AFRICAN KINSHIP SYSTEM AND MARRIAGE

Kinship eventuated from the primitive and most traditional societies. It has its roots in simple
societies which were not so complex. Communities and social bonds are necessary attributes for
kinship systems.

In order understand a society , community or its culture, one should have an adequate knowledge
about its past or history, but social anthropologists could not gather much information about history
of Africa in order to study its institutions. African historical records were certainly scanty and could
only accumulate information of immediate past. Thereby, Social anthropologists used and focussed
on research methodologies, that of comparison and analysis. As a social scientist, the
anthropologist gathers the theoretical perspective, which he gets by studying any social system.

Kinship system and marriage can be understood by the everyday social reality where individuals are
living together in coordination and co-operation, maintaining social ties, which is also seen as a

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working and functioning system. In a more literal sense, kin a terms denotes a relation where one is

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related to another in a sense that one person is descended from another, for example ( relation
between a grandparent and a grandchild), it is also called cognates or cognatic kin which means
that a relation has a common ancestor, it can have lineage from both males and females. Kinship is
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more of a social relation between the two people. Sibling is another relation , where by a male
sibling is a brother and a female sibling is a sister. A group consisting of father, mother and children
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is regarded as a family and is named as elementary family , but it is different from biological family,
where usually there is genetic relation between the parents and children. Compound families are
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such where , a widow or widower, with a child moves into a second marriage into which children are
also born, in such case, terms such as step parent and half siblings are a result of it. Compound
families are also formed , where polygynous marriages are permitted , such as a man has several
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wives ( more than two).This kind of families are common in Africa. Another type is called parental
family, whereby a family exists of parents and their unmarried young children. Patrilineal extended
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family, where sons marry and bring their wives in the same household , so that their children will
belong to the same family. Kinship in simple terms means a connected network of the relations and
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relationships, it also has orders as to differentiate between the variety of relations. First order
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involves relations in elementary family that is ( mother, father, children & relation between them).
Second order involves secondary relations which are connected to the first order that is father’s
father, sister’s husband, brother’s wife etc. We can progressively connect the relations to third ,
fourth , fifth order so on and so forth and the kinship orders can be increased by marriage of the
related cognates.

In African kinship system , according to Morgan ‘classificatory’ system , where parallel cousins and
cross cousins are defined. Parallel cousins are classified as cousins which are related from both the
sides such as mother’s sisters children and father’s brother children whereas , cross-cousins are
cousins which are associated with secondary relation such as mother’s brothers children and
father’s sister children.

There is also a degree of near and distant relations where, it is prohibited to marry with the near
cousins but is allowed to marry a cousin from distant relation. There are certain norms ,rules and
regulations in the kinship systems. Affective element is regarded as the personal behaviour attached
to emotional sentiment that is relation between mother and child. Jural element is another, in which
the relations have moral rules and duties imposed upon each other that is ( in African families
husband and wife has personal rights and duties imposed upon each other).

Kinship is based on the “descent”, whereby descent is the social relation between parents and
children , not the physical relation and one can trace one’s kin or descendants by going back and
counting the generation that is of the great grandparents. Agnates a term similar to cognates, where
one traces back the lineage through male links of the male ancestor (a system to ordering the kins in
ancient Rome). Another is matrilineal kin, which is traced back to female links of the common
female ancestor.

“Sib” is an another term which is related to cognatic relations but has more of a social character.
There were rules of inherited property amongst the sib.

MASAI OF EAST AFRICA

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grandfather’s brothers son with the same term. Their lineage is agnatic (descendants from same

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male ancestor). There is a difference in masai kinship system that of agnatic and other kindered
relation. There are various terms used to denote different kinship relations , but the most important
is of ol-e-sotwa and en-e-sotwa , which means peace or relative. There are restrictions on marriage
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of the masai , that is , one should not marry with a women in his agnatic clan and secondly one
should not marry with near cousin, for example mother’s sisters daughter etc.
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A stock is regarded as a combination of tracing descendants from both male and female sides.
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Sibling group is regarded as a total number or unity of brothers and sisters in a clan, but in most
African tribes there is also a distinction of junior and senior brothers. In Bantu tribes, mother’s
brother is also regarded s male mother (because is it in relation of mother), and fathers sister is
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regarded as female father ( because it is in relation of father). In African tribes, the sister takes place
of the deceased wife and this is called by the term sororate and brother takes place of the deceased
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man and is known as levirate.

KINSHIP AND GENERATION

prior to the next generation which is that of their children, this consists of the relation of
superordination and subordination, where children are dependent on their parents and should
respect their parents. There is a marked relationship between grandparents and grandchildren.
Grandparents are more close to their grandchildren. There is also a relation between great
grandparent and son’s son where the entry of great grandson by birth, is a sign of approaching death
of great grandfather. The great grandson is sometimes named after the great grandfather and is
often represent as to the incarnation of his great grandfather. This is a common attribute of the
melanesian tribes. In most of the African tribes such as Kaonde and Ngonde , grandmothers and
granddaughters are regarded as ‘wife’, whereby it is also legal and allowable to marry
granddaughters, and brother’s daughter, but not to marry his sister’s daughter. As a custom , a man
has to marry his grandmother, after the death of his grandfather in order to provide support and
assistance, this usually happens in Ngonde tribe.

There are two types of relationships, first symmetrical relationship, where the two individuals
involved have the same pattern of mutual behaviour towards each other that is a relation between a
father and son. Second, asymmetrical relationship, where the two individuals involved observe
different behaviour ,both share different behaviour towards each other.

In Nandi tribe of East Africa, the term kamet refers to mother and her sisters and also to mother’s
brothers daughter, which is the next generation. Similarly, the term imamet refers to mother’s
brother and mother’s brother son. The various terms and terminology referred to the kinship and
their relations are called as OMAHA type by the anthropologists. In the Nuba tribe, mother’s brother
is referred to as grandfather, and also which is related to matrilineal lineage. Mother’s brother has
sometimes a superior rank.

Clan is a term devoted to the lineage which can be both through mother’s side and father’s side,
where lineage through mothers side is known as matrilineal clan (matri-lineage) and lineage through
fathers side is regarded as patrilineal clan (patri-lineage). One enters into a certain clan by birth but
Adoption is also another attribute whereby the clan into which the person is adopted is considered

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as his main clan. A clan may be further divided into sub-groups which are different for different
tribes, and are differ in social, political, religious life of the tribes. There are certain groups which

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perform rites and which are referred to as corporate groups. Corporate groups are the main feature
of the Central Africa. Corporate groups also control the land, whether it is for hunting, killing , or
various activities, corporate groups also look after religion, religious cults , totem, and rites of
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passage and also several social activities connected with the particular lineage.
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MARRIAGE IN AFRICAN SOCIETIES
In order to understand marriage customs and rules of African societies, one should also understand
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that by marriage certain pre existing relations are changed, new ones are also formed, it not only
changes the relation between two individuals but also it changes and forms new bonds and relations
with the family and kinship ties. In African systems of marriages, religion plays only a small part.
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Marriage only involved consent of the bridegrooms kinsmen and they promise to make payment to
the bride’s father or the guardian of the bride, which is called marriage payment and they have to
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also declare a gift or present which is to made by groom to bride on the first night or the bridal
night, it is also known by ‘morning gift’. The wealth or portion of dowry is to be discussed whereby
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if the husband dies before the wife, the wife would be using it in her entire lifetime.
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There is also a counter payment which is paid to the grooms kinsmen by brides kinsmen. However ,
during divorce, both the payments, marriage payment and counter payment has to be returned.
When a woman is not married, all her responsibility is taken by the guardian or his father, as soon as
she enters into another family through marriage, the responsibility is shifted to her husband. During
an accident, death or any injury to women by her husband, the guardian of the woman can claim
indemnity (insurance). Marriage moves into the process of development where both husband and
wife give birth to their first child.

In many African societies, it is a custom that a man should marry his cross-cousin that is daughter of
his mother’s brother, in these marriages families are already related to each other and make the
new bond more strong. There is also a joking relationship , where the relationship can be between
two individuals , related or not related , it can be between grandparent or grandchild, this kind of
relation creates not serious abusive relation, it can be a result of hostile behaviour and sometimes
with the avoidance behaviour. It is also evident between son in law and wife’s mother, there are
often quarrels and by custom avoidance of certain things, avoidance of eating food together,
avoidance of eye contact etc. Sometimes it is also associated with shyness or shame observed in son
in law in regard to wife’s family.

There are certain rules regarding marriages in Africa, whereby one on hand there is social proximity,
where one should not marry closely related kin, on the other it is allowed to marry cross-cousins .
which is known as preferential marriage. There are rules observed for sexual intercourse, such as
incest (sexual intercourse with close relatives) is considered as a sin and crime. Parricide(killing of
mother or father) is another human action which is considered as sin or crime. In Africa incest and
sorcery(dealing with the supernatural powers) are connected and is regarded as witchcraft.

Apart from African kinship system, the Nayars of south India also has a prominent position, the
Malays and the khasi of Assam have a prominent position in kinship, the common aspect of the
above three are that they follow matrilineal lineage.
There is a difference between father- right and mother-right, woman from the beginning, stays with

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her family and siblings and have a close relation with them, they remain united by sharing common
property rights etc. So, mother-right (expressed that in nayars) consists of the legal rights which are

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shared with her children and also in which father has no legal rights over it. On the other hand
father- right is complete opposite of the mother-right, where mother and mother’s brother have no
right over children.
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In order to understand the term kinship thoroughly, one needs to understand social structures as
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well as social realities. According to A.R Radcliffe brown, when we talk of structures , we refer to
some part or component, here kinship is a social structure, and human beings , their web of relations
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acts as a component which complements its structure. Marriage , an institution also acts as a
component of the social structure.
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