How to get a wife

Well, one way of doing it is to exchange sisters!

Here's a short section from a survey report of the Arafundi area.

All of the areas visited practice sister exchange for marriage, where a woman from one clan will marry a man from another clan, thus requiring the man’s clan to send a female relative (not necessarily a direct sister) to marry someone in the original bride’s clan. If there is no exchange, then the bride price increases considerably (from about K200 [$75] where sister exchange occurs, to K1000 [$370] in the event that it does not). In Yamandim it was also noted that if no female is available to be exchanged, then the family that receives the bride may send a child back to the other clan as payment (usually one of the children born to the bride). However, the system for sister exchange does not always operate now, since young people often decide for themselves who they want to marry.

Pretty interesting, hey. Although it doesn't happen so much any more. And don't be too shocked by using children as 'payment'...the child wouldn't be badly treated, he or she would be adopted into a family and treated like a son or daughter. There are no orphanages here; when children need looking after, the family decide which relative will do the adopting. Family boundaries tend to blur - terms like 'brother,' 'sister' and 'cousin' are used a lot more loosely than we'd use them.

Alright, enough of the anthropology class.

It's almost Christmas! Doesn't feel like Christmas. We should get a snow machine here or something.

Pictures of Arafundi people