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closer inspection one realized that she was at least 60. (Laughter). moins 60 (Rire). Mais elle ktait habiIl6e de telle facon . qu'on But she was dressed in such a way . . . that one simply could not help n'pouvait vraiment pas n'pas la remarquer. Avec de grande voiles seeing her. With long veils . . . She was called Nefertiti. A h . . .ah On l'appelait Nkfertiti. A h . . . ah comment t a dappelle? Comment what's the name of it? What is the name? Well, Minos' palace . . . ca dappelle donc? Eh bien, le palais de le pafais &Minos, Minos . Minos' palace, where is that? What is it called? (Laughter) 02 est-ce que c'est donc? Qu'est-ce . . . Comment ca dappelle donc? (Rire)

Class 11, subject W3: informal style Quand i fsait beau on altait bbaigner. Le soir, on rentrait, When the weather was good, we went to the beach. At night on prkparait l'diner; et ensuite euh y avait des . . . un genre we went home, we fixed supper; and then there were . . . was a de crochet dans un p'tit . . . cafk, o i i ils fsaient un crochet kind of call-in program in a small . . . cafe, where they had a radio radiophonique. On allait kcouter les chanteurs. Ensuite euh nous call-in program. We went to listen to singers. Then uh we went to allions nu casino, quelquefois. Pas la p'tite, parce qu'elh avait the casino, sometimes. Not the kid, because she was not allowed in pas l'droit d'entrer (Rire). Enfin c'dt . . c'e'tait tr2s agrkable (Laughter). On the whole it w . . . it was a very comme contrke mais . . peu . . . un peu trop bruyant. C'ktaient pleasant place but . . . little . . . a little too noisy. It was you plutbt vous savez des vacances euh , . On n'ch Moi je n'cherchais know the type of vacation that's rather uh . . .We didn't . . .I was surtout pas des vacances pour avoir des aventures, surtout pour not in the least interested in an "adventurous" vacation. I m'reposer (Rire). mostly wanted to rest (Laughter).

..

. ..

..

Class 11, subject W3: formal style Une fois que les plans sont tirks, les dessinateurs euh Once the blueprints have been drawn up, they are given to ont le schkma: et quand ils construisent euh soit un immeuble, ils the draftsmen; and when they build either a building, they base se basent euh sur ce dessin pour leiir construction. Ce sont en somme their building plans on those blueprints. In other words those are des . . . des schkmas . . des mod2les . . . des plans, qui leur servent de sketches . . . models . . . plans, which are used as models. So by the plan modbles. Alors d'aprb le plan, euh ils ont le . . . sous-sol, premier they have the basement, first floor, from the basement to the . . fifth Ctage, du sous-sol jusqu'au . . cinq ou sixibme ktage. Alors tout or sixth floor. So all the est dktaillk sur ce plan, euh . . . l'endroit oh dtrouve le . . . la salle details are on that plan, euh . . the place for the . . , the dining B manger, la chambre euh le salon, les W.C., le la cuisine, enfn room, the bedroom uh the living-room, the bathroom, the kitchen, tout le plan de . . . dl'immeuble est dktaillk . . . voyez-vous. in other words the whole plan o f . . . of the building is there in detail . you see.

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FEMALE INITIATION AMONG THE MARONI RIVERCARIBS'

PETERmoos
University of Amsterdam Cross-culturally it has been demonstrated that there is a relationship between female initiation rites on the one hand, and matrilocal residence and an important contribution of women to subsistence on the other. It is the purpose of this article to describe the initiation rite for girls among the Caribs of the Maroni River, Surinam, against this background. Matrilocal residence among the Caribs is pronounced, and the economic role of women is im-

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portant. The rite, taking place about a week
after the menarche, is in its symbolism al-

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most completely concerned with the female economic role. The Caribs rcalize this, but they d o not realize the eflect of residence. [puberty rites, female matrilocal residence, Caribs, menarche, economic role of women]
Accepted for publication 12 March 1969.

In her article on female initiation rites (1963) Judith Brown demonstrates the relationship between these rites (or at least the nonpainful form) on the one hand, and matrilocal residence and economic importance of women on the other. With regard to matrilocal residence she argues that female initiation rites will occur in those societies in which the young girl continues n the home o f her mother after to reside i marriage. The purpose of the rites appears to be an announcement of status change both to the initiate and to those around her, made necessary because she spends her adult life in the same setting as her childhood
[1963: 8411.

Her hypothesis is statistically confirmed. With regard to the second factor she argues that when the economic contribution of women in a particular society is important, then a need is felt to assure their competence. Again her hypothesis is confirmed, but less convincing so, the correlation being lower. Against the background of these cross-cultural results I shall describe and discuss the female initiation rite of the Maroni River Caribs. These Caribs are close relatives of the Barama River Caribs (see Gillin 1936), who are used by Judith Brown in testing her hypotheses. Gillin, however, gives no detailed description of the rite itself (see Gillin 1936:72).

The Maroni River Caribs

The Maroni River Caribs are a group of Amerindians living mainly at the mouth and lower course of the Maroni and Mana rivers. There are other, smaller, groups on the rivers Oyapock, Cottica, and Iracu. In all they number about 1500 and constitute a group in that they are relatively isolatedby distance, dialect, and physical appearance -from other Caribs in northwest Surinam (on the rivers Saramacca, Coppename, Wayombo, Tibiti, and Suriname) and interact

more with members of their own group than with the Western Caribs. My fieldwork has been carried out mainly in the villages of Christiaankondre and Langamankondre, with a total population of just over 500. Present-day economy in these villages is a mixed one. Fishing and agriculture (shifting cultivation with bitter manioc as main crop) are of primary importance, while hunting and collecting are secondary. A considerable part of the fish caught is sold in the markets of Albina and St. Laurent-du-Maroni (French Guyana), or in Surinams capital, Paramaribo. Although the villages are of fair size, a few hundred inhabitants as a rule, their structure is simple and their pattern of settlement is uniform. The spacious houses, not much more than a palm-leaf thatched roof on six or eight poles, are built in clusters, separated by secondary forest and small manioc plots. The clusters are strung along the river bank, forming a long but narrow inhabited strip. Residence is as a rule uxorilocal; with about seventy-five percent of the women beginning married life within their own domestic group. (see Table 1 ) 2 Thus each house cluster generally includes the residences of a married couple (and their unmarried children) plus their married daughters (with their husbands and children); each nuclear family possesses its own house. After a few years a couple may move near the parents of the husband (for instance when he is the only or the eldest son). Apart from this localized kinship group, there are only two others, the bilateral personal kindred and the sibling group; there are no unilineal groups. In marriage there is a preference for a classificatory cross-cousin and marriage is monogamous. Most of the villages have a government appointed chief (kupitein), who has-at least in the Surinam villages-two assistants (bastiaun or bu:siu). Chieftainship is of little importance however. The only division of labor is between men and women. The men fish and hunt and do the heavier work in the garden, like clearing. Building a house and making basketry and household utensils in genera1 is likewise mens work. The women prepare food. Above all this means the toilsome produc-

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FIFTY-FIVE MARRIED WOMEN IN CHRISTIAANKONDRE, RELATED TO AGE GROUP

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TABLE 1. b I D E N C E AT THE BEGINNING OF MARRIAGE (INITIAL RESIDENCE) AND PRESENT RESIDENCE OF

Initial residence
Age group

Present residence
111 her original domestic group

In her original domestic group

20

Otherwise

Otherwise

Above median age (34) Below median age (34) Totals

10 20 30

17

22 42

6
13

8 25

tion of manioc cakes from the poison-con- maribo even before they finish the school in taining tubers. For these she harvests, peels, their village. The Caribs feel, rightly so, that washes, and grates the tubers, presses the their school is not as good as a school in pulp to extrude the poison, fetches firewood, town and try to send their children, boys as and bakes the big cakes. Cooking fish is a well as girls, to Paramaribo. In 1967 about minor job compared with this. Also, al- twenty-five percent of the children between though few women nowadays make pottery, six and fifteen did not live in the village, beevery woman spins cotton for the ham- cause they were at school in Paramaribo, mocks. Albina, or St-Laurent-du-Maroni. The division of labor, however, is not rigid. Often a wife goes fishing with her hus- The Znitiation Rite for Girls band or lends a hand when he is building a The Carib rite conforms to the definition new house. And her husband doesnt regard given by Judith Brown (19635336). It conit as below him to peel manioc or even to give sists of ceremonial events, mandatory for all some aid in knotting a hammock. Involving girls. This rite is celebrated between their both men and women, but falling under a eighth and twentieth year-in fact, among womans responsibility, is the important task the Caribs at the age of nearly thirteen: beof making alcoholic drinks from manioc cause it is a cultural elaboration of the first (kasi:li3 from pulp, pa:ya and pa:yawa:lu menstruation. It does not include betrothal from slightly burned manioc cakes). Al- or marriage customs-although among the though a woman is expected to do any ser- Caribs marriage follows soon after the first vice her husband requires, her position is menstruation. In Carib society the rite is the certainly not inferior. Inside and outside her affair of an individual girl. As soon as it is own house a woman expresses her thoughts discovered that a girl is bleeding her mother and wishes as an equal partner. makes her a small room in the house where An important institution in the life of the she can tie her hammock or she is given the children is the mission school. (The Caribs upper part of the house (su:Za, attic). There have for a long time been at least nominally she has to stay eight days.5 Also her mother Roman Catholic.) It was founded in 1925 constructs near the house a small shelter in as a simple elementary school (a so-called which the girl can wash herself. She is not boslundschool, bushschool). In 1958 it was allowed to go to the river or to the forest. A converted into a normal elementary school girl who discovered that she was menstruataccording to Surinam law (gewoon lager on- ing for the first time during Mass was alderwijs) . Virtually all children attend lowed to go home; however, a girl who disschool, although at any moment ten to covered this when she was with her parents twenty percent of the children may not be in the garden on the other side of the river present. The school is also a stepping stone was not allowed to cross the river and had to Paramaribo, and many children go to Para- to stay in a small shelter near the garden, If

Brief Communications
such a shelter is not available a girl returns to her house as soon as possible and without special precautions. The reason given for staying home and especially for avoiding the river is that the waterspirit, oko:yumo, cannot stand the smell thought to be connected with female reproductive processes, such as menstruation. The Caribs say tYbo:le marl, she smells. And should she come near the river (or even a weIl) , oko:yumo would carry her away. In a popular story it is told that once, not so long ago, a girl having her first menstruation was in her mothers house. Her mother went to the garden but warned the girl that, should a man come to the house, she was not allowed to come down. After the mother left a man did come. He induced the girl to come down and follow him to the river where he gave her a present, a golden necklace, and sent her back to her mother, who was crying because she understood that the waterspirit had taken away her daughter. The man-oko:yumo in disguise-warned the girl not to tell about her visit to oko:yumos realm, nor about the origin of the necklace. Her friends however, very curious, made her drunk and in her drunkenness she told everything-and disappeared (i.e., died). Also the spirit of the forest, ima:wale, is a menace to the girl, but less so than the waterspirit. This carrying away is a manner of speaking; oko:yumo causes illness or even death. (I do not know of any case of a girl dying during the menarche; I have, on the other hand, cases in which death of a child was attributed to oko:yumo because the father travelled just after the birth of his child or because its mother came near the river). To be unattractive to oko:yumo the girl dresses in old clothes and does not comb her hair. She is left alone as much as possible, though at night she often has a younger sister as companion if she sleeps alone in a house. Also her diet is restricted. She lives mainly on porridge made from manioc cake (sa~mu:Zu) and on small species of fish (pamka, mi:so). There are some individual variations in things forbidden, but in general she should not eat

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big things-no large fish, no meat from big animals like the tapir (maipu:li). Smaller animals are allowed. Fruits, especially sweet fruits, are forbidden, and likewise sugar and sugarcane. Eating big fish or animals results in a large belly; eating sweet fruits and sugar results in rotten teeth or in eczema around the mouth. If she eats rice her hair will become white. After eight days many girls look rather emaciated, as a result of the food restrictions. The only activity allowed during seclusion is spinning cotton; indeed, a girl is obliged to do so. She has to make cotton in order to make a hammock, not for her own use, but for her father, brother, or another person. Should she keep the hammock for her own use, she would become a lazy woman. A woman who can make a cotton hammock -the Caribs, although in other respects quite dependent upon industrial products sleep exclusively in home-made cotton hammocks-is a respectable woman. At present, with seclusion reduced from one month to eight days, no girl succeeds in making enough cotton to make a hammock. The obligation to spin cotton remains however. Toward the eighth day the mother of the girl makes the native manioc drink, normally pa:yawa:lu. She invites an old man and an old woman-people who have a reputation of industriousness-to come to her house early in the morning of the eighth day. A woman who is often invited to such an occasion is the wife of the old chief of Christiaankondre, 1a:Jimo. She is about seventy, but still seems to be possessed by a passion for working. The only moments when she is at leisure are when she is playing a little bit with one of her numerous offspring. Her daughters, granddaughters, and great granddaughters often visit her, but while they are having a chat, the old woman remains busy. Her nickname is trayga may or rrayga pi:pi, strong man or strong grandmother (trayga and m a y are Creole). She is reputed to have said once during a feast that she was strong and could work like any man. These old people come to the house before sunrise. The mother of the girl keeps ready some bits of cotton fluff, while her fa-

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ther collected the day before a bowl with large ants, y u : h T First the girl takes a bath in the little shelter near the house. Then the old woman takes a bit of cotton, lays it on the open hand of the girl and sets fire to it. Not to be burned the girl throws it from one hand to the other until it is burned. This is repeated a few times. This is taken to mean that in the future her hands should never be at rest but constantly moving and busy. The old man takes the bowl ( p a f a p i ) with ants, takes the girl by her arms, and puts her hands into the bowl. These large and fiercely biting ants remind her that she, being an adult woman, should be industrious like the ant. In many cases also individual ants are taken from the bowl and allowed to bite the girl behind the knee and on the arm. She is not allowed to show pain. If a girl does show pain it does not affect her future capabilities. But, it is said, she shall be old before her age. In the rite the emphasis is not on the endurance of pain, yet pain may play a role. A young girl of almost thirteen, who can have her menarche at any moment is regarded as a lazy girl. This is discussed in her presence, and it is said that it shall not be sufficient in her case that she puts her hands in a bowl with ants, rather she will have to lie down in a hammock filled with them. During these ceremonial acts only the members of the nuclear family of the girl and the old persons are present. The presence of other persons is avoided. Should a lazy person be present it is felt that his laziness might be transmitted to the girl. NOWthe girl is dressed by her mother in a new karni:su (loincloth) ;her face, legs and arms are painted; and she is adorned with necklaces, bracelets, earrings, etc. Fully decorated she stays the rest of the day in her hammock. Only when she is completely dressed up for the feast the guests arrive. There are no special invitations, but everyone knows that in that particular house the manioc beverage has been made and that everyone is welcome. There is no special attention for the girl, though some women give a special greeting to her and comment on her being an adult woman now. The course of the feast does not differ from other feasts. After some time someone

fetches one or two drums, dance songs are sung and people dance. Most visitors become, like the family of the girl, more or less intoxicated and the feast stops abruptly when the drink is finished. The girl does not participate, although some allow such a girl to drink a little bit. In a certain number of cases actual behavior deviates from the pattern described above. First, it seems that the rite itself is changing, probably degenerating and disappearing. We have already noted that the period of seclusion was shortened from one month to eight days. Further, in many cases no ants are used (some men say that this particular ant is rare nowadays; the truth is that they dont take the trouble to go and look for them). Many girls argue that those girls who have had the menarche in Paramaribo (being at school) and were not subjected to the rite are not lazier than other girls who were. Second, there are circumstances in which the normal pattern does not fit very well. In the case of an ill girl the rite was completely omitted, because she was thought too weak. In the case of a girl whose grandmother died a few days before the final symbolic acts, she received the burning cotton on the seventh day and in a very hasty manner. No ants were used, no feast was given. After the feast a girl resumes her work in the household, but not before she has washed her hands to get rid of the smell. She grates some manioc, washes her hands with it, and throws it away. She now resumes her tasks and is allowed to take her daily baths in the river again. In the weeks that follow she receives some instruction. Most of it she knows already but a few things, like making of pottery are now taught. She knows already, but not yet very well, it is said, and, It wont do any harm if everything is repeated. Instruction includes information about taking care of a man and about sexual intercourse, but she knows about that, too. A second menstruation receives no special attention. A girl is expected to know what to do and what to avoid. She can take care of herself, dresses again in an old loincloth, does not take her bath in the river, and avoids contact with men (she does not cook,

Brief Communications
for instance). Washing her hands with grated manioc again is the symbolic end of the monthly menstrual period. A girl having her first menstruation is an imkndapo, she who is bleeding, from mi:nu, blood, mi:nda, to bleed. Between first and second menstruation she is an imi:ndase:na; the suffix -se:na after a verb forms a substantive someone (occasionally something) whom befell recently that which is expressed in the verb. After the second menstruation she is an imi:.ndamuse:nu, -ma- indicating completeness. In adult women menstruation is indicated with the word no:mo, e.g., no:mo mav, she is no:mo, she is menstruating. The initiation means a change in the girls life-it certainly is an announcement of status change-but not an abrupt one. A girl of ten or so already cooperates with her mother (younger than ten if she is the eldest girl in a household). She helps in making manioc cakes (peeling and grating, though not baking), in caring for her younger siblings, in washing clothes, and in other activities. However, she is allowed to play with other children, also with boys of her age, to roam in her local group, and to be idle part of the day. After initiation this behavior is no longer thought correct; she has to behave like an adult woman, working and staying at home. When she has no other things to do she ought to spin cotton, like a good, industrious woman. Her marriage chances depend a good deal upon her capacities and her inclination to work. If she is alone in her parents house and a visitor comes, she is expected to receive him like her mother should do. The initiation is the official sign of a behavioral change, visibly taking place in a few months time. It also changes her school behavior. Premenstruation girls already stay home often-for instance when a mother goes to the garden and asks her daughter to look after the preschool children. After the menarche almost all girls leave school and become fully incorporated in a households economy. Girls who are in Paramaribo or elsewhere at school often come back to the village. (This happened a few years ago more often than at present.) These girls, too, soon become full-fledged members of the household. For a few years after initia-

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tion a girl has her place in the household of her father and mother. There is some sexual experimentation (girls of this age are closely, but not always effectively, guarded, especially by their mothers), and after a few years she forms her own family. Typically a woman gives birth to her first child when she is fifteen or sixteen. However, the change from family of orientation to family of procreation again is not abrupt. Normally a boy lives for a few months in the house of his father-in-law before building a house for himself and his wife. This house being in the vicinity of the girls parents, a young woman spends a good deal of her time in her mothers company, even in her mothers house. Her mother helps her planting the first garden. Together they go into the forest to fetch firewood. Often a young woman processes her manioc in her mothers house, using her mothers instruments. Only when a womans daughters get married and her own mother dies does this orientation change.

Discussion In many, perhaps most, ethnographic reports the various phenomena described are not seen as isolated items but as causally related elements. Statements about these causal relations are often not verified, veriiication being not always possible with data from one society only. It is here that crosscultural research steps in and affirms or rejects such a statement (as far as the limits of comparative methodology allow). Crosscultural research is thus fed back to ethnographical research. With the evident symbolism of industriousness in the Carib ritual in mind-spinning of cotton but not for own use, the use of ants, burning of cotton in always busy hands, the avoidance of lazy persons, and the recruitment of industrious, experienced elders-it does not require much fantasy to assume a relationship between the existence of female initiation and the economic importance of women in Carib society. But without comparative data such an assumption cannot be more than a plausible hypothesis. Ethnography is full of such assumptions, often regarded as truths, because they are plausible. Many of them have never been veriiied, many also are probably unten-

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able in the face of comparative research, and quite a few have been proven to be untenable. In the present case, backed by cross-cultural comparative research, I am, I think, allowed to say that the Caribs practice female initiation because women in their society play an important (economic) role and because women tend to remain in the group in which they grew up until well after the beginning of marriage. I am also allowed to interpret the symbolism as expressions of female importance. But still I have to be careful! How easy it is to add to the list of symbols the early rising on the eighth day. In fact, it fits the relationship quite well (at least according to our ideas, and in a large degree also to Carib ideas) but it is not much more than that. Considering that in Carib society all ritual and ceremonial activity of crucial importance takes place very early in the morning, I presume that the early rising in female initiation is connected to this phenomenon rather than to industriousness, of women in particular. According to Brown (1963), the second factor determining female initiation is uxorilocal residence. The cross-cultural results might have been even more impressive had residence been seen in a processual perspective. The Barama River Caribs, for instance, are,classified as neolocal (although with matrilocal alternative) and consequently do not support the hypothesis. Gillin, however, wrote that a boy lives some time in a girls house. He has to show that he is a hunter, that he can build a house and clear a garden, in short, that he is able to support his wife. [A man and his wife] usually live in the girls settlement until the birth of the first child. Later they may move elsewhere (Gillin 1936:75; italics mine). From the point of view of the argument underlying Browns hypothesis, the Barama River Caribs fully support the hypothesis. Gillin offers no statistical data. Data about the Maroni River Caribs can be found in Table 1. This flaw in the demonstration is probably owing to the use of the World Ethnographic Sample to validate the hypotheses. In the same issue of the A A as the Brown article, such dangers inherent in the World Ethnographic Sample were expressed in the context of another piece of cross-cultural research, like-

wise based on the W.E.S. Not having the opportunity to make a complete factor-analysis of the ethnographic sources one is tempted to use the not always appropriate categories of the W.E.S. (Kloos 1963:861). This very circumstance is the reason that I doubt the validity of the test of the economic importance hypothesis (see Brown 1963:850). The hypothesis is validated ( p = .05) but the correlation is not particularly high. I doubt the result less than the method, and I would not be amazed if another method of establishing the relative contribution to subsistence gave a clearer relationship. (Judith Brown herself stresses the weakness of the method used.) Finally, how do the Caribs explain the rite? In so far as they have thought about it, they refer to the womans economic role. Between residence and the experience of the rite they fail to see any connection. For them the rite is good in itself, first of all. Second, it is regarded as a means to secure the fulfilment of an adult womans role. NOTES The fieldwork on which this article is based was carried out in the villages Christiaankondre and Langamankondre, on the Surinam shore of the Maroni, near its mouth. I am indebted to the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO) for making the fieldwork possible. I am indebted to Professor A. J. F. Kobben, University of Amsterdam, for reading an earlier draft of this paper. a I give these data without further comment and refer to the analysis of residence in The Maroni River Coribs, Chapter 3. In Table 1 the question is only did (or does) a woman live in the domestic group in which she grew up. I divided the population into two age groups, using median age of the women to distinguish between young and old. However, differences between first and second marriages are ignored. The data are restricted to Christiaankondre. One couple is omitted; it is an older couple that lives alternatively in Christiaankondre and in another Carib village. A note on orthography: /?/ an unrounded close back vowel; / I / is a flap: /:/ I use in accordance with Hoff (1968) to indicate a long vowel? /T/ is a nasal. I did not indicate that all consonants but the flap are palatalized when they follow the / i / , like the /s/ preceding the /i/, unless the consonant is also followed by the / i / .

Brief Communications
Six reliable ages in years and months:
11/7, 12/6, 12/9, 12/11; 13/4, 13/7 (average 12 years and 9 months). The Caribs say aiti de, using Creole language. Ahlbrinck (193 1 :323) wrote that a girl is

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confined for one month (one moon month). My informants too said that one month was customary in the past. The same shortening may be noted in certain funeral customs. A few months after a death a feast was given, omaygamo. This feast is nowadays often called an aiti de and is given on the eighth day after the day of death. The eighth day is in Creole thinking important and the Caribs took it over. There are five categories of persons who are especially vulnerable to an attack by the waterspirit oko:yumo: a girl having the menarche and in general all menstruating women; a woman who has delivered a child; a newborn child; its father; its older sibling. yu:ku. probably Neoponera commutata (Dr. D. C. Geijskes, personal communication). REFERENCES CITED AHLBRINCK, W. G . 193 1 Encyclopaedie der Karaiben. Amsterdam: Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, nieuwe reeks, deel XXVII, 1. BROWN, JUDITH K. 1963 A cross-cultural study of female initiation rites. American Anthropologist
65:837-853.

suggests that it is unlikely for the rest of the world. G i r l s puberty rites seem to be earlier in most localities because of much greater world frequency and dominance among hunters, gatherers, and fishers, while matrilocal residence appears mainly to have stemmed from female hand farming at a later date. [causality, evolution, puberty rites-female, matrilocal residence, migration as agent o f culture spread
Accepted for publication 12 March 1969.

GILLIN, J. 1936 The Barama River Caribs of British Guiana. Papers of the Peabody Museum
14. HOFF, B. J. 1968 The Carib language. s Gravenhage: N.V. De Nederlandsche boek- en steendrukkerij v/h H. 1,. Smits. P. KLOOS, 1963 Matrilocal residence and local endogamy. American Anthropologist 65:854862. in press The Maroni River Caribs of Surinam.

GIRLS PUBERTY RITES AND MATRILOCAL RESIDENCE HAROLD E. DRIVER Indiana University
f Judith This paper challenges the view o K . Brown (1961) and Peter Kloos (1969) that matrilocal residence tends to cause girls puberty rites. It shows how improbable this hypothesis is for western North America, where data are plentiful, and

Judith K. Brown (1963 :840-842) found a positive correlation between girls puberty rites and matrilocal residence from a small world-wide sample of seventy-five cases and inferred that matrilocal residence caused the puberty rites. Peter Kloos (1969) has accepted this interpretation and used it in connection with his description of puberty rites within a single society. This paper challenges this view. Brown apparently computed a chi-square for a two by four table composed of four kinds of residence (bilocal, matrilocal, neolocal, and patrilocal) and the presence and absence of girls puberty rites. She obtained a chi-square of 12.67 with p < .001. When matrilocal residence is singled out, opposed to the other three, and its relationship to girls puberty rites computed from a two by two table, the phi coefficient is 0.28, the chi-square 5.88, and the p < .02 (using the Yates correction for continuity as given, for instance, in Snedecor 1953:199). The two by two relationship between bilocal residence and girls puberty rites, from Browns data, yields a phi of 0.14, a chi-square of 1.47, and a p < .30. When matrilocal residence and bilocal residence are combined and opposed to the other two, the two by two relationship with girls puberty rites gives a phi of 0.40, a chi-square of 12.0, and a p < .001 (without the correction for continuity). The last figures approximate Browns statistics and make the point that her relationship of matrilocal residence to the other variable is actually a combination of matrilocal and bilocal residence. When a causal relationship is postulated from a bivariate correlation, it strengthens the case if the cause is more frequent and widespread than the result. The cumulative scales of such a recent evolutionist as Carneiro (1968) employ this principle. For