culture and marriage of the Nyinba people, the economic benefit resulting from their polyandry marriage, and finally highlight the family systems

 culture and marriage of the Nyinba people, the economic benefit resulting from their polyandry marriage, and finally highlight the family systems

The Nyinba is an ethnic group that is a part of the many small but largely endogamous groups found in the borders-lands of northern Nepal. By language identification, the group is known as the Tibetan ethically. Moreover, they can also be identified through their Buddhist type of religion and other characteristics of social and cultural structure. The Nyinba people are residents in Humla, a district located in the Karnali zone in far northwestern Nepal. Originally government documentation about the Nyinba people called them Bhatia meaning Tibetan. Later, they were classified as Tamang to classify them as Nepal nationalities. This paper seeks to explain the culture and marriage of the Nyinba people, the economic benefit resulting from their polyandry marriage, and finally highlight the family systems, why brothers get married to one woman, and how they manage.

According to the Nyinba people’s belief, their ancestors are an amalgamation of people mainly from the western part of Tibet and maybe from other parts of Tibet, Byansi village, and the ethnic Tibetan Nepal regions. Villagers say that their ancestors settled in the area in the fifteenth century. The settlement happened after the collapse of the Malla kingdom, which was a uniting factor among western Tibet, western Nepal, and Ladakh. The founders of villages are believed to be powerful ancestors who they think protect the town and to who people address agricultural prosperity appeals. People also believe and fear witchcraft and the power of the evil eye. As part of their culture, the Nyinba people are well known for their prowess in making elegant and beautifully executed textiles, woven carpets, and mystical instruments, the performance of particular rituals, and herbal and animal remedies. Sometimes, they involve oracles when diagnosing the cause of illness and also exorcise malignant supernatural deemed possible. When one dies, the close relatives of the dead person and the entire village receive a merit-creating feast since they hold a series of ceremonies. The Nyinba people still believe in reincarnation, just like Buddhists. Therefore, the celebrations bear a common goal of aiding the dead to receive the best rebirth possible. Funerals are accorded immense importance, where both the rich and the poor contribute towards the event.

Their marriage involves all Nyinba men who have brothers marrying jointly in fraternal polyandry. Because of occasional divorces and the death of brothers, these marriages tend to become monogamous. According to the histories of households, 70 percent of marriages are said to have been polyandrous initially. However, in 1993, only half of the marriages remained in such a situation. Postmarital residence initially takes a virilocal route. A daughter marries uxorilocally only when a family does not have a son.

In many cases, the uxorilocal marriages are monogamous. There are chances for men to marry second wives in situations where their wives are childless or when a man is not happy in his polyandrous marriage. As a result, both polygynous and polyandrous unions are created. The nyinba people highly encourage polyandrous with the notion that it expresses fraternal unity, it is also advantageous economically, and in other cases, it confers political advantages in the village. Additionally, the frictional grudges between brothers become minimal by practices put forward to ensure equal sexual access to the shared wife and also by the paternity designation, which provides brothers have equal opportunities to carry out fatherly duties in the typical marriage. Men rarely divorce, unlike women who already have children.

The Nyinba people find it economically beneficial to adhere to the polyandrous type of marriage because they depend on agriculture where land is scarce. Additionally, the land is the most valuable thing the community has. As a result, this system of marriage whereby all brothers in a family get married to one woman ensures that there are minimal incidents of land inheritance. Their land thus remains intact and also provides collective labor sharing, which would otherwise be difficult for one person. Moreover, the brothers benefit economically by sharing the economic burden by having a common wife. In this case, the children are divided among the brothers with the eldest child belonging to the eldest brother.

Domestic units are large and multi-generational. Where the families are more affluent, the family size is more significant compared to needy families. Family membership is only achieved through legitimate birth or marriage. Children are likely to have different parents because of the polyandry and polygyny type of marriage. Polyandry ensures the levels of dependency ratios are low. The benefits of family membership result from presumed cooperation in productive labor and having a share in what is produced in the household. Both vary with age and gender.

With property inheritance, all sons of the previous property-holding generation inherit jointly. Upon daughters marrying, they receive dowry in the form of household goods, occasionally domestic animals, agricultural tools, or maybe a piece of land for their lifelong use. In the traditional setting, when women were newly-wed, they only had a right to permanent maintenance, unlike today, where the law in Nepali entitles them to lifelong use rights in half of the share brothers have. Property is divided equally among brothers of a household on rare occasions. When a family fails to maintain the portioned produce, it is passed over to the brothers or successors of the partitioner.

On the socialization part, boys and girls follow a different style of raising, just like first and last born sons. For instance, girls begin their work of being productive at an early age and are expected to take care of their younger siblings. Young boys, on the other hand, are encouraged to play leadership roles, which aid them in developing leadership skills which they would perform at a later age. They are also taught on treating their little brothers fairly, a virtue critically vital for polyandry.

The Nyinba people also believe in kinship ties. Kinship provides a foundation for a system of patrilineal clanship. Membership, depending on clans, is vital for the marking of social ranks among community members and also for guiding marriage rules.

The Nyinba brothers go for the polyandrous type of marriage mainly because of the economic status. The scarcity of land-primarily motivates these people to maintain this type of marriage. As a result, the land remains intact, and not divided for inheritance. Since the Nyinba people depend primarily on Agriculture and working on the farm deems difficult for one person, the Nyinba marriage system creates a group stake in the harvest.

Men do not find it challenging to manage their marriage. Each child is designated to a father, although the children term every man married to their mother as their father. Fatherly duties are equally divided among their husbands. In cases where a husband is suspicious of his wife being adulterous, all other husbands do not take the paternity of the child. Both the mother and child are thrown out of the family.

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