Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/197

Rh

Throughout the rigorous ritual of mourning, in which the widow, the orphans, and to a much lesser degree the other relatives-in-law of the deceased are caught and held as in a vise, we can observe the working of certain ideas belonging to the tribal tradition of the Trobrianders. One especially, the taboo on maternal kinsmen, which forces them to keep aloof since it is both dangerous to approach the corpse and superfluous to show grief, is strikingly visible throughout the whole course of burial, exhumation, and grave-tending. The corresponding idea, that it is the imperative duty of the widow and her relatives to show grief and perform all the mortuary services, emphasizes the strength and the permanence of marriage bonds as viewed by tradition. It is also a posthumous continuation of the remarkable system of services which have to be given to a married man by his wife's family, including the woman herself and her children.

In the mortuary phase of these services, however, the dead man's sub-clan have to render payment more strictly and more frequently than he had to do in his life-time. Immediately after the bones have been cut out and the remains buried, the dead man's sub-clan organize the first big distribution of food and valuables, in which the widow, children, and other relatives-in-law, as well as the unrelated mourners, are richly paid for the various services rendered in tending the corpse and digging the grave. Rh