Definition:
A customary marriage transaction whereby a sister or female relative of the groom is exchanged for the bride is called exchange of women.
Explanation:
Exchange of women reveals the ways in which a given society circulates women in marriage. The women who are exchanged between groups are sisters of grooms, cross-cousins or parallel cousins.
Frequency:
Sixteen out of 542 (2.95%) societies according to Murdock’s world ethnographic sample (1957) and 6% of 186 societies according to the Schlegel and Blow ‘s worldwide sample (198$) practice exchange of women in marriage.
Examples:
The Tiv of Nigeria and Yanamamo of Venezuela-Brazil border, the saha of Colombia, the Mundugamar of New Guinea exchange sisters or a female relative as brides. These societies are horticultural, egalitarian, and have a relatively high contribution of women to primary subsistence (Schlegel and Eloul 188: Pages 296-297); Margaret Mead 1931: Page 206-208).
Among the Bergor and Munda in Jharkhand, Khond, Gadaba and Kotiya in Orissa, Pradhan, Yanadi, Koya and Yerukula in Andhra Pradesh, Bhotiya in UttarPradesh. Bhil in Rajasthan Naik in Gujarat and noli in Maharashtrian India, a man may take his sister as a marriage ward and trade her to another man in return for a wife. In these tribes some women are not traded for but are instead paid for bride price. Of these tribes the Khods Gadaba, Koya and Kotiya are cultivators and shifting cultivators. The Gonds, koya, bhil, naik and Koli are agriculturists. The Bhotiya are pastoralists-cum-cultivators. The Yanadis and yerukulas are agriculturalists, and basket weavers-cum-cultivators respectively. Exchange marriages occur quite often among the Hindus, Chinese and Arabs.
Reasons:
According to Levi -strauss (I960), Leach (I960) , Malinowski (1922) , Radcliffe-Brown (1953) , Fortes (1962) and others , the reasons underlying the practice of exchange of women are as follows:
- Women exchanges create reciprocity and perpetuate alliances between families , lineages and clans (Malinowski 1922; levi -Strauss 1969).
- Women exchanges are a “means of winning and preserving the goodwill of those with the power to transfer marital rights” (Fortes 1962: Page-10). “There are not one-sided transactions but rather, exchanges in which valuable goods are passed both ways. Marital rights may simply be given in exchange of material goods in both directions. In this case , the goods given by the kin group of the woman usually are of no more than token value , in surrendering the woman herself , this groups is parting with its most valuable commodity’’ (Miller and weitz1979 ; Page-414) .
- Women exchanges create solidarity among the kin groups which exchange brides and create alliances among them. The exchange may be direct or indirect the relatives exchanged may be sisters or symmetrical cross-cousins. The solidarity may be mechanical solidarity or organic solidarity depending upon the kinds of relatives exchanged (Levi -strauss 1969).
- Women exchanges create a larger gene pool and facilitate biological adaptation. At the same time , At the same time , it also paves way for cooperation between groups and for cultural homogenization ,for keeping the property within a circle of close relatives, and for peaceful living and mutual support and security in all times (William N. Stephens 1963; Leach 1960).