2I. The Dissolution of Marriage in Ritual.—The binding forces of the marriage contract, and its ritual and moral char acter, are expressed as clearly at the dissolution by divorce or death as at its inception. Unfortunately our information is so defective on this point that a brief survey only can be given.
Divorce in higher cultures is a religious matter, to be carried out under the supervision of the church, and with the observance of certain formalities which express and safeguard the sanctity of the sacrament. From lower cultures we find only a few examples of divorce rites, where such symbolic acts as the break ing of a rod, the tearing of a leaf, or the casting away of some object are publicly performed (Kacharis, Hajongs, Khasis of N.W. India; Bagobo of Mindanao; Tumbuka of C. Africa; cer tain Canadian Indians; Maori of New Zealand).
Far more material is at our disposal referring to the per sistence of the matrimonial bonds at death. They are never dis solved automatically by the decease of either partner, and their tenacity is greater for the widow than for the widower. But in either case the death of one consort imposes a number of ritual and moral observances on the other, the fulfilment of which is an essential part of the marriage contract.
The widow, or widower, usually plays the most prominent part among all mourners. Thus among certain peoples the widow has to perform various duties, extending over a more or less consider able period, at the grave of her husband. She has to sleep beside or over it; to supply it with provisions; to keep a fire burn ing there perpetually (Takulli, Kutchin, Mosquito, Pima Indians of America; Minas, Nsakara, Baganda of Africa; Pentecost Islanders and certain Papuans of Oceania; Kukis of India). Even more telling are the long series of tabus and duties to be observed by the widow before she is allowed to remarry : she must remain chaste, refrain from bathing or renewing her garments, avoid certain foods, etc. (Omaha, Stlathlumh, Creek, Chickasaw, Algonkin, Iroquois, Dakota, Eskimo of N. America; Angoni, Bakoba, Baya, Bawele, Baganda, Akamba, Herero, BaThonga, Zulu of Africa ; Amoor tribes and Kukis of India ; Bontoc Igorot of the Philippines; Maori of New Zealand; Ainu, Yakuts, Kam chadal of N.E. Asia).
Similar regulations prevent the widower from entering into a new alliance immediately after he has been set free by his wife's death. Thus among many peoples (Greenlanders, Eskimo, Aleut;
Dakota, Omaha, Shawnee of N. America; Herero, Bushmen, BaThonga, Zulu of Africa; certain Papuan tribes; the Bontoc Igorots and the Ainu) the surviving husband has to live single for a time during which he is subjected to various restrictions and observances, such as refraining from sexual intercourse.
The most definite affirmation of the persistence of marital bonds is found among those people who completely forbid remarriage to widows (Tikopians, Rotumans, Marquesans, Line Islanders in Polynesia; Chinese; Ainu of Japan; Formosans; Brahmans of India) or to widowers (Ainu, Formosans, Biduanda Kallang of Malay Peninsula).
Even this is overshadowed by the institution of suttee, the sen tence of death passed by religious tradition over the widow at her husband's death so that her spirit might follow his into the next world. This institution is found not only in India, from where we have borrowed its name, but also among the Comanche, Cree and certain Californian tribes of N. America; in Dahomey and among the BaFiote of Africa; in the New Hebrides, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Pentecost Island and New Zealand of Oceania.
22. The Social Conditions of Marriage. Endogamy.— With this we have finished the analysis of the various aspects of marriage, biological, domestic, economic, legal and religious. It will be necessary still briefly to consider marriage in relation to other modes of grouping, and to discuss certain barriers to and qualifications for matrimony, connected with membership in wider groups.
Marriage is never free in the sense that any man would be at liberty to marry any woman. Natural and physical impediments obviously do not come here under consideration, since we are only concerned with social rules. Thus it is clear that in order to marry, two people must come into contact with each other, and under primitive conditions this is possible only when they belong to the same tribe, or to tribes who meet in peaceful commerce or in warfare. Tribal or natural endogamy (q.v.), is thus the first condition of marriage, but it is of secondary interest to the soci ologist, and must be distinguished from strict endogamy.