Krikati/Pukobye - Marriage and Family

Marriage. There is no marriage ritual. Children are recognized as the offspring of the mother and all the men who have had intercourse with her during pregnancy, a fact made public by the practice of couvade. Thus, marriage is not the exclusive social relationship for either sexual relations or the production and care of offspring. Monogamy, albeit serial, is the rule, but several cases of polygyny have been noted. Divorce and temporary separations are common and may be initiated by either spouse. The preference, and the majority pattern, is tribal endogamy.

Domestic Unit. A series of households, based on sisters' nuclear families, forms a domestic cluster—the significant unit of food production and exchange.

Inheritance. Goods generally fall to a surviving spouse and/or to close kin of the appropriate gender. Rights to the harvest of a garden plot go to female kin.

Socialization. An infant is constantly with its mother until weaned at about 3 years of age, by which time it is acceptable for a woman to resume sexual relations. Boys and girls 8 to 12 years of age go through a one-to three-month period in seclusion. Traditionally, before seclusion, boys had their earlobes pierced—to be gradually stretched to accommodate a 5to T.S-centimeter disk. This practice ended in about 1960.