But the Tiwi share with most cultures the central notion that women embody the most important resource over which men compete. They share with other cultures that conflicts between men often center on competition for women. They share with other cultures that status is a major means by which men attract or acquire women as mates, and reciprocally, that success in acquiring mates bestows status. They share with many other cultures the stance that sex with another man’s wife is a crime against the husband, and that the guilty mate poacher warrants punishment.
