\u2018On a nos mots \ue0 dire\u2019. Kanak women\u2019s experience of bridewealth in Lifou

L'articolo \ue8 incentrato sullla bridewealth contestualizzata all'interno delle pratiche e rituali che costituscono l'itinerario che si conclude col matrimonio nella societ\ue0 kanak di Lifou. L'articolo si inserisce nel dibattito contemporaneo sul significato della ricchezza della sposa nella regione e sulla necessit\ue0 di nominare queste pratiche rimanendo aderenti ai modi e espressioni locali.. Bridewealth in Lifou cannot be discussed on its own; rather it should be considered within the plurality of ceremonial acts which are needed to legitimize a marriage as customary. What do these transactions mean? Where does women\u2019s agency lie? Through a longitudinal analysis of ethnographic materials from my fieldwork in Lifou, Loyalty Islands, I consider how Kanak women are engaged in and perceive these ceremonial and cultural processes through a declared women\u2019s perspective that highlights their ability to make autonomous choices in an open ended historical context. I argue that it is a case of \u2018positive agency\u2019. I emphasize that local categories (june hmala and wenehleng) which define specific moments in this process can be subsumed under the anthropological term \u2018bridewealth\u2019. Further, I examine the meaning of money in bridewealth and the fact that the monetary contribution keeps increasing, raising local concerns about the need to regulate the amount circulating in marriage exchanges and its dispersion. Furthermore in Lifou there is no indication that the assembling of the bridewealth by the grooms implies a commoditization and (later) exploitation of women