Frequently the wife is said to be the property or slave of her husband. In Fiji “the women are kept in great subjection…. Like other property, wives may be sold at pleasure, and the usual price is a musket.”[1] “The Carib woman is always in bondage to her male relations. To her father, brother, or husband she is ever a slave, and seldom has any power in the disposal of herself.”[2] Many North American Indians are said to treat their wives much as they treat their dogs.[3] Among the Shoshones “the man is the sole proprietor of his wives and daughters, and can barter them away, or dispose of them in any manner he may think proper.”[4] Among the East African Wanika a woman “is a toy, a tool, a slave in the very worst sense; indeed she is treated as though she were a mere brute.”[5] Many other statements to a similar effect are met with in ethnographical literature.[6]
[1] Wilkes, U.S. Exploring Expedition, iii. 332.
[2] Brett, Indian Tribes of Guiana, p. 353.
[3] Harmon, Journal of Voyages in the Interior of North America, p. 344.
[4] Lewis and Clarke, Travels to the Source of the Missouri River, p. 307.
[5] New, Life, Wanderings, and Labourings in Eastern Africa, p. 119.
[6] Gibbs, ‘Tribes of Western Washington and Northwestern Oregon,’ in Contributions to N. American Ethnology, i. 198. von Martius, Beiträge zur Ethnographie Amerika’s, i. 104 (Brazilian Indians). Reade, Savage Africa, p. 548 (Negroes of Equatorial Africa). Proyart, ‘History of Loango,’ in Pinkerton, Collection of Voyages and Travels, xvi. 570 (Negroes of Loango). Andersson, Notes on Travel in South Africa, p. 236 (Ovambo). Castrén, Nordiska resor och forskningar, i. 310; ii. 56 (Ostyaks). In all these cases women are said to be mere articles of commerce, or slaves, or kept in a state of dependence bordering on slavery. In other instances women are said to be oppressed by their husbands, or treated as inferior beings (Waitz [-Gerland], Anthropologie der Naturvölker, iii. 100 [North American Indians]; vi. 626 [Melanesians]. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, i. 121 [Hare and Sheep Indians]. Powers, Tribes of California, p. 133 [Yuki]. Tuckey, Expedition to Explore the River Zaire, p. 371 [Negroes]. Ling Roth, Aborigines of Tasmania, p. 54).
Yet it seems that even in cases where the husband’s power over his wife is described as absolute, custom has not left her entirely destitute of rights. Of the Australian aborigines in general it is said that “the husband is the absolute owner of his wife (or wives)”;[7] of the natives of Central Australia, that “each father of a family rules absolutely over his own circle”;[8] of certain tribes in West Australia, that the state of slavery in which the women are kept is truly deplorable, and that the mere presence of their husbands makes them tremble.[9] But we have reason to believe that there is some exaggeration in these statements, and they certainly do not hold good of the whole Australian race. We have noticed above that custom does not really allow the Australian husband full liberty to kill his wife.[10] For punishing or divorcing her he must sometimes have the consent of the tribe.[11] There are even cases in which a wife whose husband has been unfaithful to her may complain of his conduct to the elders of the tribe, and he may have to suffer for it.[12] In North-West-Central Queensland the women are on one special occasion allowed themselves to inflict punishments upon the men: at a certain stage of the initiation ceremony “each woman can exercise her right of punishing any man who may have ill-treated, abused, or ‘hammered’ her, and for whom she may have waited months or perhaps years to chastise.”[13] Of the natives of Central Australia Messrs. Spencer and Gillen say that “the women are certainly not treated usually with anything which could be called excessive harshness”;[14] and we hear from various authorities that in several Australian tribes married people are often much attached to each other, and continue to be so even when they grow old.[15] Among the aborigines of New South Wales, for instance, “the husbands are as a general rule fond of their wives, and the wives loyal and affectionate to their husbands.”[16] Nay, white men who have lived among the blacks assure us that there are henpecked husbands even in the Australian desert.[17]
[7] Curr, The Australian Race, i. 109.
[8] Eyre, Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, ii. 317.