In view of the importance placed on correct marriages in the maintenance of a harmonious relationship with the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land from which devolves the well-being of people and crops, it is not surprising, therefore, that marriage ceremonies in Palokhi consist essentially of informing the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land that a man and woman are being married and asking for the spirit’s blessing. Because the Karen have a rule of uxorilocal residence at marriage, these ceremonies and the rituals entailed in them not only mark the union of the man and woman, but also the incorporation of the man into the household of the woman’s parents. These ceremonies, like most Palokhi rituals, are not elaborate or complex, but it is evident that they also mark out symbolically two things: the liminal condition of the man as he moves from single to married status, and the separate integrity of the union between the man and woman, apart from that of the woman’s parents. A brief description of marriage ceremonies as they are conducted in Palokhi will suffice to elucidate these points. The overall structure of marriage ceremonies in general, in terms of the use of time and space, is represented schematically in Figures 3.5 and 3.6. The description which follows concerns marriage between a man from Palokhi and a woman from another village. If, however, marriage is between two people from Palokhi, then there is of course no movement outside the village, and the structure of the ceremony is essentially that shown in Figure 3.6.

The ritual begins prior to the man’s departure for the village where the woman lives. A boar is killed in the morning and part of it is cooked for a meal which the man, his parents and siblings, the headman, village elders, and members of the escort, including the go-between, eat. Before the meal is eaten, the headman and elders are given small cups of rice liquor (si’) which they use for making libations (khwae’ si’) as they say prayers (thupata) to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and other tutelary spirits of the area. They do this by facing the walls of the house to which they happen to be nearest, and as they crouch here, they use their index or middle fingers to cause the rice liquor to drip slowly down the cups, which is how the libations are made. At the same time, they pray to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and other spirits, informing them that the man is about to be married, and request them to “look after” (koe’tau) the married couple, the villagers, their crops and their livestock. When this is done, the headman and elders then tie the wrists (ki cy’) of the man with lengths of cotton thread. The purpose of this is to bind his souls (koela) to his body. It is also believed that the man and his escort are susceptible to becoming “hot” and, consequently, as the man and his escort leave the house of his parents, water is thrown over them from bamboo water containers (thi toe) by other villagers to “cool” (pghi thi ma takhy) them. At the same time, the prestations for the bride are given to a woman in the escort to take to the bride’s parents. These consist of a winnowing tray, two headcloths, a married woman’s blouse and wrap-around skirt, a packet of betel nut, a packet of salt, and four 25 sataang pieces (= 1 Baht). The head of the pig which was killed for the meal, and pieces of fat are also given to a man in the escort to take along for the parents of the bride. The man and his escort are then accompanied by his parents, the headman, and village elders to the boundaries of the village just before the forest, and here a mat is placed on the ground. On this mat are placed the gongs, drums, and cymbals played by the escort. The headman, the go-between, and village elders then squat around the mat and the father of the groom hands them a bottle of rice liquor and cups. The rice liquor is poured into the cups and they repeat their prayers to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and the other spirits while making libations to them. This time, however, the rice liquor is dropped onto the musical instruments to “cool” them. When this is done, the liquor is drunk by the headman, go-between, and village elders after which more liquor is poured out and passed around for the groom and the members of his escort to drink. The headman, an elder, or a ritual specialist then tears three leaves from a nearby bush in random fashion, and the pieces are then counted in pairs. This is a divinatory procedure to determine if it is safe for the groom and his escort to proceed with their journey to the bride’s village. If there is an even number of pairs of leaf pieces, then it is an indication that the party may leave the village. If, however, there is an odd number of pairs, the process of praying and making libations to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and other spirits is repeated, followed by further divination until a favourable omen presents itself. With the appearance of such a sign, the groom’s party then departs, amidst further showers of water, along the track leading from the village into the forest.

At various stages of the journey through the forest, the go-between, an elder or the ritual specialist if he is also in the party, will perform further divinations (usually after traversing one stream valley into another) to determine whether it is safe for the party to continue with its journey. This may be done with leaves, or all the people in the escort may be instructed to pick up twigs from the ground and break them into small pieces and cast them onto a cloth laid out on the ground. The diviner then counts them in pairs and, as with the other method of divination, if there is an even number of pairs, the party proceeds with its journey. Apart from the time spent on divination, the procession usually moves along at a brisk pace to the clashing of cymbals and the beating of gongs and drums. This is undoubtedly part of the festive nature of marriage ceremonies, but according to the ritual specialist in Palokhi, the din made with all these instruments keeps away malevolent spirits (tamyxa) from the groom and his escort.

On arriving at the periphery of the bride’s village, the party waits while the go-between and an elder go to the house of the bride’s parents. Here, they are offered rice liquor, and together with the elders and headman of the village, say prayers to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and other spirits along with the mandatory libations. During this time, the groom and other members of his party wait at the outskirts of the village. When the prayers and libations have all been completed, the go-between then goes to bring the groom and his party into the village. From this point onwards, everything proceeds in slow, measured stages. As the groom approaches the house of the bride, he is met by elders of the vilage, and the precentor in the bride’s party. A mat is laid out on the ground and the village elders, the precentors from both parties, the go-between and elders in the groom’s escort squat around the mat on which the bride’s father places a bottle of rice liquor and small cups. The go-between also places a bottle of rice liquor on the mat and the liquor is then exchanged between the two parties — those in the bride’s party pouring out the liquor into the cups and offering them to those from the groom’s party and vice versa. Prayers and libations are again made to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and other spirits, after which the liquor is drunk. More liquor is then poured out and passed around to those present.

When this stage of the ceremony is completed, a sword dance is then performed by men from each party to the accompaniment of cymbals, gongs and drums. When this is done, the groom is then led to a “half-way house” in which he stays for two days before he finally moves into the bride’s house. As he commences walking to the house, the people in the host village immediately shower him and his escort with water thrown from water containers (thi toe). While he remains in the house, the members of his escort are invited into the bride’s house. As they file up the step-ladder and step on the outer verandah of the house, a brother or sister of the bride will pour water over their feet after which they enter the main room of the house where they are offered tea and pickled tea leaves.

Towards the evening, the elders of the bride’s village, the headman, the go-between and elders from the groom’s party assemble in the bride’s parents’ house, and they are given rice liquor and cups with which to make further libations and prayers to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and the other tutelary spirits of the area. They then go to the house where the groom has been staying, and repeat their prayers and libations to these spirits. During this time, a sow is killed and cooked for the ritual meal of the evening which the groom and bride share. When the prayers and offerings of rice liquor to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land have been completed in the house where the groom stays, the groom is then led by the go-between to the bride’s parents’ house. At the foot of the step-ladder leading up to the house, a whet-stone is placed on the ground. Here the bride waits for the groom with a bamboo water container filled with water. As the groom approaches the step-ladder, he places both feet on the whet-stone, and the bride pours water over his feet. From here, he is led into the house and sits at the back of the main room (see Figure 3.6) which is usually where the parents of the bride sleep. The bride joins him here, and a wooden eating tray (soebi’) in which rice and pork stew have been placed is set before them. The headman, elders, and go-between sit near them and, again, make their prayers and libations to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land after which the couple are given the cups of liquor to sip from. The cups are returned to the men who said the prayers, and they sip from the cups passing them around to each other until all the liquor in the cups have been drunk.

The couple are then told to eat the meal placed before them. They usually eat sparingly of this meal, and when it is judged that they have had enough, the headman, elders and the go-between repeat their prayers to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and the other spirits. The cups of rice liquor are then passed around again, and when this is done the groom is led back to the house where he was staying. The headman, elders and go-between remain in the house of the bride and continue drinking. At this stage, the precentors of both parties begin singing traditional poem-songs (tha) usually about love and courtship. Young males from the groom’s escort and from the bride’s village will, at this point, usually go to the house where the groom is staying and here they do the same thing.

The next day, this process is repeated, but with two differences. First, a boar is killed for the ritual meal and, secondly, when the groom is led to the bride’s house, the whet-stone is placed at the top of the step-ladder where the outer verandah adjoins the inner verandah, at which place his feet are again “washed” by the bride. Some variations in practice do occur with regard to the latter. In some cases, after the ritual meal has been eaten by the couple and when the prayers and libations have been made, the groom is led back to the “half-way house” where he stays for several hours. He is then led back to the bride’s house for another meal and, on this occasion, the whet-stone is placed where the inner verandah joins the main room of the house, that is, in the doorway. Alternatively, the whet-stone may be placed, first, at the place where the outer verandah joins the inner verandah and then, immediately, in the doorway in which case only one ritual meal is, of course, eaten by the couple on the second day. These variations seem to be dictated, primarily, by whether there is sufficient food because the ritual meals eaten by the couple are invariably followed by the provision of food for the guests and other villagers.

On the third and last day of the ceremony, the groom goes to the bride’s house for the final time. On this occasion, he is led directly through the verandahs and enters the room where he again sits at the back facing the door. Here he changes into a new suit of clothes, while the woman changes from her white shift (which young girls and unmarried women wear) into the black blouse and red wrap-around skirt that only married women may wear. The man changes in front of the guests while the woman changes in the small back room after which she joins the man in the main room. This time, however, they are not given a meal to eat. Instead, the man is given a bottle of rice liquor and a cup. He pours a measure of the liquor into the cup which he drinks, and this is followed by a second measure which he offers to his wife. This cup is put aside, and other cups are then set before him which he fills and he then proceeds to offer them to the father of his wife, the elders from his wife’s village and to the go-between and elders in his escort. They then pray to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and the other spirits, making their libations at the same time, after which the cups of liquor are passed around to be sipped by the couple and the ritual officiants at the ceremony.

The first bottle of rice liquor which, by now, is usually half empty, is set aside and other bottles are brought out by the father of the bride. The man then pours out more cups of liquor and these are offered by them to the other people present. This continues until all the bottles of rice liquor are exhausted. Then the man pours out the liquor remaining in the first bottle and offers this to the ritual officiants who proceed to pray to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and the other spirits. When this is completed, the cups of liquor are passed around again to be sipped by the couple and the ritual officiants. This marks the end of the marriage ceremony, after which the headman and elders of the village pour water over the heads of the now married couple while the members of the man’s escort prepare themselves to return to their village. Before they do so, they try to “take the man back” with them by pulling on one of his arms. At this stage, the young men of his wife’s village seize his other arm and try to detain him. While this may begin in a jocular fashion, it can sometimes become very earnest indeed, but after a while the groom’s escort relinquish their hold on the man and leave in a shower of water thrown at them by members of the bride’s village.

As a rite of passage, the symbolism of the ritual performances and the use of time and space throughout the marriage ceremony quite clearly mark the incorporation of the man into the household of the woman’s parents. What may not be so obvious, but which is nonetheless “stated” in the rituals, is the separate integrity of the union apart from but yet within the stem family that is formed. The evidence for this comes, of course, from the slaughtering of the sow and boar (which some informants quite explicitly say stand for the man and woman), and the drinking of rice liquor from a common cup which is, then, set aside and not put to general use at that particular stage of the marriage ceremony. But it is also to be seen in the serving of liquor by the man, on the last day of the ceremony, which a fortiori points to the couple as a unit distinct from the stem family, even though they reside in the house of the woman’s parents.

Under ordinary circumstances any ritual observed in a family which entails the use of rice liquor (in libations to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land) or, indeed, when liquor is drunk merely for enjoyment, the head of the family (that is, the father in a nuclear family, or the father of a married daughter in a stem family) is required to serve the liquor in just this manner to the headman and village elders. It is a duty and obligation which no one else may assume. It is significant, then, that instead of the father of a daughter, it is the newly married husband of the daughter who is required to perform the act of serving liquor in this manner (which is a ritual in its own right no matter how trivial it may appear to be) in the house of his wife’s parents. For, during the period in which he and his wife are resident in his wife’s parents’ house, and as long as his father-in-law is alive, it is his father-in-law who serves liquor in the rituals which entail libations to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land. The performance of this particular ritual by a newly married husband, therefore, signifies the assumption of responsibilities, on the part of the man, that have no context other than within the nuclear family (and stem family) of which he will eventually become the head and ritual leader when the stem family fissions. The marriage ceremony, thus, reverses the priority as regards who should serve liquor in a stem family in ritual situations, marking out the distinctiveness of the new conjugal bond that is constituted by the ceremony. Palokhi marriage rituals, therefore, express precisely the same thing found in the terminological system, and teknonymy, described earlier.