EXTENT OF AUTHORITY OF FATHER AND HUSBAND
The laws governing family relations are very simple. The father has theoretically absolute power of life and death over his wife, children, and slaves. In practice, however, this power is seldom used to its full extent. An arbitrary exercise of domestic authority over his wife and children would arouse the antagonism of her relatives and lead to a rupture of friendly relations. Hence, in family dealings there are displayed on one side paternal affection and leniency and on the other filial devotion and a sense of duty, so much so that the members of the family live in peace and happiness with seldom a domestic grievance.
The wife, of course, is the absolute property of her husband, but is rarely, if ever, sold. I know of only one wife who was sold and she was a Bisáya woman married to a recently Christianized Manóbo.
It is not in accord with Manóbo custom for a man to have two or more wives unless the first wife consents to the later marriages, and, if she does consent, she must always be considered the man's favorite and must be allowed to have a kind of motherly jurisdiction over the other wives. In all cases that have come under my observation, this rule was followed among Manóbos but not among Mandáyas. The latter frequently seem more attached to their second, third, or fourth wives, but do not separate the first wife either from bed or board. As a result of the necessity of the first wife's consent to a second marriage, bigamy is comparatively rare.
RESIDENCE OF THE HUSBAND
The man is always expected to take up his residence in his wife's family and he nearly always does so. In fact, such is the implied and frequently the explicit contract made between his relatives and those of the girl. But after a few years, if not sooner, he usually takes his wife back to his own clan, leaving his father-in-law or other male relative of his wife some gift in the shape of a pig or other payment. In such a case it seems to be the custom for the father-in-law to acquiesce.