Preface

59
To what degree one feature is essential and the others ancillary,
or not, emerges from a brief look at the definition of marriage in
Bali. 68 The sine qua non of marriage appears to be the rite of
masakapan between two partners (a term which unfortunately also
means ‘to work someone else’s land’, (but not as an in-law)). The
practice of low caste girls undergoing the rite, not with a prince,
but with his sword or house pillar, can be accounted for by
introducing metonymy. By this criterion, however, it is not just
humans who marry. For pigs, slit gongs and drums pass through
an identical rite. In what sense one would wish to state these to be
married is a moot point. This is not as trivial as might seem.
Whether the union of humans is the essential feature of marriage
and everything else metaphoric ‘extensions’, or whether, for
instance, we are dealing with culturally appropriate forms for the
conjunction of complementary opposites, of which humans are an
example, is hardly by the way.
The serious difficulties begin when we consider what marriage
involves. For rites vary in degree. So the distinction between a
woman being a secondary wife, or a concubine, may be hard to
fix, and could lead in the past to confused legal claims. It is also
possible for a ceremony to occur but to be overlooked. The
problem is one of assent. The Balinese may engage in marriage
by capture (malegandang, as opposed to mock capture ngambis).
If a girl is taken by force, at least from her and her family’s point
of view, the rite may actually be ignored. Matters become more
complex still, because what constitutes agreement is open to
dispute. What one side may consider elopement, the other may
treat as capture and act accordingly. In other situations marriage
may be a necessary criterion of membership of certain groups.
For instance, the unit of membership of the ward is normally the
kuren (which Geertz curiously renders as ‘kitchen’, properly paon,
1959: 998), comprising an able-bodied male and female, usually
but not necessarily married. Both a male and a female are required
because of the sexual division of labour in collective tasks. A
person’s opposite sex sibling may well be an acceptable
alternative to a wife or husband. The kuren is not incidentally ‘the
basic kin unit from the point of view of all superordinate social
institutions’ (Geertz 1959: 998). Owners of compounds on désa
land are members of most groups regardless of their marital status.
68 The impossibility of providing a universal definition is argued by Leach (1961) because
the plethora of legal rights that may be conferred alone is too complex and diffuse.