[100] Steinmetz, Ethnol. Studien zur ersten Entwicklung der Strafe, ii. 299.
[101] Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, p. 97.
[102] Wilkes, op. cit. v. 343.
In Melanesia the women generally have to work hard, supplying the place of slaves;[103] but at least in various islands their condition is otherwise fairly good. In the Western islands of Torres Straits “the women appear to have had a good deal to say on most questions and were by no means downtrodden or ill-used.”[104] In some parts of New Guinea their position is described as one of high esteem.[105] “They have a large voice in domestic affairs, and occasionally lord it over their masters”; and their influence is felt not only in domestic matters, but also in affairs of state.[106] In Erromanga, of the New Hebrides, although the women did all of the hard plantation work, they were on the whole well treated by their husbands.[107] The same is said to be the case in the Solomon Islands;[108] in the eastern part of New Georgia they do not even seem to do much work.[109] In Micronesia the position of woman is decidedly good. In the Marianne Group “the wife is absolute mistress in her house, the husband not daring to dispose of anything without her consent”; nay, the men are said to be actually governed by their wives, “the women assuming those prerogatives which in most other countries are invested in the other sex.”[110] In the Pelew Islands the women are in every respect the equals of the men; the oldest man, or Obokul, of a family can do nothing without taking advice with its oldest female members.[111] In the Caroline Group the weaker sex “enjoys a perfect equality in public estimation with the other.”[112] Among the Mortlock Islanders the wife is quite independent of her husband.[113] In the Kingsmill Islands very great consideration is awarded to the women: “they seem to have exclusive control over the house,” whilst all the hard labour is performed by the men.[114] Among the Line Islanders “no difference is made in the sexes; a woman can vote and speak as well as a man, and in general the women decide the question, unless it is one of war against another island.”[115] In many Polynesian islands, also, their position is by no means bad.[116] In Tonga “women have considerable respect shown to them on account of their sex, independent of the rank they might otherwise hold as nobles”; they are not subjected to hard labour or any very menial work,[117] and their status in society is not inferior to that of men.[118] In Samoa they “are held in much consideration, … treated with great attention, and not suffered to do anything but what rightfully belongs to them.”[119] In the valley of Typee, in the Marquesas Group, the women are allowed every possible indulgence, the religious restrictions of the taboo alone excepted; they are exempt from toil, and “nowhere are they more sensible of their power.”[120] Rochon wrote of the Malagasy:—“Man here never commands as a despot; nor does the woman ever obey as a slave. The balance of power inclines even in favour of the women.”[121] At the present day, in Madagascar, the woman “is not scorned as essentially inferior to man,” but enters into her husband’s cares and joys, and shares his life, much in the same way as a wife does amongst ourselves.[122]
[103] Nieboer, op. cit. p. 392 sqq. Waitz-Gerland, op. cit. vi. 626.
[104] Haddon, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. 229.
[105] Ratzel, op. cit. i. 274.
[106] Pitcairn, Two Years among the Savages of New Guinea, p. 6l. Cf. Bink, in Bulletin Soc. d’Anthrop. de Paris, xi. 392; Hagen, Unter den Papua’s, pp. 226, 243.
[107] Robertson, Erromanga, p. 397.
[108] Parkinson, Zur Ethnographie der nordwestlichen Salomo Inseln, p. 4.