Ravi Chandran R
Elders blessing younger ones ....
Again, it is true that the Todas once practised the relatively rare, although widespread (in Asia, Africa and Oceania), marriage custom whereby a woman has a plurality of husbands. But it is quite untrue to write (in the present tense no less): "Women in each mund are common wives to all the men in the mund." According to traditional Toda practice, a woman in a polyandrous union was the shared spouse of a set of brothers, with whom she lived in a common home. But today, as with female infanticide, polyandry no longer exists among the Todas. To suggest otherwise is misleading.
It is deceptive also to write that "all the women in the mund are `earth-mother' [to a child born there] and all the men are `earth-father' ". Even more so to write that "children from different mothers are not considered related and can cohabit on reaching puberty". Children of different mothers but the same social father are brothers and sisters, and intercourse between them would be "vile incest".
In his (or her) quaint language, the Web author writes: "The birth of a child is in no way connected with togetherness." I trust this is not a plea to recognise virgin birth among the Todas, although it might just be, given that the text continues, the "Moon god is the benefactor and a child is produced when the god so decrees". I presume the writer is trying to explain that biological paternity is (traditionally, at least) unimportant among the Todas. This is correct. How could it have been otherwise in the days when Todas practised fraternal polyandry?
"Social" paternity, on the other hand, was (and remains) of crucial importance, for without it an individual has no social, economic or religious status in Toda society. Such paternity is bestowed, as the Web-author correctly observes, through ritual: the offering by a male (man or boy) of a symbolic bow-and-arrow to the pregnant woman, representing his acceptance of the fruit of her womb.
But this is not a Toda marriage ceremony, as is suggested. Marriage occurs in infancy, because of ritual requirements (no Toda should die unwed, for example). And it is entirely wrong that "a boy selects a girl and lives with her in her parents' home". On the contrary, the Toda people have always followed the common Indian custom of living with or near the husband's family, not the wife's.
Elders blessing younger ones ....
Again, it is true that the Todas once practised the relatively rare, although widespread (in Asia, Africa and Oceania), marriage custom whereby a woman has a plurality of husbands. But it is quite untrue to write (in the present tense no less): "Women in each mund are common wives to all the men in the mund." According to traditional Toda practice, a woman in a polyandrous union was the shared spouse of a set of brothers, with whom she lived in a common home. But today, as with female infanticide, polyandry no longer exists among the Todas. To suggest otherwise is misleading.
It is deceptive also to write that "all the women in the mund are `earth-mother' [to a child born there] and all the men are `earth-father' ". Even more so to write that "children from different mothers are not considered related and can cohabit on reaching puberty". Children of different mothers but the same social father are brothers and sisters, and intercourse between them would be "vile incest".
In his (or her) quaint language, the Web author writes: "The birth of a child is in no way connected with togetherness." I trust this is not a plea to recognise virgin birth among the Todas, although it might just be, given that the text continues, the "Moon god is the benefactor and a child is produced when the god so decrees". I presume the writer is trying to explain that biological paternity is (traditionally, at least) unimportant among the Todas. This is correct. How could it have been otherwise in the days when Todas practised fraternal polyandry?
"Social" paternity, on the other hand, was (and remains) of crucial importance, for without it an individual has no social, economic or religious status in Toda society. Such paternity is bestowed, as the Web-author correctly observes, through ritual: the offering by a male (man or boy) of a symbolic bow-and-arrow to the pregnant woman, representing his acceptance of the fruit of her womb.
But this is not a Toda marriage ceremony, as is suggested. Marriage occurs in infancy, because of ritual requirements (no Toda should die unwed, for example). And it is entirely wrong that "a boy selects a girl and lives with her in her parents' home". On the contrary, the Toda people have always followed the common Indian custom of living with or near the husband's family, not the wife's.