ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relations between the sexes in the Seychelles, with particular attention to the relative status of the partners in the domestic group and the forces keeping them together and pulling them apart. It attempts to test Professor Firth's hypothesis on virginity by examining the relationship of chastity to material wealth and by seeing if this is correlated in any way with equality or inequality of the sexes, and the structure of family life. For most domestic groups in the Seychelles, the adult men provide the money and it is through spending money and giving money that men acquire prestige. For women the material objects of prestige are clothes and furniture. Once married their expectations of each other's roles change. The more or less egalitarian balance which maintained the menage relationship may be destroyed at a stroke.
