Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 111 



hesitate to tell a wife to leave unless she was one he had married 

 without the exchange of goods between families. Instead, he would 

 probably go out visiting to another village and stay away until the 

 news reached him that the wife had returned to her people. Adul- 

 tery and mistreatment were the most common grounds for divorce. 

 Usually the families would attempt to patch up differences between 

 them. If a man had been unusually mean to his wife and she had 

 run away or sent him away, he would usually, when desiring a recon- 

 ciliation, send his sister to straighten matters out. In cases of 

 separation the children customarily stayed with the mother. 



The ties that held husband and wife together were, to begin with, 

 affection or respect for their parents and, later, children and common 

 interests in household and village activities, particularly those of 

 a ritualistic nature. After a few years of married life when the 

 husband and his wife or wives had adjusted their lives to each other 

 and the children were coming along, marriages were quite stable; 

 only during the first years of adjustment were divorces common. 

 The extended household tended to maintain its structure in spite 

 of numerous divorces and separations. 



Oldee Brother- Younger Brother 



A very close bond of mutual assistance and affection prevailed 

 between brothers of approximately the same age. This was based 

 on common blood and residence. Age was an important factor in 

 determining the relationship between brothers. Brothers would 

 tease each other a great deal but quarreling was largely unknown 

 due to the early training of the household in which harmony between 

 persons of the same clan was emphasized. The closest bond was be- 

 tween "brothers" of the same household, and little distinction was 

 made between one's own brothers and the sons of mother's sisters 

 living in the same household. Of the other households having close 

 "brothers," those in lodges occupied by the mother's sisters were 

 considered closer brothers than children of the father's brothers; 

 the former were not only "brothers" through blood sisters but were 

 also of the same clan. 



The universal rule that it was the duty of the clan to discipline its 

 own members might well have been restated to say that it was the 

 duty of the older male members to discipline and train the younger 

 male members since much of the actual training of boys and young 

 men was directed by their "older brothers." Age was an important 

 factor in determining whether one gave or received advice. My 

 informants frequently mentioned accepting advice and instructions 

 from "older brothers" who, at most, were only a few months older. In 

 one instance, Wolf Chief had told a male clansman that he would do as 



