Abstract
A. Retel-Laurentin—Women's Absconding in the Black Volta. In the Black Volta district of the Voltaic Republic, many Bwa women surrepti-tiously desert their husband's home at night to seek refuge with another man. This man is not considered guilty of adultery but rather of a kind of theft or kidnapping. The deserted husband may recover his wife by legal action, with the help of his own kin. Far from chastising her if and when she cornes back, he 'flatters' her by various gifts, sometimes extended to her family. This occurs in a society which considers marriage as irreversible. Relying on anthropological and statistical enquiries, the author shows that the apparent disparity between legal rule and actual pratice implies a tacit agreement of the group. Women's absconding does probabiy act as a regulating mechanism in a System in which endogamy and endo-local residence might otherwise lessen exchanges to a dangerous degree. [pp. 253-298]
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