(By Shirui of Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities)

　　The Jingpos live in the border areas of several countries, who are called the Kachins in Myanmar and the Xinfus in Assam of India. There are 118,000 Jingpos living in China, of whom the majority live in compact communities in Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. Because of their slow development, in the early 18th century they still stayed at the late period of a primitive society. In the mid-18th century their economy and society had entered the transitional period from a late primitive society to a feudal society but they still kept up quite a few old marriage customs. Even today in some remote Jingpo villages in China, a good few old marriage customs inherited from the primitive society have been retained. Their marriage culture is closely related to their history, religion, psychology and their Shanguan (local chieftain) system. This article discusses the main characteristics of this marriage culture from different angles.

　　Part One: The Strictly-Stratified Internal Marriage System

　　In the earliest legend about Jingpo's marriage customs, it was the men that in their best married into the women's families (uxorilocal). Later, having more pieces of property than ever before, the careless men often forgot to take their possessions such as their long swords, hanging bags, tobacco boxes, bows and arrows and had to return to fetch them time and again during the marriage ceremony. The women were unhappy about this and said it was convenient for them to marry their men because they only needed to take a weaving tool. Since then, it has been the Jingpo women that marry into the men's families (virilocal). This legend reveals that the virilocal practice of the Jingpos was the result of the development of private ownership and the replacement of the matriarchal society by the patriarchal society.

　　Monogamy is the dominant marriage practice among the Jingpos and the core of the Jingpo family. Because the children are named after the father and the pedigree is based on the paternal side, the father of a Jingpo family enjoys some privileges, which in turn strengthens this practice. Since the Shanguan system emerged, the Jingpos began to have an internal marriage practice among the members of the same class, mainly among the family members of the Shanguans, which vividly reveals the hierarchy of the Jingpo society and its typical cultural traits. According to this system, a Shanguan could only marry the daughter of another Shanguan while the members of the common people could only marry among themselves and the slaves could only marry the daughters of the slaves. But as a matter of fact, the common people and the slaves could get related through marriage. The following are the reasons why this practice was favored by the Shanguans: A. If a Shanguan married a daughter of an ordinary family, her father would become the Shanguan's father-in-law. ("Mayu" in the Jingpo language). According to the Jingpo marriage custom, Mayu enjoys some privileges and has some power over his son-in-law. In this way, the Shanguan's social status and power would be weakened. B. If a member of an ordinary family married a daughter of a Shanguan, his social status would be quite different. The Shanguan would call him "Dugahkri" (son-in-law of a Shanguan), who would be the assistant of the Shanguan and had the power to deal with the affairs under the jurisdiction of this Shanguan, and others would respectfully call him Dugahkriwa. The Shanguans thought this practice would impair their authority and should be prohibited. But this hierarchy-based marriage system was changing with the changing society due to the emergence of the changed rich and poor groups. For example, the daughters of some Shanguans married themselves into some rich ordinary families. But they usually asked for expensive betrothal gifts to show their different social positions. Besides the usual gifts like cattle, gongs, wool, blankets and silver ornaments, other betrothal gifts included horses, ivory (articles), and imperial (dragon-patterned) robes which were symbols of a different marriage. As a matter of fact, only a few very rich and powerful common families could afford to marry the daughters of the Shanguans. Because some declining Shanguans could not afford the expensive betrothal gifts to marry the daughters of other Shanguans, they had to choose the daughters of the ordinary people. But there were some prerequisites: the girls must be beautiful, clever and have some prestige and property. If a daughter from ordinary family became the wife of a Shanguan, she would enjoy the same social position as a Shanguan's wife. This practice remained established for a long period of time in which the rich, powerful and influential Shanguans always got married among the family members of themselves.

　　As time marched on, polygamy also emerged among the Jingpos because of the following reasons: One important reason was closely related to reproduction (sterility). If the wife could not give birth to any children in several years, the husband would marry a second or even a third wife. The Jingpos attach great importance to children, especially to the sons who are regarded as the carriers of the family line. If the wife could not give birth to any children or could only give birth to daughters, the husband would marry a second wife. The other reason was related to the Jingpos' remarriage custom. In the Jingpo society, there was a special remarriage custom. It was considered as the widow's responsibility to remarry one of the male family members of her late husband. Why? A. During their marriage ceremony, "Dongsha" (preacher) prayed to "Masha nat" (the spirit of their ancestors) and offered sacrifices to "Bubai nat" (the spirit of the marriage ceremony) and walked across the "Grass Bridge". B. The family of her late husband had paid expensive betrothal gifts and according to their marriage custom she became one member of the family since then and could not marry again freely: Judging from the above-mentioned reasons, this remarriage custom was related not only to their primitive religion but also to the women's position as property. The fact that they did not allow the widows to remarry others rather than the family members of her late husband was to avoid the loss of the family's or the clan's property. According to this custom, if the elder brother died, his younger brother could marry his wife or vice versa. As a result, the former relationship between the younger brother and his elder brother's wife or that between the elder brother and his younger brother's wife changed into a husband-wife relationship. However, this kind of wife was not regarded as the legal wife. According to the Jingpos' outlook on life, a Jingpo man should have a legal wife, otherwise he would be lonely after death. Therefore, even if an unmarried Jingpo man married the wife of one late member of his family, he had to marry someone else as his legal wife. The monogamy, the polygamy and the remarriage custom of the Jingpos were practices dominated by their strictly-stratified internal marriage system.