Bride-service system in the primitive societies:
Definition:
A form of marriage transaction in which a son-in-1 aw is obliged to work for his father-in-law as a way of compensating the father-in-law for the 1os5 of his daughter’s services to his family is called bride service or suitor’s service.
Explanation:
Social-cultural anthropologists prefer to call bride-service as suitor service because it is the service to the performed by a boy chosen as a suitor to the bride. In this context the boy’s relatives and the bride’s relatives reach an agreement according to which the prospective groom or suitor lives with and works for the kin group of the prospective bride.
Frequency:
According to Murdock (1957). 75 out of 542(i.e. 13.83%) societies practice bride service. However, according to the survey conducted by Alice Schlegel and Rohn Bloul (1988), 19% out of a worldwide sample of 186 societies. In both the surveys, bride service occupies a position next to the practice of bride-wealth.
Examples:
Bride service occurs among the food-gatherers like the North Alaskan Eskimos in America and the chenchu in India; among the horticulturists like the Siriono Red Indians in south America and Kamar and Baiga in India; amongthe pastoralists like the Reindeer Chuck Chee in Russian Siberia; among the agriculturists like the Gonds, Maria, Ho and Bagata in India and the peasant in China and India.
According to scblegel and Bloul (1988), Red Indians in North and South America are likely to practice bride-service, particularity if they were egalitarian food-collectors.
Commencement of Service:
Bride service varies in duration, it may last a week for Eskimo, for two months to two years for the Kaska Red Indians, a few weeks to a few years for the Lepcha, three to five years among the Subanum, and one to two years in a Mexican village like Tepoztlan. Among the Bushmen, it lasts for about thirteen to fifteen years or till the boy begets three children through the bride.
Nature of service:
Among the North Alaskan Eskimo, the boy works for his in-laws after the marriage is arranged, to fulfill his obligations, he hunts a seal for his in-laws. The marriage may be consummated at any time while he is in service.
Among the Hopi Red Indians, there is a token form of marriage service. In this context, the bride lives with her husband’s family for three days immediately preceding the wedding. She carries to her prospective mother-in-law a gift of corn meal that she had groomed. In this course of her three days stay, she has to work industriously to grind additional corn meal as well. During this time her future mother-in-law has to defend her from mock attack for “regimes” by the paternal aunts of the groom. After the wedding, the couple continues to live with the husband’s kin group for a few weeks. until he has finished weaving the special wedding cloths for his bride, she cannot return to her home, Both the kin groups exchange gifts and the marriage is consummated, Thereafter ,the couple lives with the bride ’ s kin group, and the husband works for them.
Long The Tungus of Siberia, the perspective son-in-law should gather food by means of hunting for the father-in-law’s family, in some, societies like the Lepcha, Reindeer chuck cheep and Muria, the bride-service involves living with the girl’s family as a sort of family servant. In other cases, bride-service involves only certain limited tasks such as hunting for in laws (siriono Red Indians) or carrying wood and water (Tepoztlan) (Lowie 1920; Linton 1936; Lewis 1951).
Reasons:
Different societies attribute different types of reasons for practicing bride service. They are as follows:
- i) Some societies like the North Alaskan Eskimo, regard bride service as ‘one’s obligation to perform before or after marriage
- ii) Some societies like the Reindeer ChuckChee, Muria good. Kamar, Baiga , HO and Rengma naga in India consider it as a substitute for bride service.
Among price or doing bride service, In the case of Ho, the bride-price is so high that many young men and women have to remain unmarried. Therefore the Ho resorts to bride- service. Similarly, the Gonds have found bride-service as a way out of the high bride price.the Reindeer Chuck Chee, Muria, Kamar and Baiga, a man has the option of paying bride-
Among the Muria Kamar and Baiga poverty of the boy forces him to adopt bride-service as an alternative to the payment of bride price.
Some societies like the Kaska Red Indians, Lepcha, subanum and Rural Mexico as represented by Tepoztlan regard that bride price payment and bride service performance must go together, The Subanum for example have to pay bride price which is several times the annual income of the groom plum three to five year of five year of bride service . Similarly a combination of bride wealth and suitor service occurs among the Hupa and Yurok Red Indians of California.