Chain marriage among the Shuar

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW 5(1) 3 STEVEN LEE RUBENSTEIN Columbia University CHAIN MARRIAGE AMONG THE SHUAR About 50,000 Shuar (formerly, Ji'varo) indians live in Ecuador's Amazon. During the three years (19891991) I lived with them I was struck by how many young people had been married and divorced several times. Of course, I was already familiar with this phenomena in my own country. Given that it is the subject of moral speculation at least once a year in T/meand Newsweek, I was curious to explore the political and economic dimensions of divorce and remarriage in another society. In this paper I report on this social fact as an expression of other recent and radical changes in Shuar society. I argue that the practice of marriage endures among them because it structures the exploitation of women that frees men to participate in the Ecuadorian economy. At the same time the impoverishment and geographic dislocations precipitated by the incorporation of the Shuar into the Ecuadorian economy undermines particular marriages. WOMEN, PRODUCTION, AND REPRODUCTION Eleanor Leacock (1978), among others, argues that integration into capitalist economies is responsible for the subordination of women in formerly egalitarian societies. Yet Shuar women have long been subordinate to men, and the current instability of marriage is as much an indication of a new freedom for women as it is of a new insecurity. Rather than look at changes in gender relations as a disruption in the reproduction of Shuar society, I see them as evidence of the continuing power of marriage to organize labor relations and reproduce political hierarchy, albeit in new forms. Napolean Chagnon (1983) explained the subordination of women in Amazonian society by representing them as objects of male sexual desire, and he analyzed Yanomamo conflict as men fighting over reproductive resources. This model does not fit well with the Shuar data for several reasons. I heard of no case of a marriage dissolving because of a lack of THE SHUAR AND THE COLONIZATION FRONTIER offspring. Men, moreover, have willingly adopted children that their wives had by previous husbands. Throughout this century Shuar men have sought Rather than looking at gender relations in terms of and received machetes and shotguns from Ecuadorian competition over reproductive resources, I see them in traders and missionaries. Although they are long familiar terms of control over productive resources (cf. Fried with nonindigenous society, they had nevertheless 1967). This interpretation builds on the work of Michael retained substantial political autonomy and cultural Harner (1970), who worked among the Shuar in the integrity. In the 1940s they still lived in dispersed 1950s. He pointed out that in a society with unlimited households, hunted and gardened, feuded regularly, access to fertile land, the only limit on agricultural and waged war on neighboring peoples. But when the production is the availability of labor. The low population international "Panama-hat" market collapsed in the relative to carrying capacity in the Amazon, and the 1950s, Ecuadorian colonization intensified. The consequent freedom of movement, made it difficult for government pushed poor people from the highlands anyone to have exclusive control over the strategic down into Shuar territory to raise cattle, which are resource of land. People nevertheless did compete for marketed in the highlands where new industries have labor (cf. Price 1984). been developed. In this classless society kinship and marriageWith this wave of planned colonization, Ecuadorians specifically, bifurcate-merging terminology, an absence began to missionize the Shuar, concentrating them into of corporate descent groups, and uxorilocal residencesmall settlements called centros, encouraging them to structured competition for this critical resource in two raise cattle, and helping them organize into a political ways: first, by giving older men control over younger federation. This "birth of a tribe" (Fried 1975), however, men's labor, and second, by giving men control over has not been painless. Integration of the Shuar into this women's labor (cf. Riviere 1984). Although the institution cultural frontier has meant the marginalization of Shuar of private ownership of land, a decline in the availability society. of game, and articulation with the money economy have together eroded the former system, men and women today appeal to its structural and sentimental traces to 4 7/teLATIN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW 5(1) frame recent changes. Before colonization, households-separated from one another by as much as a day's walk-consisted of a seniorwarrior, perhaps two wives, daughters, unmarried sons, and sons-in-law. The status of men was determined in part by their martial abilities—and those who killed the greatest number of people were accorded the greatest prestige. During the 1800s feuding was motivated by the quest for tsantsa (the famous shrunken heads) of Shuar warfare, and Europeans paid large quantities of trade goods for such trophies. But men also fought for another prize: captive women. For, Harner argued, when population density is high, as in Europe, people fight over land, but when population density is low, as with the Shuar, people fight over labor. In Shuar society, women were valued as producers of focd. As among most Amazonian peoples, Shuarwomen cu'tivate gardens. When I asked a Shuar friend if he preferred to have sons or daughters, he replied "daughters, because they provide food." Even today, when some men work as wage laborers, women still provide the bulk of carbohydrates in the family diet. This economic function has not translated into political equality, as it has in other Amazonian societies. Among :t-e Mundurucu. for example, Yolanda and Robert Murphy (1974) described a pattern of uxorilocal residence where women's control over the production and distribution of food was ensured by their living apart Figure 1. Shuar family, Ecuador (1989) from men. In Shuar society, on the other hand, husbands live with their wives and exert direct control over their activities. This control was rooted in the fact that Shuar women were also valued as links between men. Indeed, the notion of marriage as primarily a partnership between two different kinds of producers may reflect prevalent Catholic values more than Shuar beliefs. Even today, marriage is seen as much as a way for a man to acquire a father-in-law as to acquire a wife. Marriage formalized alliances between junior and senior warriors. Young men served their fathers-in-law as junior warriors as a form of bride service in return for support in feuding and warfare. Uxorilocal residence thus organized an asymmetry between men and women. A woman's value lay in her role serving her husband as worker. A man's value, in contrast, ay in his role as warrior, serving his father-inlaw. Only men's interests, then, determined socia value. The relationship between these older and younger men was somewhat more symmetrical: the seniorwarrior had a number of sons-in-law, and a junior warrior could marry more than one wife. Moreover, young men-if they survived-matured into senior warriors. Women, obviously, can never become men. In turn, a man's power over his wife lay not in his ability to exploit her dependency on him, but rather in the exercise of various degrees of force-by treating her as war booty, or actually beating her. Control over women, not as 7/teLATIN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW 5(1) 5 on both sides of the Cutucu are members of the Shuar Federation. Almost all of the colonist: however, live along the road in the Upano valley, here Shuar population is densest and game is least available. Shuar in that region are more closely tied to the NEW CONTEXTS OF GENDER RELATIONS: TOWN Ecuadorian market economy. AND FOREST East of the Cutucu, far from market towns, old men In the 1950s the Shuar were concentrated into are powerful because of the land they own. The centrosand given legal title to land. As population grew, uxorilocal residence rule, combined with private both land and game became more scarce. Today ownership of land and bilateral inheritance, have made Shuar are pulled in two directions. First, they must wives a means for husbands to acquire land. A landless intensify their exploitation of the forest in order to Shuar man can marry a young woman and in effect survive, and next they must integrate themselves into receive from her father a dowry of land. Even in the the market economy in order to thrive. All Shuar orient Upano valley, this custom exists if the land is available. themselves to both of these contexts, but to varying The men of one centro in that region kept asking me why degrees according to the availab' ity of land and access I would not marry one of their daughters, and when I to markets. Their attitudes, moreover, are ambivalent replied that since I had no land I could not support her, because land has become more valuable relative to everyone told me not to worry because my father-in-law agricultural labor, while wage labor is more valuabe would give me land. Moreover, an older woman can than subsistence agriculture. Since an analysis of become relatively desirable as a bride if she has inherited these changes in terms of roles and status would land from a dead husband or father. Simultaneously, obscure these complexities, I will instead explore how the power of the father-in-law is declining now that men and women renegotiate (however unequally) their warfare is virtually nonexistent, and young men value social relations in these new and contradictory contexts. their relationships with their wives more. Thus private ownership of land in this conto <t has Contemporary Shuar are now divided into two groups: those who live in the Upano River valley, and led to a greater, if more fragi e, equality between men those who live east of the Cutucu. These are not and women. Accordingly, Shuar have redefined the discrete groups. Families span the two regions, people basis of marriage. Rather than an alliance between a visit each other several times a year, and most people young man and his father-in-law, Shuar now describe reproductive but as productive resources, was crucial to the reproduction of male-centered egalitananism. Figure 2. Shuar family, Ecuador (1989) 6 7JteLATIN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW 5(1) marriage as a working relationship between a man and a woman. People get married, I was told, because they work well together: the man hunts and clears forest, the woman cultivates gardens and makes manioc beer. This model sounds like that of complementary division of labor common in traditional Amazonian societies such as the Mundurucu, and indeed it makes sense among the Shuar only in the context of forest oriented life, where the sexual division of labor is directly tied to subsistence. Ironically, though, it derives more from Catholic teachings and Ecuadorian norms than from Shuar traditions. After all, between the early 1940s, when the State gave missionaries control over Shuarterritory, and thefounding of the Shuar Federafon in 1964, most marriages that occurred were arranged by priests. Nowadays, Shuar may choosefromecclesial, civil, and common marriages. In some polygynous unions, they choose all three. Neverthe ess, the notion of marriage as a partnership between husband and wife has coincided with the decline of polygyny. Since land and game are increasingly scarce resources, most Shuar men do not believe that they can support more than one wife, and wives see future co-wVes as threats to their security. I know of only three men with multiple wives, and in two of those cases the co-wives live in separate centros where they or their husbands also own land. Such men are torn because in the context of forest horticulture they still find polygyny desirable, while in the context of the market economy neither men nor women find it manageable. CONFLICT AND CONTRADICTION IN MARRIAGE The introduction of private ownership of land is increasingly a source of conflict. One of the most serious accusations of witchcraft I explored in my research involved a f'ght over the inheritance of land. However, most accusations of witchcraft and most threats and acts of murder involve accusations of adultery. In the past this may have reflected the competition of men to control the labor power of women. Yet when these cases are put in the perspective of ma e/female conflict, we can see that from the women's point of view these conflicts also concern their access to land. Today when men seek to control laborthrough polygynous marriage, they come into conflict with women who want to protect their access to land. By way of example, Lorenzo had been abandoned by his first wife, who complained that he was too poor. Some time later he met Teresa, who had a child from a s . Figure 3. Shuar family, including a man, two wives, children, and a female visitor, Ecuador (1989) 7/feLATIN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW 5(1) previous marriage, and they decided to marry, that is, to live and work together publicly Since Lorenzo's father offered the couple a relatively small but adequate amount of land, they moved into his centro. In the meantime, Lorenzo started an affairwith Teresa's sister, which lasted several months. When that affair ended the sister, pregnant, took up with another man. However, when she gave birth she delivered the baby to her sister and Lorenzo, declaring that it was his. Lorenzo said that he wanted to marry his sister-in-law, and when Teresa protested, he hit her. She ran to the house of her parents-in-law, and when Lorenzo came to get her, his mother chased him with a tree branch. Later, Lorenzo, his wife, parents, and in-laws talked for two days and resolved the issue. The baby, neglected, died, but Lorenzo and Teresa are still together. In this example Teresa appealed to various resources, such as the contractual concept of marriage and the support of her mother-in-law, to defend her position in the centro. Yet, women are aware that this forest-oriented lifestyle can no longer deliver on its promise of self-sufficiency. Women's control of subsistence has not led to an increase in their power, in part because men generally control land. Moreover, women are simply tired of eating only manioc or plantains day after day. This situation has led women to devalue both men and subsistence horticulture. Unfortunately, women still depend on both. The opposing context of town-oriented Shuar life Figure 4. 7 creates other conflicts between men and women. Integration into Ecuadorian society and the introduction of access to Ecuadorian divorce courts in nearby towns have given women greater freedom of movement. This freedom is a mixed blessing now that land is owned and inherited. All children of a Shuar with little land are poor. Any child of a Shuar with lots of land has power (although women have to wait for their husbands or fathers to die in order to inherit land). It is a mixed blessing also because of inequalities between men and women in Ecuador. A Shuar woman can find work in town, perhaps as a laundress or waitress, but such work pays less than the jobs Shuar men can get. Women seek security through marriage to men who have land, cattle, and the possibility of employment. More importantly, then, the consequent shift to bilocality has also given men greater mobility. Men have greater access than women to money through jobs in town, patron / client relations with colonists, or bank loans, while women's survival is still tied to land. In this context, male wage earners are more powerful than women, whose dedication to subsistence horticulture now serves to free men to work for wages. Under such circumstances, men are will ng to live on less land if it is closer to town. Integration o the market economy is thus creating a new inequal ty between men and women. At the same time, Ecuadorian society provides Shuar women with contradictory resources to defend Wedding ceremony held at Asuncion, Ecuador (1990) 8 7/teLATlN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW 5(1) their status, because ecclesial law forbids divorce while civil law permits it. This situation gives women increased power to define social relationships, but these negotiations take place in the context of the economic, political, and cultura marginal zat on of the Shuar, in which the value of their social relationships is uncertain. The very fact that courts can force men to support their wives not only reveals the patriarchal bias of the state, but also emphaszes the real economic importance of men and the fact that women are more dependent on men than men are on women. From the men's point of view, their power is only relative, because in Ecuadorian society the value of their labor power is low. Their need to exploit women's abor, itself devalued, underscores the uncertainty of Shuar gender relations. In short, ntegration into Ecuadorian society has led to a perceived impoverishment of the Shuarwhile altering the previous pattern of interdependence. Men associate their problems with their dependence on Ecuadorian society, while women associate their insecurity and suffering with their dependence on Shuar men. CHAIN MARRIAGE: SERIAL POLYGAMY OR BRITTLE MONOGAMY? The clash between forest and town contexts for gender relations further compromises the stability of marriage. Shuar courtship is brief and people tend to Figure 5. marry by the age of 17. Sexual relations of any sort are considered legitimate only within marriage, and premarital or extramarital relations are limited to only a few venues, namely, the garden, the forest, or (more commonly now) the Hotel Rio Upano in Sucua on market day. While Shuar explicitly contrast marriage to such clandestine affairs, the former is gradually taking on the temporary character of the latter. The result is "chain marriages" (following Keesing 1958:262). One twenty-four year old man I know is with his third wife, and one woman friend of the same age has had two husbands and a lover. The notion that marriage is an enduring working partnership between a man and a woman is in fact an ideal that serves mostly to reinforce the identification of marriage as critical to the organization of relations of production. Paradoxically, the now precarious economic interdependence between men and women reinforces the ideological importance of the institution, even as the recent impoverishment and increased mobility of Shuar undermines particular marriages. "Men" and "women" need each other, but individual men and women cannot or do not desire to support each other al1 the time. This transformation of marriage succinctly articulates the current dilemma of Shuar men and women. On the one hand, if chain marriage is considered "serial polygamy" (following Rosman and Rubel 1981:46, in order to emphasize the pattern of remarriage), it structures the exploitation of women that frees men to Shuar woman and child, Ecuador (1989) TJteLATIN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW 5(1) 9 NOTES Acknowledgments. The research for and writing of this paper was supported by grants from the Fulbnght Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship, I am grateful for their support. I am also greatly indebted to a vast number of people who read and commented upon various drafts of this paper. I do not have room to thank all of them but I must mention Libbet Crandon-Malamud, Barbara Price, Brian Ferguson, Jeffrey David Ehrenreich, Chris Kyle, Robin Nagle, Daniela Peluso, Claire Cesareo, and Renee Llanusa-Cestero. I apologize to those left out, their input is still appreciated. REFERENCES Figure 6. Shuar couple attending a wedding reception, Ecuador (1989) participate in the Ecuadorian economy. The persistence of this institution is therefore critical to the local capitalist economy. On the other hand, if it is considered "brittle monogamy" (following Keesing 1958:262, in order to stress the pattern of divorce), chain marriage reveals the vulnerability and dependency of both men and women. Of course, it is both, for the more Shuar divorce, the more they remarry. The instability of particular marriages, which nonetheless reproduce the entire institution, highlights the insecurity of Shuar society. But I must stress that the recent conflicts and confusion experienced by Shuar men and women are the unintended results of a well planned, but parochial, development program. The transformation of Shuar society and the degradation of its environment benefits only the weathy of the highlands, who want cheap meat. Ironically, the colonization of the lowlands that has marginalized the Shuar was itself the consequence of Ecuador's insecure dependence on a fickle world economy. Yet Ecuadorians persist in mystifying their relationship with the Shuar by employing a simplistic dichotomy. When I told people in the highlands where I worked, they asked how could I live with savages. Sometimes friends would correct them, saying: "No, these indians are civilized." Chagnon, Napo ean 1983 Yanomamo: The Fierce People, Third edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Ferguson, Brian 1984 Warfare, Culture, and Environment. New York: Academic Press. Fried, Morton H. 1967 The Evolution of Political Society. Nc\ Random House. 1975 The Notion of Tribe. Menlo Park: Cummings. Harner, Michael J. 1970 "Population Pressure and the Social Evolution of Agriculturalists." Southwest Journal of Anthropology 26: 67-86. Keesing, Felix 1958 Cultural Anthropology: The Science of Custom. New York: Rinehart and Company, Inc. Leacock, Eleanor 1978 "Women's Status in Egalitarian Society: Implications for Social Evolution.' Current Anthropology 19(2): 247-278. Murphy, Robert F. 1989 Cultural and Social Anthropology; An Overture. Third edition. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Murphy, Yoland and Robert F. 1974 Women of the Forest. New York: Columbia University Press. Price, Barbara J. 1984 "Competition, Productive Intensification and Ranked Societies: Speculations from Evolutionary Theory." In Warfare, Culture, and Environment., Brian Ferguson, editor, pp. 209-240. Riviere, Peter 1984 Individual and Society in Guiana. Cambridge University Press. Rosman, A , and Paula Rubel 1981 The Tapestry of Culture. Glenvew, IL: Scott, Foresman, and Company.