African Systems of Kinship and Marriage
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Routledge Revivals African Systems of Kinship and Marriage First published in 1950 (this edition in 1987), this book is one of the most wide-ranging and respected surveys on kinship and marriage in African social life. In his introduction, Radcliff-Brown provides a masterly analysis of the main features of African kinship systems and the theoretical problems arising from the study of them. The con- tributions range from examinations of kinship systems among the Swazi, the Tswana, the Zulu, the Nuer, and the Ashanti, to double descent among the Yakö and dual descent in the Nuba groups of the Sudan. The contributors themselves are still viewed as giants in their field: Evans-Pritchard, Meyer Fortes, Max Gluckman, Hilda Kuper, Naderl, A. I. Richards, Schapera and Monica Wilson. This page intentionally left blank African Systems of Kinship and Marriage Edited by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown and Daryll Forde First published in 1950, this edition in 1987 by KPI Limited in association with the International African Institute This edition first published in 2015 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1950, 1987 International African Institute All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact. Due to restrictions of reproduction, the figure entitled Yakwae Cattle Camp (originally a fold out diagram between pages 376 – 377) is not included with this book. If you would like a copy of it, please go to: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/ 9781138926158/ A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 87146735 ISBN 13: 978-1-138-92615-8 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-1-315-68341-6 (ebk) AFRICAN SYSTEMS OF KINSHIP AND MARRIAGE This page intentionally left blank AFRICAN SYSTEMS OF KINSHIP AND MARRIAGE E D IT E D B Y A.R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN AND DARYLL FORDE LONDON and NEW YORK IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN INSTITUTE First published in 1950. This edition published in 1987 by KP1 Limited 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Distributed by Routledge & Kegan Paul Associated Book Publishers (UK) Ltd. 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Methuen Inc., Routledge & Kegan Paul 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001, USA Printed in Great Britain by Robert Hartnoll Ltd., Bodmin, Cornwall © This edition International African Institute 1987 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism. ISBN 0-7103-0234-7 PREFACE inship looms large among peoples who obtain their livelihood in small groups with simple tools. Among such peoples dif ferences of aptitude and special training and duties do not, as Kin more complex societies, overwhelm the bonds between those who are born together and intermarry. The local groups within which personal relations are developed in work, rite, and recreation are at the same time bodies of relatives who have ancestors in common and among whom a complex web of ties links every person with others throughout the community. The way in which comprehensive obliga tions of kinship direct the activities and relations which, in our society, are segregated out as more specifically political, economic, and religious is a commonplace of social anthropology. But the detailed operation of particular factors, their relative weight in different circumstances, the principles under which these can be subsumed, and the real character and role of the many patterns of kinship organization that result are less clearly grasped. These are, however, fundamental questions in a scientific sociology. They are also of immediate practical urgency when peoples who have lived in a largely kinbound society are reacting to pressures and incentives from another social world. For those attempt ing to achieve a smooth transition, and to elicit the energies and loyalties of such peoples, the reason for many intangible obstacles and discords lies in unintended and often avoidable disharmony between the indi genous and the invading social values. The concomitant of culture contact is social strain. The International African Institute has sought to promote research in the social anthro pology of Africa in the belief that more adequate resources, intellectual and financial, should be devoted to such studies if scientific knowledge is to advance on a scale commensurate with the social problems to which it should be applied. In an earlier volume on African Political Systems some of the results of researches into the political systems of African peoples by Fellows and others associated with the Institute were brought together. The wide and continuing demand for this study, which has afforded insight into the situations with which every student, educator, and administrator has to deal, has encouraged an attempt to provide a similar conspectus on an equally fundamental aspect of the indigenous social life of African peoples. The present volume consists of an Intro duction, in wrhich the general principles underlying African systems of kinship and marriage are reviewed in the light of our present knowledge, and a series of detailed studies by authors who have made intensive field investigations of the particular social systems they analyse. Each presen ts the essential characteristics of one or more varieties of African patterns of kinship. VI PREFACE The purpose of the volume is to present a general view of the nature and implications of kinship in Africa. It cannot claim to be formally comprehensive, for our knowledge is patchy and there are many studies — one on the Galla-speaking peoples of north-east Africa might be instanced— that remain to be carried out. But much valuable work in this field has appeared and is appearing elsewhere and it will become easier to remedy the more serious omissions from other sources in the future. Meanwhile, save for the peoples of the smallest scale of social organization, the Bushmen and Negritos, and the kinship pattern among the Amhara of the Ethiopian Kingdom, for none of which studies were available, the chief varieties of kinship organization occurring in trans- Saharan Africa are illustrated and considered. Their significance is dis cussed by the several authors to whom we express our thanks for their ready co-operation in the preparation of this volume. January 1950 A. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN DARYLL FORDE CONTENTS P R E F A C E . ............................................................ v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ..... ix INTRODUCTION. B y a . r. radcliffe -brown, Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology , Oxford University . i Importance of scientific study of kinship— An analytical as opposed to an historical approach— Definition of kinship— Kinship relations exhibited in social behaviour— Structural principles of kinship systems illustrated in the Teutonic and the Masai systems— The unilineal principle— Classificatory terminology— The generation principle— Rank in social relations— Omaha classificatory termino logy— Principle of lineage unity expressed in terminology— Privileged behaviour— Clans and lineages— Marriage customs— Early English marriage— Modern English and American conceptions of marriage— African marriage: marriage payments, marriage as a developing pro cess— Modification of kinship relations by marriage— Rights of husband over wife and children— Marriage as an alliance between two groups— ‘Mother-in-law avoidance’— ‘Joking relationships’— Regula tions concerning marriage between relatives— Prohibited and pre ferential marriages— Exoganiy— Relation between rules of marriage and kinship structure— Incest, parricide, and witchcraft— Mother- right and father-right— The social functions of kinship systems. KINSHIP AMONG THE SWAZI. B y Hilda kuper, Lecturer in Social Anthropology in the University of the Witwatersrand . 86 The clan— The family unit— The homestead— Basic behaviour patterns: husband and wife; parent and child; siblings— Maternal and paternal kin: paternal aunt and maternal uncle; cousins; grand parents— Affines: parents-in-law; sisters- and brothers-in-law; the groups— Rank and kinship. NYAKYUSA KINSHIP. B y monica wilson, Professor of Anthro pology , Rhodes College , Grahamstown . h i Introductory— Kinship groups— Kinship and locality— Bonds of kinship and affinity— Cattle and kinship relations— Cattle and mar riage— Dissolution of marriage— Permanence of tie created by marriage— Religious interdependence of relatives— Father-in-law avoidance— Extensions of kinship behaviour— Kinship and political organization— General principles— Maintenance of kinship and marriage relationships— Relationship terms. KINSHIP AND MARRIAGE AMONG THE TSWANA. B y i. schapera , Professor of Social Anthropology , University of Cape Town ........ 140 The social setting— The kinship system— Kinship terminology— Prohibited and preferential mating— Marriage regulations— Secondary