Marriage Transactions (Anthropology of Kinship)

Forbindelser gjennom bryst: Om melk, sosial tilknytning og passende ekteskapspartnere blant wolof-talende folk i Vest-Afrika” (“Connections through the breast: On milk, relatedness and appropriate spouses among Wolof-speakers in rural West-Africa")

by Tone Sommerfelt

Published in Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift (Norwegian Journal of Anthropology), Vol. 21 (2010), no. 1, pp. 32-45

This article explores relatedness, locally defined in terms of connections through the breast and breast milk, among... more This article explores relatedness, locally defined in terms of connections through the breast and breast milk, among ethnic Wolof on the north bank of the River Gambia. The mutually constitutive nature of materiality and sociality is underlined. The circulation of breast milk is investigated with reference to aspects of relational personhood and sociality. One aim is to avoid a representation of milk as merely a symbolic expression of bounded social groups, in which the latter is accredited ontological primacy. It is argued that the material flow of milk and sustenance connect with a social field of closeness and distance that, in turn, makes moral evaluations of appropriate and inappropriate spouses inherently flexible rather than categorical.
Key words: milk, kinship, marriage, morality, materiality

computer khatbas

by Mark Peterson

Sherine Ali Abu Hashish, first author

Marriage exchanges, seed exchanges, and the dynamics of manioc diversity

by Marc Delêtre

Marc Delêtre, Doyle B. McKey, and Trevor R. Hodkinson
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi:10.1073/pnas.1106259108. 2011

The conservation of crop genetic resources requires understanding the different variables—cultural, social, and... more The conservation of crop genetic resources requires understanding the different variables—cultural, social, and economic—that impinge on crop diversity. In small-scale farming systems, seed exchanges represent a key mechanism in the dynamics of crop genetic diversity, and analyzing the rules that structure social networks of seed exchange between farmer communities can help decipher patterns of crop genetic diversity. Using a combination of ethnobotanical and molecular genetic approaches, we investigated the relationships between regional patterns of manioc genetic diversity in Gabon and local networks of seed exchange. Spatially explicit Bayesian clustering methods showed that geographical discontinuities of manioc genetic diversity mirror major ethnolinguistic boundaries, with a southern matrilineal domain characterized by high levels of varietal diversity and a northern patrilineal domain characterized by low varietal diversity. Borrowing concepts from anthropology—kinship, bridewealth, and filiation—we analyzed the relationships between marriage exchanges and seed exchange networks in patrilineal and matrilineal societies. We demonstrate that, by defining marriage prohibitions, kinship systems structure social networks of exchange between farmer communities and influence the movement of seeds in metapopulations, shaping crop diversity at local and regional levels.

Two Houses and the Pain of Separation In Tamang Narratives From Highland Nepal

by Kathryn March

PÉREZ, M. “Estrategias de alianza y reproducción social en la aristocracia medieval leonesa: los Flaínez”, Mirabilia, 9, 2009.

by Mariel Perez

En el presente trabajo nos proponemos analizar las estrategias de alianza de la aristocracia altomedieval leonesa, con... more En el presente trabajo nos proponemos analizar las estrategias de alianza de la aristocracia altomedieval leonesa, con el objeto de poner de manifiesto la importante función que éstas desempeñaron en su reproducción como clase de poder. Focalizaremos el estudio en la parentela de los Flaínez, una de las familias aristocráticas más destacadas del reino leonés en los siglos X y XI.

Bride-Price Reconsidered [and Comments]

by Fadwa El Guindi

Kwandhula - Cultural Engagement and Marriage in Busoga and Buganda

by Stephen Kaduuli

Kwandhula or Kwanjula is an elaborate introduction ceremony of a husband to the wife's family, among the Basoga and... more Kwandhula or Kwanjula is an elaborate introduction ceremony of a husband to the wife's family, among the Basoga and Baganda, respectively, of Uganda. It is also considered to be a cultural or traditional marriage. Marriage plays many roles in these societies and it is considered to be a cardinal institution of social organization. It unites not just individuals but also families and even clans. The paper shows who the main actors are during the kwandhula ceremony. It looks at how, over time, exogenous factors have altered this age-old institution. It compares how kwandhula was in yesteryears and how it is today, bearing in mind the changing times.

The methodology is unstructured, qualitative and is an ethnographic insider's insight of what occurs during an introduction or marriage ceremony among the said societies. It is a narrative and interpretative discussion of this institution which has a lot of bearing on the family life of the said societies.

In conclusion, it states that although many external factors have changed kwandhula, it is still an important and respected ceremony which is still very much around.
Date posted: May 10, 2007 ; Last revised: May 22, 2007
Suggested Citation
Kaduuli, Stephen Charles, Kwandhula - Cultural Engagement and Marriage in Busoga and Buganda (October 2006). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=985246

Marriage with the Proper Stranger: Arranged Marriage in Metropolitan Japan.

by Kalman Applbaum

Ethnology, 34 (1):18-30. Also in: Classic Edition Sources: Anthropology, edited by Elvio Angeloni. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Islamic marriage requirements

by Ahmed Fazel Ebrahim

Opium, Power, People: Anthropological Understandings of an Opium Interdiction Project

by Kathleen Gillogly

Contemporary Drug Problems 35/Winter, 2008, pp. 679-715.

Opium interdiction projects have dominated Thai state interactions with northern upland ethnic minority peoples since... more Opium interdiction projects have dominated Thai state interactions with northern upland ethnic minority peoples since the 1970s. One of these projects, the Sam Muen Highland Development Project (SMHDP), had great success in ending opium production. This success emerged out of the participation of the most peripheral peoples in international drug markets, the producers. To understand why Lisu villagers cooperated with the Project, I examine how state power was realized through its practice in the village through the Project. Lisu had tactics and strategies available to them. They strategically adapted through household and kinship practices. They tactically cooperated through the use of Project discourse and the performance of cooperation. Participatory drug interdiction was not just a "new tyranny"; it opened up new political processes at the microlevel. However, Lisu villagers' tactics for regaining local power were constrained by the global processes of drug control.

The lion’s share. An experimental analysis of polygamy in Northern Nigeria.

by Alistair Munro

Co-authored with Bereket Kebede, Marcela Tarazona-Gomez and Arjan Verschoor


Keywords: Polygyny, Polygamy, Experiment, Household, Nigeria

Report No. : 10-27
Date : 2010.12

Using samples of polygamous and non-polygamous households from villages in rural areas south of Kano, Northern Nigeria... more Using samples of polygamous and non-polygamous households from villages in rural areas south of Kano, Northern Nigeria we test basic theories of household behaviour. Husbands and wives play two variants of a voluntary contributions game in which endowments are private knowledge, but contributions are public. In one variant, the common pool is split equally. In the other treatment the husband allocates the pool (and wives are forewarned of this). Most partners keep back at least half of their endowment from the common pool, but we find no evidence that polygynous households are less efficient than their monogamous counterparts. We also reject a strong form of Bergstrom’s model of polygyny in which all wives receive an equal allocation. In our case, senior wives often receive more from their husbands, no matter what their contribution. Thus the return to contributions is higher for senior wives compared to their junior counterparts. When they control the allocation, polygynous men receive a higher payoff than their monogamous counterparts. We speculate on the implications of this pattern of investment and reward for the sustainability of polygynous institutions.