Factors that have affected Kinship system 1. 1 Lucy P. Mair, African Marriage and Social Change, in Survey of African Marriage and Family Life, Edited by Arthur Phillips, (London: Oxford University Press, 1953) pp.1 177. Religion: Africans now get identified with new groupings e.g. We do not sell brides in our society. 4. As such disputes over land ownership were rare, this is because:- i. They feel a strong bond towards each other because they are tied by kinship relationships to one another. Although among the Baganda, the nuclear family of the mother, father, and their children constitutes the smallest unit of the Baganda kinship system, the traditional family consists of several nuclear units held in association by a common father.9 Because the Baganda people are patrilineal, the household family also includes other relatives of the father such as younger unmarried or widowed sisters, aged parents, and children of the fathers clan sent to be brought up by him. Bell, Norman W., and Vogel, Ezra F. Answers - Modern science and technology - Western education - Influence from other religions - Rural-urban migration - Breakdown in traditional values - Western culture - Generation gap/specialists seen as outdated john3 answered the question on October 10, 2017 at 19:10 ..it is not until this ceremony is completed that the childs legitimacy is once and forever established.17, People gather at the clan chiefs house. Urbanization: Those who move away from home to towns in search of Jobs are drawn from their ancestral homes. Living with new parents means no particular change in status; the biological parents do not forget their off spring and are always present for any ceremonies involving their children.20, The third stage in Baganda childhood is the socialization of the child in readiness for adulthood. - Men are not allowed to go next to the delivery places. They include;- 1. The study of African societies has become an established area of scholarship, with sophisticated analyses that are far from earlier works . - The children born after his death were still referred to as his. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1958, 1967, 1975). Price, Thomas., A Short English-Nyanja Vocabulary. This report defines kinship care arrangements that occur without child welfare system involvement as private and those that occur with child welfare involvement as public. 7. - The departed relatives are kept alive through naming. Girls take care of the babies and fetch firewood. - Hardworking. Traditional African society. i. 8. Once somebody is married he got fully integrated to the society. Elizabeth Colson, Marriage and the Family among the Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia. - The naming of the child takes place some days after birth. vii. Boys herd goats, cows, and livestock. vi. iii. But however, after a few years of contact with white civilization and subsequent social change, the custom has gradually changed. He was a Lecturer and Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies of the University of Zambia from 1977 to 1990. Angering the living dead and the spirits e.g. - Some pieces of land are being regarded as public land. 2. - Children made marriage complete. Religious (invisible) causes of death They included: i. He is currently Assistant Professor of Sociology at Bridgewater College in Virginia. 3. .. 2. Kinship System in African Communities. A woman inherits her maternal grandmother or sisters. 4. There is no proper dosage of the herbs. 26 Audrey I. Richards, Bemba Marriage and Present Economic Conditions, The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers. For example, all weapons and iron implements are removed from the house of an expectant mother. vi. 8. vi. As an American Indian insider researcher, I intend to recover the traditional Cheyenne kinship system, relying on archives collected from the Smithsonian Institute (National . Family. - Diviners are people who are believed to have the ability to reveal hidden things by use of magical powers Role of mediums and diviners in the societies i. Mediums link the living, spirits and the ancestors. Furthermore, the woman will bear children and thus enrich her husband and the wider circle of relatives from both sides. A Modern Introduction to The Family, Glencoe: The Free Press, 1960. In the African understanding, it is believed that there is no natural death. Because of this wide spectrum, it is not possible to explore all aspects of the traditional African family. iii. The midwives perform the following:- 1. Young men are taught to develop self-love and love for the community it provides a sense of belonging. This manuscript was written for a book, which was never published, which was to be edited by Dr. Elizabeth Brooks who was a lecturer at the University of Zambia. 9 J.A. iii. - Purification rites are performed for the mother and the child to make the child pure. The literature on the subject is truly as vast and reflects traditional patterns that are as diverse as the variations of the physical looks of the people found on the continent. Impact of Modernism on Family. They can also reveal-hidden information e.g. Importance of Naming 1. Introduction to Kinship. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that the study of kinship is the study of what humans do with these basic facts of life - mating, gestation, parenthood, socialization, siblingship etc. iii. (2) Active leisure: This involves the use of the physical energy. 2. They do not have good food or accommodation. 2. - Honesty. Yet in some communities when a woman is pregnant she is not allowed to talk to her husband directly. There are strict rules and taboos governing sex. A mock wrestling sometimes would be organized between the boy and the girl. Religious leaders such as bishop and pastor have replaced their duties. Prayers also connect the living and the dead. Information on traditional marriage customs among both patrilineal and matrilineal peoples of Zambia is available in Yizenge A. Chondoka, Traditional Marriages in Zambia: A Study in Cultural History, (Ndola: Mission Press, 1988). Although polygamy is the act of an individual being married to more than one spouse at the same time, the more commonly practiced in Africa is polygyny .the legal marriage of one man to two or more women concurrently is permitted.4 This author argues that because of its perversity, the presence and absence of polygyny was a significant determinant and indicator of the nature of virtually every African social group; whether tribe, clan, or extended family, whether matrilineality or patrilineality was practiced, bride price existed, and how children were raised. Sometimes people mistake that they are witch doctors especially Christians. Lucy P. Mair, African Marriage and Social Change, in Survey of African Marriage and Family Life. It also gives them time to find out the background of the partners e.g. 7 Stuart Queen, Robert W. Habenstein, and John B. Adams, The Polygynous Baganda Family, in The Family in Various Cultures, (New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1961) Ch. 5. N.S.S.F. That is one cannot escape it 2 It brings impurity to the family and thus several rites are observed after death 3 It deprives the family and the community of the individual. Some have even gone as far as saying that for the African husband nothing else matters so long as he impregnates his wife every few years.42 In the study of the Baganda traditional family cited earlier, the author describes how children are raised among the Baganda. The naming of a child is therefore an important occasion, which is often marked with ceremonies. They are consulted in cases where western medicine has failed. This quote, for example, shows that polygamy was practiced among the Pondo but the dominant form of traditional marriage and the family was monogamous. vi. Human society is unique, he argues, in that we are "working with the same raw material as exists in the animal world, but [we] can conceptualize and categorize it to Depending on the region and the people, these. 7. - Protection charms are tied around the neck or the waist of the child. 6. It was used to bury the dead, the spirits were believed to dwell on land or below the ground. among the Luos the man is buried at the right and woman is buried the left. Today the dead can be buried in cemeteries in towns. 2. It was written in 1988. As such children at an early age learn that their father has little authority or responsibility for them. Culture and values are adaptive .. DEATH RITES When a person dies, members of the family gather at the home of the deceased and leave their everyday commitments for a while. Religion, in the African indigenous context, permeates all departments of life. It symbolizes the union between the living and the dead. - They give instructions to the younger generation on their roles and duties. New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1961. iv. 8. 3. 6 It separates one from the loved ones. Mothers and children would die at childbirth to cases where there is no skilled mid-wife. Barnes, Marriage in a Changing Society: a Study in Structural Change among the Fort Jameson Ngoni, The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1951, 1970). However, both the organization of the family unit, marriage, decent systems and the structure of kinship relations vary from society to society and through time (Ingiabuna et al. People nowadays migrate and buy lands in far places. Prophets or priests also have political role e.g. Boys and girls are not allowed to mix freely unless under supervision. Such occasions include beer drinking, wrestling, playing football, singing and dancing etc. There is socialization to raise boys and girls to become responsible and acceptable adults of the village, community, and ultimately society. They could also clean newly born baby. There is a lot of secrecy surrounding the knowledge of herbs. People who have gone to school see the aged as old fashioned (generation gap) 6. Researchers have examined the effects of matrilineal kinship systems for women's preferences, including preference for competition, altruism, risk, and political participation. Importance of seclusion period 1. Wealth was seen in terms of: 1. 3. Before initiation, one is viewed as a child no matter the age. African societies are complex and diverse, requiring an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate and understand the continent's economic, political, social, and cultural institutions and change. 6. food, beer drinking. The education provided is a lifelong process. The lineage is the effective kinship unit among the Bemba around which marriage and the organization of family life. revolves.31 The matrilineal household and descent determine or influence two major social activities. - Attending discos and nightclubs. iv. Most of the time they suffer from old age diseases. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1969) p.33 Lucy P. Mair, African Marriage and Social Change, in Survey of African Marriage and Family Life, Edited by Arthur Phillips, (London: Oxford University Press, 1953). People nowadays try to show their loyalty to state and not the society. To give the mother time to recover the lost energy. The San society in general and the kinship system in particular are very different from contemporary American society. Land ownership: The ancestral land is communally owned and nobody is allowed to sell it. - People do not have a lot of attachment to land, as there are other means of survival. Thorne, Barrie., and Yalom, Marilyn., (Eds.) Rituals associated with death vary from one community to another. Permissiveness in the society has eroded . Thesis. They are referred to as the Eskimo, Hawaiian, Sudanese, Omaha, Crow, and Iroquois systems. 2. 28-39. Anything described in these terms must inherently be bad, primitive and, therefore, undesirable.41, Typical of this Eurocentric characterization of the traditional African family is often not only the contention that there cannot be genuine love in a polygamous marriages but that even monogamous ones lack genuine love. Therefore, the new families tend to generally live near or with the husbands parents. Edited by G.A. Diviners and mediums iii. In fact Chondoka finds the use of the terms dowry, bride price to refer to particularly traditional Zambian marriages to be serious misnomers introduced by European missionaries and colonialists in Africa. Children could be named after their dead relatives. The land belonged to the whole community. But they are terminologically differentiated from parallel cousins and from sisters. Diviners also have religious functions and perform duties of priests such as offering of sacrifice. The traditional Cheyenne kinship system is certainly an "indigenous society" where the roles and responsibilities of both parents created and sustained the family unit. There are physical (visible) causes of death and religious (invisible) causes. There is no bride price in our society. Herbalists find it difficult to carry out research due to financial constraints. In some communities, a pregnant women returns to her parents when the time for giving birth draws near. v. The introduction of formal education, which has promoted new loyalties based on new social status, academic and professional qualification. factors. - They counsel and guide the youth on matters of sex and marriage Why guiding and counseling was done by elders 1. Lastly, this author will argue that the Eurocentric nature of the descriptions and characterization of the traditional African family patterns by earlier scholars has tended to distort and obscure many of the strengths of the African traditional family. Third, certain distinguishing personal names. Changing attitudes to birth and naming 1. Schapera, Isaac., Married Life in an African Tribe. Many of the rituals that were performed to the mother and the child are today seen as unnecessary. 7. Most social scientists agree that kinship is based on two broad areas: birth and marriage; others say a third category of kinship involves social ties. During seclusion there is sex education, which is meant for girls and boys for marriage. v. It brings people together; relatives and friends co me together hence strengthening kinship ties. LeVine, R.A., Patterns of Personality in Africa, in Responses to Change: Society, Culture and Personality. [.] v. Taking oaths falsely. 6. 29 Audrey I. Richards, Bemba Marriage and Present Economic Conditions, The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1969) p.30. 4. This chapter only focussed on the matrilineal and polygynous patrilineal African traditional family patterns because they seem representative of the broad patterns that exists on the continent. Traditional kinship structures remain important in many First Nations communities today. - Kinship ties also provide security to all concerned. 2. - Some people acquire wealth through dishonest means e.g. Importance of marriage - Marriage is for the continuity of the society and is an institution that is ordained by God. There are also accidental deaths e.g. They believe iron implements attract lightning. Social change in Africa as everywhere else is ubiquitous. Bridgewater, VA 22812 Actual birth - During birth there are certain rituals that are performed to introduce the chills to the immediate and extended members of the family. There are three main types of kinship: lineal, collateral, and affinal. Ch. v. They are also consulted in terms of crisis e.g. h. Among the Luos animals are driven over the graveside, people run in the homestead with spears. 7. Follow. They are free most of them and can get time for the younger generation. The male head has control over children produced by the children of the group. They heal various diseases using herbs. 2. 5. How the widows and orphans are supported - Church members offer them guidance and counseling (giving them hope) - They are prayed for. - This special treatment starts before and continues after childbirth. viii. The developments in science and technology. Among the Chewa of Eastern Zambia, the custom of man living with his wifes parents temporarily or permanently was known as Ukamwini.23. Clitoridectomy Female circumcision. During the period earlier than 1940s, marriages remained completely matrilocal during the couples entire life. This chapter will briefly explore traditional African family patterns describing the patrilineal and matrilineal families. Marriage has been commercialized - many people demand higher payment for their daughter. Lecture: Nexus kinship and blood has a taste if age-old ideologies. vii. 5. They advise the expectant mother on how to take care of herself. Because of this, extended families among the Bemba are not really as large as those found, especially among patriarchal polygynous traditional families in other tribes be it in Southern, Eastern, or West Africa.28 Polygamy is relatively speaking uncommon in this area and the institution is not an essential part of the Bemba family and economic life as it is among so many Bantu peoples.29, The Bembas kinship is based on descent in the matrilineal line. This is sexual differentiation in socialization in which girls will become acceptable mothers and wives and boys husbands and fathers. In male-speaking terms, fathers sisters daughters (cross-cousins) are called cousins. 1. - Presents are given to the baby and mother as a sign of good will. Dressing The dress code differed from one community to another in the traditional African setup. 2 Traditional foster care arrangements are referred to as non-kin foster care. This was because: - i. Africans believe that land was given to them by God. Most of these ceremonies are religious. (New York: The Free Press, 1963.) MEDIUMS AND DIVINERS - Mediums are people through which ancestors and spirits communicate with the living. , 1960 search of Jobs are drawn from their ancestral homes they included: i the lineage is the kinship! Symbolizes the union between the boy and the kinship system in particular are very different from contemporary American society being... Subsequent social change, in Survey of African Marriage and the Family among the of... 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Have religious functions and perform duties of priests such as bishop and pastor have their. As his western medicine has failed was done by elders 1 by children. Medicine has failed an expectant mother on how to take care of the.! Also have religious functions and perform duties of priests such as offering of.... For girls and boys husbands and fathers and professional qualification and buy lands in far places - are! Mock wrestling sometimes would be organized between the living and the child today! Have a lot of secrecy surrounding the knowledge of herbs in Virginia is! In terms of crisis e.g seen as unnecessary live near or with the husbands parents ( Eds ). Contemporary American society were rare, this is sexual differentiation in socialization in which girls will become acceptable mothers children! Family among the Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia loyalty to state and not the society buried...
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