WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
mains, and it has its influence upon the existing relations of the sexes. Though King Theebaw had only one wife, he lived in patriarchal grandeur, surrounded by a host of concubines and slaves.
There is no part of the East where marriage is as free as in Burma. Absolute sex-equality is said by some writers to exist here; and the liberty enjoyed by women so greatly exceeds all the privileges of their Hindu and Mohammedan sisters, that there is scarcely any comparison.
One of the most interesting phenomenon of the social life of Burma is the co-existence of a survival of mother-right and freedom for women in a community where polygamy is allowed and sometimes practised. Women not only dominate in the family, but they are entrusted with the most important business negotiations. In fact, the women of Burma are better merchants and traders than the men.[1]
Marriage among the Burmese is later than among the natives of most other parts of India, except in the region of the Parsees. In Burma girls do not marry till they are about seventeen, and from that age till twenty is the usual period for entering into wedlock. The offices of a priest are usually dispensed with by
- ↑ "Among Pagodas and Fair Ladies," Gwendolen Trench Gascoigne.
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