910 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
the priest, I was told, but I have no sure data on this point. Nor 
do I know what percentage of couples are content with the Indian 
style marriage and what percentage desire the Catholic ritual as well. 
In the old days, say informants, if parents and godparents refused 
permission to a young man and girl, they could not marry. But in 
recent years there has been a growing tendency for young people to 
disregard the wishes of their parents and other close relatives. One 
informant stated that this was due largely to an increased regard for 
the laws of the State of New Mexico with respect to marriage. The 
law says that persons of 18 years of age or over may marry without 
their parents’ consent, and more and more young people are availing 
themselves of this law to justify themselves if they wish to go counter 
to their parents’ wishes. In one case that I learned of, a young 
couple were denied permission by their parents so they went to Jemez 
and were married there. They were married again later in Sia. 
EXOGAMY 
First of all, one is supposed to observe the rules of clan exogamy. 
In addition, informants say that one should not marry anyone who 
is ‘too closely related to you.’”’ But the definition of “‘too close” 
seems not to be very definite or explicit. One should not marry 
anyone designated as ‘‘brother,”’ ‘‘sister,”’ ‘‘uncle,’’ ‘‘aunt,’”’ “nephew,” 
or ‘‘niece.”’ 
In the 1950’s there was one case of cohabitation in Sia that was 
branded as incestuous by one informant who said that it was “‘shame- 
ful,’’ and he was loathe to tell me about it. It was a case of a man 
and his sister’s daughter. The Agency’s census lists both as unmarried 
but living in the same household together with two other unmarried 
males. 
SEXUAL PROMISCUITY 
No systematic study of this subject was made. We have little 
specific information, therefore, upon adultery and sexual intercourse 
among the unmarried. We know, however, that a high percentage 
of adults are unmarried and that a number of unmarried women 
are mothers (see p. 45). But I cannot even guess at the extent 
to which promiscuity obtains in the pueblo, or whether it has tended 
to increase or decrease since, say, Stevenson’s day. Stevenson (1894, 
p. 20) believed that much promiscuity prevailed in Sia, that offers 
were made by men, married as well as unmarried, to the mother of 
a girl who had just reached puberty “for the privilege of sexual 
relations” with her, ‘the mother holding her virgin daughter for the 
highest bidder.’”? One of my informants repudiated this allegation 
with much indignation and scorn. Stevenson (ibid.,) also observed 
that ‘‘though the Sia are monogamists, it is common for the married, 
as well as the unmarried, to live promiscuously with one another;. .. 
