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Chapter Two. The Social Structure and its Units |
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incest within ward alone not taken seriously |
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Although in theory sexual relations between members of the same ward were prohibited, breaches of that rule were not taken very seriously. A love affair between a boy and a girl of the same ward aroused gossip and unfavorable comment, but no public move was made to restrain or discipline the offenders. In the Thepong ward, for instance, there was a man who lived with a woman born in his own ward, though of different clan. Both spouses had been married to persons of the Bala ward, but when widowed, they started to live together. My informants admitted that such a union was shameful, but there was no attempt to boycott the offenders. |
