The Yuma Indians of southeastern California exhibited in-law avoidance in the form of minimal joking between a man and his mother-in-law and infrequent positive emotional expressions, including absence of hugging, kissing, or exhibition of good feeling (Bee, 1963). A somewhat different way of avoiding contact with in-laws occurs among certain rural groups in Thailand (Tambiah, 1969). Here, newly married couples lived with the wife’s parents, and a rigid arrangement of living circumstances regulated contact between a man and his mother-in-law. For example, a son-in-law was not allowed to enter the dwelling through the doorway of his parents-in-law; once in the dwelling he was forbidden to enter their sleeping area. The son-in-law also slept in a remote corner, with his wife and father-in-law separating him from his mother-inlaw.