A Formal Analysis of Substantive Law: Kapauku Papuan Laws of Inheritance

Abstract

IN THE literature, observes Murdock, primary modes of inheritance are commonly distinguished, namely, patrilineal and matrilineal. They are differentiated according to whether preferred heir traces his relationship to deceased through males or through females (1949:37). On following page of same book Murdock stresses importance of exactness in analysis of social systems and complains about study of rules of inheritance: actuality, complexity of inheritance rule is such as to make simple dichotomy of patrilineal and matrilineal highly inadequate for satisfactory analysis. In following text he points out various factors that obviously play a significant role with respect to but which dichotomy neglects. Accordingly, ethnographic expositions employing patrilineal versus matrilineal dichotomy generally obscure or even omit such considerations as that some parts of property may be destroyed, that proprietary rights of the two sexes may exert a significant influence upon inheritance, that some articles may be regarded as belonging exclusively to sex that uses them and inherited only by persons of same sex, that distinct rules of inheritance may prevail for different types of goods, and that all relatives of a given category may share alike, or a preference may be shown for eldest or youngest (Murdock 1949:38). This lack of exact inquiry in laws concerning inheritance was much too frequent until recently, despite some outstanding exceptions to this generalization (such as Llewellyn and Hoebel's The Cheyenne Way, 1941) and despite many scholars of anthropology like Murdock and, before him, Lowie (1920:157), who claimed that transmission of property rights was important (along with mode of residence) for establishing various principles of unilineal descent. Since Murdock's legitimate complaint was registered, other anthropologists have helped to correct this anomalous situation and have supplied much more adequate and exact data on inheritance. In one respect this article tries to contribute to this accumulation of precise knowledge by describing rules that govern disposition of inheritance among Kapauku Papuans of West New Guinea. However, study of laws of inheritance and, indeed, realm of substantive law lack not only a solid body of comparative and exact ethnographic data from various cultures, but also a precise analytical method. Such a method should be capable of breaking down particular systems into their significant components and of abstracting from bodies of rules legal principles that, first, would enable scholars to define essence of various systems and that, second,