THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

number of relationships covered by the male and female terms
ar)oter)ba/ar)oteoma. These were translated into Nepali as the terms solti
and soltlni, the eligible siblings of one's sibling's spouse, and indeed
the Nepali terms were starting to displace the Yakha terms for this
category of eliglble relative, particularly for the eligible siblings of
one's older sibling's spouse. However, in Yakha sr)otegba/apoter)ma also
referred reciprocally to the wife's younger sister and the (woman
speak ing> 01 der s i s term s husband, and to the husband' s younger brother
and sister and older brother's wife. It also appeared to be persisting
strongly as a term for the eligible siblings of one's younger sibling's
spouse. It was thus a category denoting potential marriage partners,
presumably in the event of the death of one's spouse. According to
Allen (pers. comrn.) it is becoming increasingly apparent that when first
cross-cousin marriage is prohibited, a preference for the solti/soltini
is a common way of maintaining alliance patterns.
The parents of one's son or daughter's spouse were known as the
ichaba (samdhi). One man I spoke to was shocked that there was no
equivalent single term in English, emphasising the importance placed on
this category in both Yakha and Nepali and the extent to which a
marriage is part of an alliance between parents,
There was also some flexibility possible within the kinship
categories used, particularly when, through marriage, a relative came to
occupy two categories. For example, in our own extended family there
was a woman who had married en agnat ic nephew of our father. However,
she was also a uterine niece of our mother, and for that reason our
mother was resolute in never call ing her baud u (daughter- in- law), only
anunca (in this case, 'cousin'). Kamala also had e female Limbu