ABSTRACT
In Vanuatu, weddings are big time. With a phenomenal population growth – from 143,000 in 1989 to over 200,000 in 2003 – and an ever more juvenile population (over 50% are now under 18), the number of people of marriageable age is steadily increasing. The impact of this is beginning to show as an alteration in the extent and importance of wedding rituals, but at the moment it means mainly that weddings are the dominant ceremony in most areas of the country. The significant economic and social changes that have affected the archipelago since the end of the 19th century, and especially since the Second World War, have had their impact on these rituals. This paper is not about weddings in general, but rather focuses on one particular element of them: the question of what women wear to be married. Specifically, it makes a contrast between practice in two different parts of Vanuatu, comparing east Ambae, in north Vanuatu, with Pango, a peri-urban village adjacent to Vanuatu’s capital, Port Vila.
