To Be Seen or Not to Be Seen!
To Be Seen or Not to Be Seen!
Marriage Choices among Ese Eja of the Bolivian and Peruvian Amazon
By comparing the different ways in which Ese Eja marriages commence, Peluso describes the power relations in which marriages are embedded. Two forms of marriage co-exist in the same community: one legitimized by the public involvement of kin and neighbors in the union, the other a secret in which couples are united without any public acknowledgment thereby challenging the underlying mechanisms of power in the community. Despite their generally poor outcomes, secret unions present a means for individuals to bask in a short-lived reprieve from social demands—although they also leave behind the support of their kin. Peluso provides a case study of a secret marriage in which the bride’s father intervened and forced the transformation of his daughter’s private marriage into a public one to ensure he had a voice in her future. This case reveals with striking clarity the relationship between power and “speech” in an Ese Eja village.
Keywords: Ese Eja, secret marriage, mechanisms of power
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