However, it was not just in respect of the structure of the legal system that Tshidi reflected on setswana and sekgoa, tiro and bereka, or used the categories to capture the transformations of their world. These terms also ordered the content of public discourse. An especially notable instance involved the construction of marriage. As we said earlier (p. 197), a union here was held to be a "state of becoming," a relationship which matured over many years and through many social exchanges. Tshidi were quick to note that migrant labor disrupted this process, and that migrants often took partners while away. As a result, the kgotla was presented with innumerable cases of neglect by females and frequently had to establish the status of unions. Most commonly, it had to decide whether the woman was really "a wife" of the male defen- dant, or had just been a casual partner with little further claim on him. The ambiguities sur- rounding the marriage process had always allowed for such arguments, but the impact of wage- labor was to increase their incidence to epidemic proportions.