Correlates of the long post-partum taboo: a cross-cultural study

Current Anthropology • Vol/Iss. 13 • Published In • Pages: 238-249 •
By Saucier, Jean-Francois

Abstract

This study investigates correlates of the post-partum sex taboo. Empirical analysis identifies several predictors, from extensive agriculture to localized kin groups. The authors suggest that the taboo imposes a burden on women and unmarried or monogamous young men, and it is best maintained in a community in which elders are in firm control and married women are considered outsiders due to village exogamy.

Samples

Sample Used Coded Data Comment
Ethnographic Atlas (EA)

Hypotheses (13)

HypothesisSupported
"A long postpartum taboo will be more frequent . . . in societies subsisting mainly on extensive agriculture and horticulture . . . in contrast to societies subsisting mainly on gathering, hunting, fishing, animal husbandry . . . intensive or modern agriculture" (243)Supported
"Long postpartum taboo will be more frequent in societies requiring bridewealth or exchange of a female relative to obtain a wife" (243)Supported
"A long postpartum taboo will be more frequent in societies with customary polygyny" (243)Supported
"The long postpartum taboo will be more frequent in societies in which women gather under the supervision of men, in contrast to societies in which the gathering is done exclusively by women" (243)Supported
"A long postpartum taboo will be more frequent in societies with unilineal kin groups" (244)Supported
"A long postpartum taboo will be more frequent in societies with localized kin groups" (244)Supported
"A long postpartum taboo will be more frequent in societies in which the succession of office of local headman is hereditary" (244)Supported
"A long postpartum taboo will be more frequent in societies where the inheritance of real property is not equal between siblings" (244)Supported
"A long postpartum taboo will be more frequent in societies in which the high god is defined as otiose and not concerned with human affairs" (244)Supported
"A long postpartum taboo will be more frequent in societies in which male genital mutilations are customary" (244)Supported
"A long postpartum taboo will be more frequent in societies with the rule of duolateral cross cousin marriage in contrast to societies allowing quadrilateral cousin marriage" (245)Supported
"The long postpartum taboo will be more frequent in societies that prescribe partial or complete segregation of boys at puberty" (245)Supported
"A long postpartum taboo will be associated least frequently with monogamy and increasingly frequently with family forms characterized by increasing isolation of the wife from her husband and the rest of the household" (246)Supported
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: mas  Amelia Piazza