ABSTRACT
The Santal attitude to marriage is practical and realistic. Any arrangement by which a boy and girl live openly together as man and wife and are not subjected to tribal boycott, is a valid union. It is the public character of the arrangement and its acceptance by the village that gives it legal status. To achieve respectability a marriage must be negotiated by the parents of the boy and girl, a match-maker must be employed and the villagers must be fully consulted. As a boy and girl reach the ages of eighteen and sixteen years respectively, their parents begin to negotiate their weddings. As a boy and girl get ripe for marriage, they watch their parents discussing their fate and the approach of the ceremony fills them with sick aversion. It is now that each of them must take a decision - to flout their parents or bow to their will.
