ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the subject of marriage, extremely important for the understanding of native law. Marriage establishes not merely a bond between husband and wife, but it also imposes a standing relation of mutuality between the man and the wife's family, especially her brother. In a Trobriand family a female must always remain under the special guardianship of one man—one of her brothers, or, if she has none, her nearest maternal kinsman. She has to obey him and to fulfil a number of duties, while he looks after her welfare and provides for her economically even after she is married. The brother becomes the natural warden of her children, who therefore have to regard him and not their father as the legal head of the family. After the crops are taken out, the yams are classified and the pick of the crop from each garden is put into a conical heap.
