courtship and marriage in african traditional society

Thereby, Social anthropologists used and focussed on research methodologies, that of comparison and analysis. ask learners to do research on the choice of a marriage partner, courtship, polygamy and bride wealth in the African traditional society. After this is over, the brides father hands the bride a wooden cup filled with palm wine. i. This form of dating, though, was usually more chaste than is seen today, since pre-marital sex was not considered the norm even though it was widespread. Forbidding experimental and serial courtship and sanctioning only arranged matches is partly a means of guarding the chastity of young people and partly a matter of furthering family interests, which in such cultures may be considered more important than individual romantic preferences. When they started wearing such adornments, it was a sign they were ready to take on the role of husband. 339-361, Posel, D., & Rudwick, S. (2014). In some societies, the parents or community propose potential partners, and then allow limited dating to determine whether the parties are suited (in fact, this was common in the U.S. throughout the 1800s). Encyclopedia.com. Today, families might invite guests personally over the phone or hand-deliver printed scrolls bound with raffia. They asked a close friend or relative to walk from house to house rattling a gourd. Courtship is the traditional dating period before engagement and marriage (or long term commitment if marriage is not allowed). It could be material in nature, such as goats, cattle, cowrie shells, gold and gold dust, and in more-recent times money, but service, such as labor on the brides fathers farm, was not uncommon. "West Africa family systems were severely repressed throughout the New World (Guttmann, 1976)". The results show a dramatic shift away from traditional beliefs within African communities, with young people holding more progressive attitudes towards relationships and marriage. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Alongside this comes a shift in attitude towards marriage and relationships. Different cultures have different rituals and beliefs about marriage. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. The prevalence of one-night stands and non-committal relationships contributes to what sociologists call a hook-up culture. The first is courtship, during which a couple develops a relationship before marriage. Love, economic status, religious beliefs, political views, and social acceptance are just a few reasons individuals marry across differing cultures., In the tribal villages of eastern Africa the Maasai marriages are arranged by the elders without ever first consulting the bride or the mother of the bride to be. Worldometers.info. No one knows how many Muslims in the U.S. live in polygamous families, but best estimates from academics range from 50,000 to 100,000 people [4]. The Yoruba teach proverbs such as Bi omode ba to loko, aa fun loko, bi o ba to lada, aa fun lada which translates to when a child is ripe for hoe, he is given a hoe, if he is ripe for cutlass, he is given cutlass.[9]. Clan is a term devoted to the lineage which can be both through mothers side and fathers 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). NPR. This includes marriages performed in front of a registrar, bypassing the religious and traditional aspects of marriage entirely and instead opting for a simplified process which still provides the legal benefits of marriage. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. During an accident, death, or any injury to woman by her husband, the guardian of the woman can claim indemnity (insurance). There is a difference in Masai kinship system that of agnatic and other kindered relation. 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). Polygamy, or being married to more than one person at a time, is accepted to varying degrees around the world, with most polygamous societies existing in northern Africa and east Asia (OECD 2019). See photos of African marriage rituals (including Berber, Swahili, Masai, and more) in this travel photo gallery from National Geographic. So, mother-right (expressed that in nayars) consists of the legal rights which are shared with her children and also in which father has no legal rights over it. I thought marriage was the same everywhere until I traveled to different regions of the world. Many Africans are unable to produce the money required to fund a traditional wedding and pay dowry. Module 6: Deviance, Crime, and Social Control, Module 17: Population, Urbanization, and the Environment, Module 18: Social Movements and Social Change. . Both Moore and Perper argued that, contrary to popular beliefs, courtship is normally triggered and controlled by women, driven mainly by non-verbal behaviors to which men respond. There are certain groups which perform rites and which are referred to as corporate groups. [10] The results also show that 87% of students believe love is the most important factor of marriage, despite that in traditional Ghanaian culture, marriage and love share a relatively loose connection. As a sign of their acceptance of his courtship, the woman's familyoffers him gifts in return. Parallel cousins are classified as cousins which are related from both the sides such as mothers sisters children and fathers brother children whereas, cross-cousins are cousins which are associated with secondary relations such as mothers brothers children and fathers sister children. Africa is going through a rapid state of change and development, both in an economic sense and a social sense. The reasons for the overwhelming prevalence of polygamous societies are varied, but they often include factors such as population growth, religious ideologies, and social status. The British Journal of Sociology, 11(3), 197-210. doi:10.2307/586746. Nationally, women now outnumber men in college enrollment by 4 to 3, leading some researchers to argue that the gender imbalance fosters a culture of hooking up because men, as the minority and limiting factor, hold more power in the sexual marketplace and use it to pursue their preference of casual sex over long-term relationships. 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 as his main clan. The Igbos people are located in the southeastern part of Nigeria. [4] The family is typically involved within this process. It is also evident between son in law and wifes mother, there are often quarrels and by custom avoidance of certain things, avoidance of eating food together, avoidance of eye contact etc. This practice is still used extensively in contemporary African society and has raised both critical and supportive voices. Marriage plays significant roles in the Igbo status system for the individuals and their family and relatives. In our society, we use romantic love to find a mate, but some societies and worldwide religions use arranged . It is believed that the departed members of the family can be "reborn" in their descendants. There is a marked relationship between grandparents and grandchildren. Therefore, many of these African courtship customs involve both families. Jack Goody, Bridewealth and Dowry in Africa and Eurasia, in Bridewealth and Dowry, by Goody and S. J. Tambiah (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973), pp. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. (2014). They also include a description of her familys background, education, hobbies, accomplishments and interests. 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. Every country has their own way of marrying two people that want to spend the rest of their life together. First order involves relations in an elementary family that is ( mother, father, children & relation between them). 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 passage and also several social activities connected with the particular lineage. George B. N. Ayittey, Indigenous African Institutions (Ardsley-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Transnational, 1991). As urbanization increases in these cultures, polygamy is likely to decrease as a result of greater access to mass media, technology, and education (Altman and Ginat 1996). In recent years, a number of college newspapers have featured editorials where students decry the lack of traditionally paired-up dating on their campuses. African and Chinese cultures both have very intriguing ways of how they proceed with their ceremony. Kinship in simple terms means a connected network of relations and relationships, it also has ordered as to differentiate between the variety of relations. Courting includes activities such as dating where couples or groups go together for some activity (e.g., a meal or movie). 2023 . The African marriage is full of deep-rooted culture that cannot be wished away. Children are taught through folktales that families built on love and attraction risk damaging the foundation of their community. Furthermore, marriage will continue to be delayed as more people place education and career ahead of settling down.. Offered the opportunity to check/ establish whether the two people ( boy and girl . 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 brothers daughter, but not to marry his sisters daughter. On the other hand father- right is the complete opposite of the mother-right, where the mother and mothers brother have no right over children. It is found that there are many differences between the two of these cultures. 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p1058. George Ellis, Negro Culture in West Africa: A Social Study of the Negro Group of Vai-speaking People (New York: Neale, 1914). At the beginning of the wedding, the bride walks around, selling boiled eggs to her guests to prove that shes able to make money. Sociologist Lisa Wade talks more about hook-up culture and sexual activity on college campuses at this link:Sociology and the Culture of Sex on Campus. Marriage moves into the process of development where both husband and wife give birth to their first child. While the date is fairly casual in most European-influenced cultures, in some traditional societies, courtship is a highly structured activity, with very specific formal rules. Historically, marriage has served a variety of functionsfinancial, political, biological (i.e., sex), and social. The various marriage ceremonies performed in Africa begin with the initial introduction between the groom and bride. Some African academics have argued that this is a strong foundation for a society and that it is the woman's role to attend to household duties. African Studies Review, 57, pp 51-72 doi:10.1017/asr.2014.47. This kind of families are common in Africa. (NICATD, Crystalrlombardo) There can be many pros and cons to arranged marriages. Love, Courtship, and Marriage in Africa - A Companion to African History - Wiley Online Library Chapter Seven Love, Courtship, and Marriage in Africa Nwando Achebe Book Editor (s): William H. Worger, Charles Ambler, Nwando Achebe First published: 31 August 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119063551.ch7 Citations: 2 PDF Tools Share Summary However, by the 1920s, dating for fun was becoming an expectation, and by the 1930s, it was assumed that any popular young person would have lots of dates. Children are given names of the departed members as a sign . As a social scientist, the anthropologist gathers the theoretical perspective, which he gets by studying any social system. 1-58. Population of Africa). A hook-up cultureis one that accepts and encourages casual sexual encounters, including one-night stands and other related activity, which focus on physical pleasure without necessarily including emotional bonding or long-term commitment. Jumping the Broom. Agnates is 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). Despite occasional studies as early as the 1910s, systematic scientific research into courtship began in the 1980s after which time academic researchers started to generate theories about modern dating practices and norms. -African communities have different customs of marking the engagement stage. Roughly one half will occasionally hook up, and one-third of students do not hook up at all.The median number of hook-ups for a graduating senior on a college campus is seven, and the typical college student acquires two new sexual partners during their college career.
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courtship and marriage in african traditional society 2023