Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Women Live In A Sort Of
Slavery, As They Do In Most Nations Which Are In A State Of Barbarism.
The Husbands Being In The Full Enjoyment Of Absolute Power, No
Complaint Is Heard In Their Presence.
An apparent tranquillity
prevails in the household; the women are eager to anticipate the
wishes of an imperious and sullen master; and they attend without
distinction to their own children and those of their rivals.
The
missionaries assert, what may easily be believed, that this domestic
peace, the effect of fear, is singularly disturbed when the husband is
long absent. The wife who contracted the first ties then applies to
the others the names of concubines and servants. The quarrels continue
till the return of the master, who knows how to calm their passions by
the sound of his voice, by a mere gesticulation, or, if he thinks it
necessary, by means a little more violent. A certain inequality in the
rights of the women is sanctioned by the language of the Tamanacs. The
husband calls the second and third wife the companions of the first;
and the first treats these companions as rivals and enemies
(ipucjatoje), a term which truly expresses their position. The whole
weight of labour being supported by these unhappy women, we must not
be surprised if, in some nations, their number is extremely small.
Where this happens, a kind of polyandry is formed, which we find more
fully displayed in Thibet, and on the lofty mountains at the extremity
of the Indian peninsula.
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