ABSTRACT
Marriage is a defining moment. Maneo face no other choice that is quite as explicit and as consequential to social life and community well-being. For once selection has been made and a marriage initiated, husbands and wives begin to become situated within new fields of social relations, to each other most notably, but more importantly with respect to their affines as well as siblings and parents. This repositioning, in turn, subtly shifts relations between other connected persons. But even as the circumstances of marriage have changed over the last century as Maneo have moved out of the forest and despite increased love marriages and the need felt by many to seek approval from the church and licenses from the state (at a cost of US$25), the practice continues to precipitate a split within the natal household and resituate persons in interlocking webs of relations. Moreover, since the cessation of headhunting over two generations ago, marriage now serves as the only public occasion that marks a man’s transition to adulthood; it has always been the only juncture to adulthood for women, though muted. Thus, it may be more important than ever in preserving for Maneo a sense of cultural continuity, even as the elements of practice and its meanings have changed.
