'We've Paid your Vagina to Make Children!ʼ: Bridewealth and Women's Marital and Reproductive Autonomy in Port‐Vila, Vanuatu

Abstract

In Vanuatu, the practice of bridewealth is widespread. However, according to international and national development organizations based in the capital Port-Vila, this practice impedes women's freedom, including women's reproductive autonomy. In this paper, using data gathered in Port-Vila between 2009 and 2018, I examine the practice of marriage in Port-Vila and argue against this development discourse. I analyse the transformations of marriage showing the increasing autonomy of young people in the selection of marriage partners and the links between marriage, bridewealth and reproductive autonomy. I emphasize the changes in the nature of bridewealth marriage in a contemporary urban context and its implications for female fertility control. I conclude that bridewealth is only one among several factors that influence women's reproductive autonomy in Port-Vila.

Does bride price harm women? Using ethnography to think about causality

“…Accordingly, they have often regulated sexuality to serve the interests of kin. Relatives imposed sanctions to protect the virginity of unmarried girls and restricted contact with the opposite sex (Burt, 1988;Rosi & Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993;Buchanan-Aruwafu et al, 2003;Wardlow, 2006a;Guo, 2006;Buchanan-Aruwafu & Maebiru, 2008;Zorn, 2010a;Jourdan & Labbé, 2020;Servy, 2020). Institutions such as men's houses reinforced gender segregation while belief in menstrual pollution discouraged sexual transgressions (Pflanz-Cook, 1993;Wardlow, 2006a;Wiessner & Pupu, 2021).…”

“…If parents do not approve of a match, couples sometimes deliberately become pregnant or elope to force their hand (Rosi & Zimmer-Tamakoshi, 1993;Salomon, 2002;Wardlow, 2006a;Servy, 2020). For many couples, bride price has become a post hoc affirmation rather than a precondition for embarking on their reproductive careers (Paini, 2020;Servy, 2020). While the written law does not protect cohabitation (Brown & Care, 2005), in practice it is increasingly treated as a valid alternative (Zorn, 2010a;Wiessner & Pupu, 2021).…”

From Black Magic to Black Flags: Social Uses and Symbolic Lexicons of Cycads in Vanuatu

“…It occupies 83 islands, of which 65 are currently inhabited (Forsyth 2009: 3). The most recent estimate puts the population at 303,909 (The World Factbook 2021). According to the Oceanic linguist Terrence Crowley, modern Vanuatu has “the most complex linguistic demography of any country in the world in terms of the number of languages per head of population” (Crowley 2004: 3).…”

“…According to the Oceanic linguist Terrence Crowley, modern Vanuatu has “the most complex linguistic demography of any country in the world in terms of the number of languages per head of population” (Crowley 2004: 3). In Crowley's own, rather conservative, estimate Vanuatu is home to at least 80 actively spoken languages, while a liberal figure of “138 languages, including English, French […] and Bislama” was reported more recently (Servy 2020: 293). Such a high degree of diversity means that even communities sharing the same island typically speak different, often mutually incomprehensible, languages and that their religious and cultural practices are similarly idiosyncratic and heterogeneous.…”

“…Notably, the denotation of life and death dualism and the miracle of resurrection, which Bonta identifies as a mainstay of cycad symbolism in his review is almost completely absent from the archipelago. Even though Vanuatu is currently overwhelmingly Christian (82% of population identify as such [The World Factbook 2021]) in its religious allegiances, we encountered no record of a resurrection idiom connected with Cycas seemannii in the ethnographic literature from the archipelago. Apparently, even local Roman Catholics do not use cycads as a palm substitute for Palm Sunday or Ash Wednesday holidays, in contrast to their brethren from Mesoamerica and other provinces of global Catholicism.…”