Sister exchange
Several anthropologists and sociologists expressed objections to the term "sister exchange" believing that it is not accurately describing the actual arrangement.
[2][3][4] Despite earlier claims of its simplicity, sister exchange is a complex arrangement that involves many family members and not simply the four people who are getting married.
[8][9] Mark Busse stressed that, since women are not alienable possessions, the exchange was not the end of the transaction but merely the beginning, in accordance with the rules of generosity and honour described by Marcel Mauss.
[13][14] At the same time, the research available to him did not firmly establish the existence of sister exchange without cross-cousin marriage and Lévi-Strauss expressed doubts in whether it is real.
[15] However, local census data in Nigeria and other West African countries from 1920s already included information about people who primarily practised sister exchange without cross-cousin marriage.
[17] Marilyn Strathern supported this view too, adding that this exchange does not involve disposal of values but lies in the domain of interpersonal relations where kin get indebted to one another.
[3] Another objection to this term comes from Robin Fox and Donald Tuzin who pointed out that the exchange is usually organised by senior men (fathers, uncles) and not by the grooms themselves.
[4] This type of marriage system was described in the "middle belt" of the West Africa ravaged by the slave traders, on the plateau region of Benin (Mbelime), Nigeria and Cameroon (Tiv, Mambila); it is also used in DRC and Uganda (Amba, Mbuti); and on the border between Ethiopia and Sudan (Koman peoples).
[23] The Gumuz marriage is arranged by the elders who hold all the power over their children; the exchange must occur between members of different patrilineal clans.
[24] Elders have considerable authority and often marry their children when the sister is very young—in this case, she moves to her future husband's place and is raised there.
[28] Macuna people from the eastern part of the Amazon basin exchange sisters between patrilineal descent groups.
[4] Bun is a village located in the dense rainforest in Angoram District of the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea, near the Yuat River.
[38] It is rare and undesirable for Bun men to marry without providing a sister as a reciprocity; in this case, he usually leaves the village and resides with his wife's kin.
[41] Umeda people, hunter-gatherers from Sandaun Province in Papua New Guinea, practise sister exchange marriage.
[42] Umeda believe that exchanging sisters is worse than if a man seduces or steals a woman to marry, and put the blame for this type of marriage on the Dutch colonisation.
[44] Boazi-speaking Wamek tribe who live on marshy plains of the Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea call sister exchange seki towam which literally means "to give women".
[44] Seki towam occurs between opposing moieties and concludes with a period of bride service which, by extension, implies uxorilocal residence.
The popularity of berdel marriage is sometimes attributed to the fact that it costs less as there is no dowry, bridewealth or similar exchange of monetary transaction by the groom himself.
