beau_dean

I want to know the purpose of arranged marriage instead of a natural arrangement between the man and woman. I know some tribes did marry through mutual consent but some not.

Thanks for everyone's input I have been looking into aboriginal culture more and more now. After much research I realize there are so many variations and points of view, a lot of it coming from a white, colonial, male dominant perspective and almost racial. After reading some other material like http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/interventions/gender.htm and books like aboriginal women: sacred and profane which paints a different picture that women held a power over themselves and did have a choice. I understand also that aboriginal culture was very diverse. I also read marriage was either through bethroal or elopement or capture, which I assume was the way women and men where able to choose there partners, i want to believe that men loved there wives and shared a deep love and compassion for them. and I guess I want to know if all womens marriages where arranged or were some unmarried then eloped the information is so diverse! I also read if women where unhappy they could divorce and so could the men. Or could use charming as a way to marry. Thanks people.

Hello everyone, This may sound off topic but I have been researching Australian Aboriginal and abriginal culture in general and it has led me to so many questions!!! but there is one particular that stands out. And that is the traditions of marriage through out ancient cultures. i understand why polygamy existed as a survival and economic tool but I also read this "The initiation of girls consists of cutting tribal signs on the upper part of the body as a rule some long scars across the breast – immediately after the first sign of maturity. The other preparation for womanhood is a rough-and-ready puncture to prepare her for mating with men. The puncture is performed by an old man belonging to the girl’s family group, assisted by an old woman whose role is to pacify the girl while the crude deflorescence is accomplished. The only concession made to the weaker sex is that the old man winds some kangaroo hairs round his finger so as to carry out his job as gently as possible. Afterwards the men who happen to be present and who, according to the marriage laws, are eligible as husbands have intercourse with the girl. If she is not already promised to one of them, she continues to have casual intercourse with men of her group until she gets married. Even after marriage it sometimes happens at special ceremonies that she is ‘lent’ to one of the other unmarried men who, by group rules, might have become her legal husband. A man who objects to lending his wife in this way to a tribal brother on a visit is considered greedy and anti-social. So my question is? Did aboriginal women have A choice in who they wanted to be with/have intercourse with? Where they forced to have sex? what is the purpose of having multiple men have sex with the girl?