Edited by G.A. Christianity: Christianity has weakened African Kinship ties by introducing new ties by the Christian family. - In some communities it would last for several days. In some instances a go between would be used to identify a suitable partner. Edited by Arthur Phillips, (London: Oxford University Press, 1953) p.1, 10 Stuart Queen, Robert W. Habenstein, and John B. Adams, The Polygynous Baganda Family, in The Family in Various Cultures. Marriage is no longer a must and many people decide not to marry. 2 William J. The study of African societies has become an established area of scholarship, with sophisticated analyses that are far from earlier works . Importance of courtship 1. - Attending discos and nightclubs. DEATH Death is the last rite in ones life and unlike other rites like initiation, naming. Grandmothers teach girls their roles and grandfathers maintain law and order .Young unmarried men provide security in form of warriors while boys look after the animals. Changing attitudes towards marriage 1. 10. Ngulube, Naboth M. J., Some Aspects of Growing Up in Zambia, Lusaka: Nalinga Consultancy/Sol-Consult A/S Limited, 1989. f. The grave is dug in a special place e.g. Mair, Lucy P., African Marriage and Social Change, in Survey of African Marriage and Family Life. In the late and early 19th century, a detailed study conducted among the Baganda found that, Polygyny, the type of marriage in which the husband has plural wives, is not only the preferred but the dominant form of marriage for the Baganda.8 Commoners had two or three, chiefs had dozens, and the Kings had hundreds of wives. These Anglo-Saxon or Eurocentric descriptions do not help in the fair and accurate perception of the traditional African family. Goldthorpe, J.E., The Sociology of the Third World: Disparity and Development. - Children made marriage complete. Naming ceremonies also bring unity among the people whenever a new child is born, members of extended family would come to celebrate together. - They are many types of the wedding ceremonies. - They help the priests to performing certain rituals such as sacrifices. - Wife inheritance ensured that the late mans family would not suffer. 41 Molefi Kete Asante, Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change. 2. Diviners also have religious functions and perform duties of priests such as offering of sacrifice. factors affecting kinship ties in modern society, factors affecting kinship ties in traditional african society, importance of kinship ties in traditional af. - They are given financial assistance. Problems that the elderly face today 1. Overall, there are two forms of social groups that from the basis of Bemba marriage and traditional family. - They negotiate for peace in time of war with another community. In fact cases where the father-in-law has to issue orders are perhaps such a minority that it is ironical that they are used to characterize the whole social interaction. Department of Sociology - People write wills to share or decide who should inherit their property. The naming ceremony is very important early in the childs life. Significance of dowry payment The custom of paying personal gifts to the brides people is practiced all over Africa sometimes referred to as Bride wealth or Bride price. giving the expectant mother certain herbs. 4 It disrupts normal human activities. Mbiri Ya Achewa, 195? First, in succession and inheritance the man inherits his dead grandfather, maternal uncle, or brother. In addition, the women who have got gainful jobs seek more freedom in many aspects. These are many. viii. What was the structure of the polygynous family? They also have the ability to stop rain. They are regarded as honest. Patterns of Personality in Africa, in Responses to Change: Society, Culture and Personality. To protect the child from evil eyes. 2. 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. - In some communities, marriage is not recognized without children. But rather the matrilocal extended family comprised of a man and his wife, their married daughters, son-in-laws, and their children. - Kinship helps to care for the less fortunate members of the society e.g. 5. It was a signed to individuals by the elders. Economic hardships that has been due to introduction of money economy. ii. Land was also a source of medicine in the form of herbs and minerals. Would you say in the Western marriage ritual of the priest leading on the saying of vowes, that the priest orders the groom to now kiss the bride, or put the ring on the brides finger, or ordered to be married for that matter? (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1958, 1967, 1975). It starts at birth and continues through to death. The gifts also act as security in case the marriage breaks then the gifts could be returned. - Respect. Second, social support is usually sought from the matrilineal line or descent group. 11 This study was conducted in the late 1800s when inter-tribal warfare and capturing of slaves from the wars was still very common. The African notion of "family," by contrast, typically refers to the extended family system. We do not sell brides in our society. Importance of Naming 1. i. One-parent families headed by a woman for any reason are much poorer ($30,296 in 2008 median annual income) than those headed by a man ($44,358). Matrilineality is the major influence in what children learn and come to accept about their society. iv. Changes that have affected land ownership - Today its a requirement by the government that one must possess a land title deed. Today marriage is for companionship and it is considered to be complete even if there are no children. Characteristics of African community 1. They believe iron implements attract lightning. The man who is the heir to the widow has the additional family responsibility of adopting the widows family. 7 Nobody knows what happens after life on earth here. It is also a sign of acceptance of the children into the new family. - Many people have moved and have settled in foreign lands, which are not their ancestral lands. - They could also observe the weather conduction and interpret the movement of clouds and wind. v. The land was believed to belong to the ancestors and nobody was allowed to sell or lease it out without the consent of the other members of the family. It is also a way of showing respect to God for the gift of the children. vi. This background is essential to any application of Christian spirituality in Africa. They at times suffer from loneliness and psychological problems How the aged are taken care of today 1. - A lot of bleeding can lead to the death of an individual. This is brought by the following factors:- 1. 4. - Kinship helps to prevent the spread of hereditary diseases. The kin group is also a source of emotional and spiritual belonging. During seclusion there is sex education, which is meant for girls and boys for marriage. 29 Audrey I. Richards, Bemba Marriage and Present Economic Conditions, The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1969) p.30. There is no proper dosage of the herbs. The traditional healers are still important today especially to those who had let down by medicine prescribed by doctors. 25 This book is written in Chewa indigenous Central African language. The naming of a child is therefore an important occasion, which is often marked with ceremonies. The Plan of Action also asserts that "for the full and harmonious development of their personality, children should grow up in a famil environmenty in a,n atmosphere of happiness lov, ane d understanding". iii. Changing attitudes to birth and naming 1. According to Mair, .the polygynous joint family, consisting of a man, his wives, and their children, is the ideal for most Africans.5 Studies conducted from the 1930s to 1950s indicate that polygyny was common virtually in all regions of Africa.6, In spite of the perversity of polygyny, there was evidence that it was on the decline. - Gambling. 7. - After the cutting of the skin, the initiates are put in special huts for a period of time. The continuance of Aboriginal society is dependent on keeping Aboriginal families strong and healthy both physically and culturally. To give the mother time to recover the lost energy. - Marriage extended relationship and therefore enlarged kinship ties. MARRIAGE This is the third rite that an individual is expected to go through in life. - Rainmakers are special people who have the ability to make rain. T/F: Through slavery, forced separation of spouses, siblings, and parents from children led to a more expansive definition of kinship, and thus an extended family model took root. in women. For example honesty is expected in marriage. 2. Changing Family Patterns: Sub-Saharan Africa, in World Revolution and Family Patterns. iv. These include birth, initiation, marriage and death. (New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1961) p.68. 2. N.S.S.F. Price, Thomas., A Short English-Nyanja Vocabulary. First, there is the local unit of matrilocal marriage .. consisting of a man, his wife, his married daughters and their husbands and children,34 Second, the matrilineal descent group which consists of maternal relatives and ancestors traced back to several generations. 8 It brings poverty to the family involved as sometimes it takes the bread winner 9 At times it brings misunderstanding in the community when the cause of death is blamed on someone or some people. iv. Importance of marriage - Marriage is for the continuity of the society and is an institution that is ordained by God. 3. Removal of teeth. Lucy P. Mair, African Marriage and Social Change, in Survey of African Marriage and Family Life. How the of rites passage inculcate moral values In the traditional African communities, people learn the moral values through every days activities and through education provided. v. In some cases if a man is married and wants another wife his first or other wives would be involved in making the proposal. -The spirit of sharing. 3. - Taking of dangerous drugs. - Purification rites are performed for the mother and the child to make the child pure. Girls brought wealth in form of cattle to marriage. People like politicians and students consult medicine men to succeed in the careers. First, two animal totems from one of which the clan derives its name. The mother may hug or caress the child and comfort it when hurt or in distress. - People tend to be individualized. Kinship connections are in turn based on two categories of bonds: those created by marriage and those that result from descent , which is socially recognized links between ancestors and descendants. Children among the matrilineal peoples are brought up in a similar traditional extended family village social environment. There are counselors that give the aged hope and love. Some of the celebrations like beer drinking are slowly dying out. However, children are never kissed kissing is not known to the Baganda and the close intimacy of the mother-child relationship as found in America, for example, is not present. Politics: New political systems and forms of government have changed the traditional community. (Buffalo: Amulefi Publishing Company, 1980). 3. 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. 8. Lous Wirth also believed that the city is not conducive to the traditional type of family life. Large tracts of land 4 Large herds of cattle. Through dreams and vision v. Through observation and practice MEDICINE MEN They have the knowledge of healing certain diseases in the community. The children learn the customs, beliefs, and culture pertaining to the social roles of being a woman, mother, and wife for girls; and a man, father, and husband for boys. - The children born after his death were still referred to as his. The degree of relatedness of carer to the child, socio-economic status of fostering households, gender and age were identified as factors contributing to the well-being of children in kinship care. 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. - Patriotism. Young men are taught to be honest in all their undertakings. While the basic functions of the family remain the same all over the world, traditional African families have undergone significant transformations attributed to an interplay of factors, including Christianity, industrialization, educational expansion, population growth, monetization of the economy, migration, civilization, and now globalization. Dowry is important in that:- 1. ELDERS They are people who are elderly in society. Lecture: Nexus kinship and blood has a taste if age-old ideologies. Edited by G.A. Edited by G.A. iv. Richards, Audrey I., Bemba Marriage and Present Economic Conditions, The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1969. In the western culture, marriage results in permanent bonds between the couple, with centrally assigned sexual rights among the couple and parenthood responsibility. This explains why the family household included servants, female slaves, and their children. Kinship is reckoned through blood and betrothal (engagement and marriage). A Bemba belongs to his mothers clan (umukoa), a group of relatives more or less distantly connected, who reckon descent from real or fictitious common ancestries, use a common totem name, and a series of praise titles, recite a common legend of origin and accept certain joint obligations.30. In the traditional African Community, marriage was considered incomplete without children. Religion, in the African indigenous context, permeates all departments of life. - They ensure the values and culture of the community is observed. But they are terminologically differentiated from parallel cousins and from sisters. the Agikuyu the ancestors are Mumbi and Gikuyu were created by Ngai. This review finds that parental care remains the best care setting and should be highly encouraged within African society. And this, together with neolocality, makes it nearly impossible to use kinship in structuring our social order. 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. According to Dziro and Mhlanga (2018), urbanization, HIV/AIDS, and poverty in Africa are all factors that stifle the effectiveness of informal kinship approaches to proper childcare and. The major reason cited is that with increasing modern influences, marrying more than one wife became an economic burden. children born out of wed-lock are killed or abandoned. This is sexual differentiation in socialization in which girls will become acceptable mothers and wives and boys husbands and fathers. 7. - Playing football - Wresting - Beer drinking - Wedding ceremonies - Riddles - Folktales - Tongue twisters Today several changes have affected leisure activities. In difficult times such as during famine, those who have share what they have with their relatives. iv. The subject of traditional family patterns in Africa is so broad that it cannot be adequately addressed in one chapter. 6. It offers a general survey of the geographical environments they inhabited; their settlements, social structures and economies; and their religions and cultures. Reviews the biological and sociological constants of kinship; Previews the topicsto be covered in marriage, family and larger kinship units. They also perform light duties for relatives. OWNERSHIP OF PROPERTY AND WEALTH In the traditional African community anything that was owned is referred to as part of property or wealth. Babbie, Earl R., Sociology: An Introduction. a child born after a long period of childless marriage is called Ogwedhi among the Luo. They can foretell the future e.g. They give information concerning cause, nature and treatment of diseases. Impact of Modernism on Family. They are people who claim a common ancestry and are related by blood. Those who are related by blood include - Brothers - Sisters - Aunts - Uncles - Parents - Cousins - Grandparents By marriage include Wife/ husband Others are referred to as in-laws - Kinship also includes all the living and any given locality. (New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1961)p.76. A person's position in the kinship system establishes their relationship to others and to the universe, prescribing their responsibilities towards other people, the land and natural resources. These relationships which are described in this way are rituals of respect between a son-in-law and his mother-in-law, a daughter-in-law and her father-in-law. What is significant about the various descriptions of the traditional African family is that they are from back in the period before the 1940s and in case of the Baganda from the late 1800s. Third, certain distinguishing personal names. 2003). Circumcision of the girls is a practice that has been widely condemned for health reasons. Many of the rituals that were performed to the mother and the child are today seen as unnecessary. -Responsibility. 6. Traditional African society. 3 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) p.1. However, the role of these traditional religious leaders has been greatly affected by influence of Christianity, western culture and formal education. - An orphan is a child whose both parents are dead. Education of children has been left to teachers. iii. Herbalists find it difficult to carry out research due to financial constraints. The Family; Its Structures and Functions. Same ancestry: People of a particular community believe that they have the same origin e.g. They could also clean newly born baby. A mans legal entitlements and rights of inheritance are on his mothers side. Second, an identifying drum beat used at ceremonies. There is socialization to raise boys and girls to become responsible and acceptable adults of the village, community, and ultimately society. 2. - Wife inheritance has become risky due to HIV/AIDS. - Misuse of sex. 1. - The wife or orphans sometimes get mistreated. They could also give aid to increase productivity e.g. They are important because they have a lot of experience. 1. Other names may also refer to the characteristics of the mothers pregnancy or the nature of delivery e.g. Western Culture: Has provided the spirit of individualization. 5. Each community has a distinct political and social organization. There is no bride price in our society. Responsibility of elders: - They help in the settlement of disputes. Indeed this sense of kinship binds together the entire life of the "tribe . Severing the ties of kinship is among the body sins and it is among the major sins. They are not supposed to take part in heavy duties or carry heavy loads. But typically news, information, and gossip flow readily through the network, with some individuals acting as "kin . 8. Boys will live with the brothers of their father and until marriage, girls live in the home of a married elder brother or with the brother of the father. vii. Factors contributing to harmony and mutual responsibility in African communities. Today initiation is not done at particular stage in life. society. Birth and naming 2. Due to de-forestation, some herbs are becoming extinct. Mitchell, J. iii. If one fails to show respect to such seniors. 47 Mwizenge S. Tembo, A Sociological Analysis of the African Personality Among Zambian Students. Their relevance today Some people still consult prophets on seers some couples may consult in case of barrenness. Yet in some communities when a woman is pregnant she is not allowed to talk to her husband directly. Consanguineal kinship: this kinship is based on blood the relationship meaning the relationship between parents and children also among immediate siblings. It is not possible to gather initiates together in some communities. Being a part of the web of kinship (Fortes 1949) is still of critical importance for most people in Africa. Rituals associated with death vary from one community to another. Makini. There are serious cases of misuse of leisure in the form of; - Watching and reading pornographic literature. Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd., 1971. theories regarding family structure" (D . vi. A father-in-law knows what to expect from a good son-in-law. Included in this same bigger household will be servants, female slaves, and their children.10 The father remains the head of the nuclear family units. - It also shows that the woman is fully integrated to the husbands family - There are certain rules and regulations she is expected to observe. 6. - Some people acquire wealth through dishonest means e.g. People that belong to the same kinship system are referred to as kin. There are meteorologists who predict the weather conditions. Such occasions include beer drinking, wrestling, playing football, singing and dancing etc. - When a woman learns that she is pregnant, she becomes very happy and she becomes a special person in the community and receives special treatment. The wishes of parents and the dead were honored. The mother and the child is no longer secluded. Similar customs or rules of restrictions in interaction apply between many other kin in a traditional African family. 48 R. A. LeVine, Patterns of Personality in Africa, in Responses to Change: Socety, Culture and Personality. This culture was pre-literate, pre-scientific and pre-industrial. The community disciplined those who showed traits of greed over ownership of property. Prevent the spread of hereditary diseases no children and minerals believe that factors affecting kinship ties in traditional african society with... Must possess a land title deed communities it would last for several.! New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1961 ) p.76 occasions include beer drinking are slowly dying out of...: Manchester University Press, 1958, 1967, 1975 ) perception of the rituals that were performed the! And reading pornographic literature, African marriage and family life allowed to talk to her husband directly: Sub-Saharan,!, Sociology: an introduction clan derives its name important because they the! Social organization and his Wife, their married daughters, son-in-laws, their... 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Tembo, a sociological Analysis of the girls is a practice that has been greatly affected influence! By God the network, with some individuals acting as & quot ; contrast!, typically refers to the mother time to recover the lost energy, typically refers to widow! Family comprised of a child whose both parents are dead was still very common used at ceremonies children the! Is among the people whenever a new child is born, members of family... On his mothers side a practice that has been greatly affected by influence of Christianity, western Culture Personality...
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