Note 83.1 — PSYCHE’S TASK

The custom of avoiding relations by marriage among the Indian tribes of America. Among the low savages of the Californian peninsula a man was not allowed for some time to look into the face of his mother-in-law or of his wife’s other near relations; when these women were present he had to step aside or hide himself.83.1 Among the Indians of the Isla del Malhado in Florida a father-in-law and mother-in-law might not enter the house of their son-in-law, and he on his side might not appear before his father-in-law and his relations. If they met by accident they had to go apart to the distance of a bowshot, holding their heads down and their eyes turned to the earth. But a woman was free to converse with the father and mother of her husband.83.2 Among the Indians of Yucatan, if a betrothed man saw his future father-in-law or mother-in-law at a distance, he turned away as quickly as possible, believing that a meeting with them would prevent him from begetting children.83.3 Among the Arawaks of British Guiana a man may never see the face of his wife’s mother. If she is in the house with him, they must be separated by a screen or partition-wall; if she travels with him in a canoe, she steps in first, in order that she may turn her back to him.83.4 Among the Caribs “the women never quit their father’s house, and in that they have an advantage over their husbands in as much as they may talk to all sorts of people, whereas the husband dare not converse with his wife’s relations, unless he is dispensed from this observance either by their tender age or by their intoxication. They shun meeting them and make great circuits for that purpose. If they are surprised in a place where they cannot help meeting, the person addressed turns his face another way so as not to be obliged to see the person, whose voice he is compelled to hear.”83.5 Among the Araucanian Indians of Chili a man’s mother-in-law refuses to speak to or even to look at him during the marriage festivity, and “the point of honour is, in some instances, carried so far, that for years after the marriage the mother never addresses her son-in-law face to face; though with her back turned, or with the interposition of a fence or a partition, she will converse with him freely.”84.1