"From time to time Weston's expedition [to the Goajira Indians of Columbia] was invited to purchase young girls at bargain prices, for three or four head of cattle, equivalent to about twenty-five or thirty dollars. The daughter of a poor man may be worth only two or three head of cattle, but if the parents are rich or of high rank, then her price is a hundred or even two hundred head of cattle. Apparently, the value of a woman among the Goajira depends not so much on her beauty or other accomplishments as on her social standing, which again depends on the number of cattle owned by her parents."
Paul Einzig Primitive Money (1948) p.187
