Alliance through the circulation of men: a system of name-assigned residence

In many societies, names bestowed by kin denote membership in descent groups and thus, indexically, denote rights and statuses that are tied to descent. In such societies, names trace the role of descent in shaping social institutions; for example, marriage and ritual exchange. But, as Maybury-Lewis (1984:6-7) has observed, rights and statuses determined by names can also stand in contrast to those determined by descent group membership. When this occurs, naming does more than simply identify individuals; receipt of names transforms individuals into persons whose social identities augment identities derived from descent alone. This article discusses a naming system in which the idiom of descent is preserved but detached from substance, allowing descent-based rights and statuses to be bestowed upon members of other patrilines through naming. Among the Urat, veridical descent is clearly understood. Through name bestowal, however, all its sociological markers become available for use as tokens of exchange. Since naming typically determines residence, this exchange allows the naming system to emulate a marriage system in important functions, notably the formation of alliances between localities.