Gebusi - Marriage and Family

Marriage. Marriage is ideally sister exchange; same-generation exchange of women between clans constitutes 52 percent of first marriages. A countervailing ideal of nonreciprocated romantic marriage is also strong. In either case, Marriage is accompanied by neither bride-wealth nor bride-service. Divorce and polygyny are both infrequent; 14 percent of completed marriages are terminated by divorce, and 7 percent of married men are married polygynously. Polygyny Usually results from the levirate; the small patriline or subclan has first claims over the widowed wives of its deceased men, just as it takes primary responsibility for supplying "sisters" in reciprocity for its male members' wives. Postmarital residence may be uxori/matrilocal, neolocal, or viri/patrilocal, with some statistical bias toward virilocality.

Domestic Unit. A married couple form the basic gardening unit, though many subsistence, foraging, and domestic tasks are conducted collectively by groups of men or women. The effective domestic unit is typically two or three nuclear families related by close agnatic, affinal, or matrilateral ties. Settlement coresidence among adult male wife's brother/sister's husband is 68 percent of that actually possible, 82 percent among mother's brother/sister's son, 85 percent among father's brother's son, 88 percent among wife's father/daughter's husband, and 92 percent among brothers. The settlement as a whole is comprised of several interrelated extended family clusters and is a domestic unit in sponsoring feasts.

Inheritance. Aside from long-term land resources such as sago palms or nut trees, there is little material property to inherit—perhaps only a pearl-shell sliver or a pig—and any such items are typically bequeathed to sons.

Socialization. This aspect of Gebusi life is generally affectionate and benign. Fathers as well as mothers are indulgent with young children; older children are seldom yelled at and virtually never struck. Boys' transition to the men's sleeping section of the longhouse is gradual and noncoercive, occurring between ages 4 and 7. Male initiation is a celebratory and nontraumatic transition to manhood at 17 to 23 years of age.