マレー農村におけるイスラームと離婚

Abstract

Frequency of divorce varies from society to society according to their evaluation of marital union. Some anthropologists such as Gluckman (1950), Leach (1957), Fallers (1957), Ackerman (1963) attributed the problems of marital stability to kin-group politics. It seems that they presuppose social structure or grouping as a determinant of the value of marriage. The limit of these theories becomes manifest when some other value system is introduced from outside world. This is the case appeared in Malay villages. In this paper the author tries to show such an example through comparison of Malay divorces in three villages. Interpretation of Islamic ideas on marriage and divorce varies from place to place causing different divorce rates : the traditional interpretation is related with frequent divorces while the modern interpretation with a decrease in spite of unchanged function of kinship structure. This type of wide variation in divorce occurrence, either spacial or historical, may be found among the people whose kinship structure facilitate divorces.