No.''79r' ^^^' '^^^™ RAMAH NAVAHO — ^KLUCKHOHN 361 



ment of marriages, particulariy in the form of repeated exchanges 

 between an extended family at Ramah and an extended family in 

 one of the other areas. For instance, four men and two women 

 (all closely related) from Thoreau over a period of years married 

 individuals from the same family line at Ramah. Reciprocally, the 

 Ramah group sent two men and two women back to the Thoreau 

 group. Fully three-fourths of all emigrating and immigrating mar- 

 riages since 1890 fall into the category of perpetuation of an exchange 

 (initiated before or after 1890) between very close or slightly less 

 close relatives in the Ramah area and a similar group in the other area. 



This same pattern prevails, of course, for marriages within the 

 Ramah population. If a young man from family A marries a girl 

 from family B, there is a strong likelihood that a younger brother or 

 sister from family A will marry a girl or boy from family B. If one 

 is not available from the biological family, one will often be provided 

 from the extended family. Failing this, there is an appreciable 

 preference for a biologically related spouse from the same clan as the 

 children of family B. This is the probable explanation of the fact 

 that marriages between clans at Ramah (Spuhler, 1953, p. 301) show 

 preferential tendencies for clans to exchange members in ways not 

 determined by the system of linked clan exogamy. 



On September 1, 1950, there were 41 women and 19 men of the 

 age of 25 ^^ or over who lacked spouses. Seven men (only one past 

 the age of 40) had never married and were not reported to have had 

 children. Seven women (all still of reproductive age) had neither 

 married nor had children. Four women had never married, but had 

 subadult children. There were six divorced men (three under 40, 

 one of 48, one of 56, and one of 72), nine widows (all past reproductive 

 age), and three widowers (all over 69 years of age). An additional 10 

 widows, 2 widowers, 11 divorced women, and 2 divorced men were 

 living as ''heads of families" — i.e., without spouses but with subadult 

 children in their homes. Of the widows, seven were beyond repro- 

 ductive age; of the divorced women, three. Two of the men were in 

 their fifties, two in their sixties. 



On the same date, there were 97 marriages in force at Ramah 

 (see table 12, p. 364). Of the 11 polygynous ones, 7 involved the 

 marriage of a man to two full or haK sisters (daughters of the same 

 mother or of the same father, but by two different wives who were 

 biological sisters) ; 2 were cases of the marriage of a man to a woman 

 and to her daughter by a previous marriage; and 2 involved the 

 marriage of a man to two unrelated women. Of all the polygynous 

 marriages at Ramah, 29 have been sororal, 10 have involved step- 



s' This seems the right age to take as of this date. (See table 4, p. 351, for the age of first marriage, 

 1940-50.) 



