, 1988; Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993; Salomon, 2000; Demian, 2017; Eves, 2019; Wiessner & Pupu, 2021). In some societies, men exchange valuables that do not depend on women's labour (Clark, 1991; Breton, 1999), but this appears to be rare.…”

Section: Impact Of Other Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Does bride price harm women? Using ethnography to think about causality

Brandl,

Colleran

2024

Evolut. Hum. Sci.

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Many institutions claim that bride price – where the groom's family transfers wealth to the bride's family at marriage – harms women. Due to its long-term engagement with communities that practice bride price, ethnography is well-placed to identify causal mechanisms at play in this issue, and there is a substantial literature on its effects. Here, we condense this literature, drawing out key causal arguments made about brideprice in various Melanesian societies. This reveals a complex, multi-causal picture: rather than being singularly harmful, bride price may involve a mixture of drawbacks and benefits, making it a double-edged sword with contested implications. Bride price may constrain women's options before and during the marriage but also serve as a safety net that enhances their status. Its effects are likely influenced by many other variables, including age, kinship networks, and residence structures. These dynamics have been transformed by conversion to Christianity, the (post-)colonial state, market integration, urbanization, and formal education, often yielding ambiguous outcomes. Rather than reducing it to a collection of datapoints, we show that ethnography can serve as a source of verbal arguments that can be used to challenge reductive narratives about sensitive issues and to formulate hypotheses for testing with quantitative data.

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Section: A Changing Levels Of Control Over Marriage (De)regulation Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Changing Levels Of Control Over Marriage (De)regulation Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Changing Levels Of Control Over Marriage (De)regulation Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Changing Levels Of Control Over Marriage (De)regulation Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Impact Of Other Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Does bride price harm women? Using ethnography to think about causality

Brandl,

Colleran

2024

Evolut. Hum. Sci.

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Celebrating the 150th anniversary of theDescent of Man

2021

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It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." (Darwin "The Descent of Man" 1871, p.3). "The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind." (p.85) "The formation of different languages and of distinct species, and the proofs that both have been developed through a gradual process, are curiously parallel…" (p.90) "A tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to aid one another, and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes… [A]s morality is one important element in their success, the standard of morality and the number of well-endowed men will thus everywhere tend to rise and increase." (p.148) This year we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of Darwin's book "The Descent of Man", in which he laid down the foundation for scientific studies of human origins. We now have a much better understanding of how new species arise and adapt to their environments-the process which Charles Darwin called a "mystery of mysteries" (Darwin 1859, Coyne and Orr 2004, Gavrilets 2004) and we have begun to offer evolutionary accounts of the origin of our own species. Studying human origins necessarily implies a comparison with our close relatives, the other primates, and with other social animals. Research on human origins and our subsequent cultural and social evolution is vital not only for foundational scientific discovery but also for understanding, mitigating, and solving the most pressing challenges faced by our society. Advancing research on human origins and social complexity is also very timely given recent advances and emerging opportunities. Fully capitalizing on these requires a concerted transdisciplinary effort of researchers from a diverse set of disciplines. Success in this endeavor could yield tremendous gains for society.

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Prosocial religions as folk-technologies of mutual policing

Fitouchi¹,

Singh²,

André³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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What explains the ubiquity and cultural success of prosocial religions? Leading accounts argue that prosocial religions evolved because they help societies grow and promote group cooperation. Yet recent evidence suggests that prosocial religious beliefs are not limited to large societies and might not have strong effects on cooperation. Here, we propose that prosocial religions, including beliefs in moralizing gods, develop because individuals shape supernatural beliefs to achieve their goals in within-group, strategic interactions. People have a fitness interest in controlling others’ cooperation—either to extort benefits from others or to gain reputational benefits for protecting the public good. Moreover, they intuitively infer that other people could be deterred from cheating if they feared supernatural punishment. Thus, people endorse supernatural punishment beliefs to manipulate others into cooperating. Prosocial religions emerge from a dynamic of mutual monitoring, in which each individual, lacking confidence in the cooperativeness of conspecifics, attempts to incentivize their cooperation by endorsing beliefs in supernatural punishment. We show how variants of this incentive structure explain the variety of cultural attractors towards which supernatural punishment converges—including extractive religions that extort benefits from exploited individuals, prosocial religions geared toward mutual benefit, and moralized forms of prosocial religion where belief in moralizing gods is itself a moral duty. We review cross- disciplinary evidence for nine predictions of this account and use it to explain the decline of prosocial religions in modern societies. Prosocial religious beliefs seem endorsed as long as people believe them necessary to ensure other people’s cooperation, regardless of their objective effectiveness in doing so.

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When marital institutions break down: Impact and adaptation among the Enga of Papua New Guinea

Cited by 3 publications

References 39 publications

Does bride price harm women? Using ethnography to think about causality

Does bride price harm women? Using ethnography to think about causality

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of theDescent of Man

Prosocial religions as folk-technologies of mutual policing

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