138 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



DIVORCE, SEPARATION, DESERTION, INFIDELITY 



Formal divorce, the result of an action by somebody empowered 

 to grant it, was not an Araucanian custom ; separations and desertions 

 were. Today the Chilean law regarding divorce is invoked only when 

 difficulty arises regarding the care of the children, something which 

 has happened in several instances where Araucanian men had attended 

 schools with Chileans. In accordance with Chilean law, in these cases, 

 sons of the couple were assigned to the care of the mother; the 

 daughters, to the father. 



Desertions by either party occur today, as they did in former times. 

 Instances were recounted where a wife deserted because of ill treat- 

 ment by her husband, or because of her affection for another man, or 

 because she preferred being with her brothers and sisters. A man 

 deserted because he preferred living with another woman. 



Separations by agreement between husband and wife were rare. 

 Formerly in a case of a separation, and today in a nonlegal one, 

 the children were taken and supported by the parent who wanted 

 them most. In a legal separation today (that is, one decided upon 

 before a judge appointed by the Chilean Government, in most cases 

 an Araucanian judge), the Chilean custom of assigning the girls to 

 the father and the boys to the mother is followed, as in the case of 

 divorce. 



Today, as formerly, if infidelity on the part of the woman is sus- 

 pected or known to exist, the man either sends her back to her home, 

 or whips her. In Panguipulli area it was said that the husband was 

 known to have cut off one of his wife's braids, something informants 

 in other areas had not heard of. No informant had heard that her 

 cheeks were ever slashed or the tip of her nose cut off to disfigure her 

 face. "But an unfaithful wife was a very, very rare thing. If it hap- 

 pened, the man sent the woman out of his ruka and told people about 

 it. The woman usually went to her parents' home. Her family was 

 then obliged to return all the animals and other things, or an equal 

 value of them, that had been paid as bride price. I do not know 

 what happened to a man who was unfaithful, except that people 

 scolded about it." 



IN-LAW TABOOS, JOKING RELATIONSHIPS 



In Cofiaripe area, mother-in-law-son-in-law and father-in-law- 

 daughter-in-law taboos existed. A loo-year-old man had been told by 

 old people while he was young that these customs had always existed. 

 Alepue and Panguipulli informants, including several older than 80, 



