Chain Marriage among the Shuar

Abstract

In this paper I report on this social fact as an expression of other recent and radical changes in Shuar society. I argue that the practice of marriage endures among them because it structures the exploitation of women that frees men to participate in the Ecuadorian economy. At the same time the impoverishment and geographic dislocations precipitated by the incorporation of the Shuar into the Ecuadorian economy undermines particular marriages.