180 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Mamiagi I!it>.< 



Courtship and marriage come about in a very spontaneous manner 

 among the young people of the Bagobo. The girls are quite as 

 independent as the boys, and both arc of an age, when the question 

 of marriage comes up, to be fully able to make their own decisions. 

 Child marriage, or contract for the marriage of children, does not 

 exist among thorn. The girl is from fifteen to eighteen years of 

 age, at least, and the boy, eighteen or twenty, at the time of 

 marriage. During- courtship there are abundant opportunities for 

 meeting without surveillance from their elders, for songs and walks, 

 for glances and smiles and chewing- of betel together. The girls 

 are exceedingly dignified, vet always frank and kindly in their 

 behavior with young men. 



Ordinarily the boy asks the consent of the girl directly, and then 

 goes to her parents, placating them with gifts of agongs if they 

 object. Another method which is called a "very good way*' is for 

 the boy to tell his father that he wants a certain girl, and ask him 

 to go to her parents; "the boy sends his father" to manage the affair. 

 In other cases, the negotiations are initiated by the parents of the 

 respective families. 



"Marriage by purchase" in the sense that many of the early 

 writers on ethnology use the term is unknown among the Bagobo. 

 Though the young man gives a present to his prospective father- 

 in-law for the privilege of marrying the girl, his situation is very 

 different from that which is found among tribes where the woman 

 is actually sold against her will. hi the first place, the Bagobo 

 woman is a tree agent; she accepts or rejects her suitor at will; 

 her parents will not force her to marry unless she wishes. Secondly, 

 it should be noted that if the young man is accepted, the girl's 

 father gives him in return for the gift he has brought a present 

 equal to one-half of its value; that is to say, if the boy brings ten 

 agongs, the girl's father gives him five of his own agongs. thus 

 making a very personal gift, and completely removing the stigma 

 of selling his daughter. She is honored, deferred to. consulted in 

 everything by her husband to an extent that often seems to place 

 her at the bead of the family. A woiil from his wife will often 

 mould a man's plans and change his intentions on the spot. That 

 the purchase of the woman, in the sense of a marriage gift to her 



