Hidden within the dense canopies of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest resides the Zo’é tribe, a community that challenges conventional societal norms. First sustained contact with outsiders occurred in 1987, revealing a society that thrives without formal leadership and embraces complex marital structures.

Society without hierarchy

In Zo’é culture, equality is paramount. The tribe operates without designated leaders; decisions are made collectively, ensuring that every voice holds weight. While articulate individuals, known as ‘yü,’ may influence discussions on matters like marriage or community relocation, they do not possess authoritative power over others. This absence of hierarchy fosters a harmonious environment where cooperation prevails.

Co-existence of polygamy and polyandry

The Zo’é’s approach to marriage is notably distinct. Both men and women have the freedom to engage in multiple marital relationships, practicing polygamy and polyandry without societal judgment. It’s common for a woman with several daughters to marry multiple men, some of whom may later wed one of her daughters. This intricate web of relationships is accepted and integrated into their social fabric.

Daily life

The Zo’é are semi-nomadic, residing in large, open-sided thatched houses that accommodate multiple families. They are adept hunters and gatherers, with men excelling in hunting game like monkeys and peccaries, while women participate in gathering and raising captured animals as pets. Agriculture also plays a role, with gardens producing manioc, tubers, peppers, and bananas.

Challenges and preservation

Despite their isolation, the Zo’é have faced challenges due to external contact, including exposure to diseases and cultural disruptions.

Also Read: Tata Steel launches 20 electric vehicles for Odisha plant operations

The Zo’é tribe exemplifies a societal structure where equality and complex marital arrangements coexist harmoniously. Their unique way of life challenges conventional notions of leadership and marriage.

PNN

The custom of taking multiple wives, or polygyny, is well known. The opposite custom, the taking of two or more husbands or polyandry, is rather less well known.

The custom evolved in human cultures where resources, particularly land and food, were scarce, and/or where women were allowed to own property or ancestral titles of rank.

In pockets of India, Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet the custom of polyandry continued until relatively recently, particularly amongst the many minority peoples of the region. While the custom has now been banned in Tibet by Chinese authorities, in India the practice seems to be dying a natural death.

A family has a daughter. A young man wishes to enter the family, to live under its roof, and become the husband of the daughter. He consults with the parents, and if they arrive at an agreement in regard to the amount of property he is to turn over to them, he takes up his abode in the hut and becomes the husband of the daughter. It may be that there are other young men desirous of partaking of the same good fortune.

They are not at all deterred by the fact that the girl is already provided with a husband. They present themselves at the hut, make offers of certain property, and, unless the first husband has paid what is regarded in Tibet as a very large sum in order to secure the young woman as his exclusive possession, she becomes likewise the wife of these other claimants for her hand, and the whole family live together in the same hut and in the utmost harmony.

It rarely happens that a young man thinks so much of the girl he weds in this peculiar fashion as to be jealous of others who also desire to be her husband.

The children are always regarded as belonging to the woman, and the fathers lay no claims upon them. Polyandry is not established by law, but it is a custom which probably arose at some time when the female population was less numerous than the male, and it has been continued largely on account of the poverty of the people.

There are many women who are forced to marry up to 5 brothers in the same family. Each night they have to sleep with one person and at the end of the day, they do not even know who is the father of their child?

There are many weird customs in the world and the weirdest is from a small village in Dehradun province, North India, where a woman is forced to marry all the brothers of her husband and alternately love each person every night.

This custom originates from Mahabharat, where Princess Draupadi was allowed to get married to 5 siblings in a family. It is believed that it brings health and wealth.

Acording to this custom, women must “make love” alternatively one of her husbans for every night.

A young girl named Rajo Verma had got married to Guddu, 24 years old in 2009. One year after marrying her first husband Guddu , Rajo continued marrying other brother-in-laws, alternatively Baiju, 32 years old, Sant Ram, 28 years old, Gopal, 26 years old and her latest husband is youngest brother Dinesh, 19 years old.

Every night she must “have sex” with one of them. They even set schedule to “make love” to ensure their equality.

But this custom causes many serious results. One of them is that Rajo’s children never know exactly who is their father. However curious, people in Dehradun never take ADN tests because of both custom and poverty.