[207]
The sacrifice of wives in Africa, India, Fiji, Madagascar, and
elsewhere, upon the death of husbands, shows how completely the person
of the female had been made a part of the male activity. Where this
practice obtained, the failure of the widow to acquiesce in the habit
was highly immoral. Williams says of the strangling of widows by the
Fijians:
It has been said that most of the women thus destroyed are
sacrificed at their own instance. There is truth in this
statement, but unless other facts are taken into account it
produces an untruthful impression. Many are importunate to
be killed, because they know that life would henceforth be to
them prolonged insult, neglect, and want.... If the friends
of the woman are not the most clamorous for her death, their
indifference is construed into disrespect either for her late
husband or his friends.[208]
Child-marriages are another instance of the success of the male in
gaining control of the person of the female and of regulating her
conduct from his own standpoint. Girls were married or betrothed
before birth, at birth, at two weeks, three months, or seven years of
age, and variously, often to an adult, and their husbands were thus
able to take extraordinary precautions against the violation of their
chastity.
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