GST 201 General African Studies - PowerPoint Presentation

GST 201 General African Studies

Social Organization Definitions of Social Organisation Family and Kinship-Structural Varieties Marriage and Typologies of Marriages in Africa- Monogamy, Polygyny , Polygyny,Polyandry , Plural Marriage, Homogamy , Levirate, Ghost, etc Antecedents of Marriage and Family Rules of Residence and Descent Pre-colonial Economic and Political Arrangements including Dispute Resolution

S ocial organization - Introduction The word social has two important meanings: 1. “found or living in groups” or “not alone”. Animals such as chimpanzees, hyenas, elephants and humans are examples. 2. connected to society and the way it is organized. In this sense, a thing is considered social if it is related with human society. Society is here defined as the network of interrelationships among members of a group who share a common culture, occupy a particular territorial area, and have a feeling that they constitute a unified and distinct entity (Scott & Marshall, 2005).

What is social organization? T he word organization means arrangement or coordination . Social organization is the manner or way in which different parts of a society are arranged and made to function together to ensure order and the achievement of goals they consider worthwhile . Social organization also shows how individual members relate to one another and how each relates to the whole.

Social organization The most basic feature of social organization is its inter-individual feature . Social organization can be considered at the level of an entire society, at the group level or at the level of social interactions occurring between two individuals. At the macro level, it shows how the component groups and members of a given society interface and how they are related (connected).

Family and Kinship Structural Varieties The family is a group of people who are united with the bond of marriage, blood or adoption and comprising a single household that interact and intercommunicate with one another in their various social roles of husband and wife, mother and father, brother and sister and creating a common culture (Burgess & Locke).

Family defined The family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction ( Murdock). A family includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a consensual sexual relationship, and one or more children which may be begotten or adopted children of the sexually cohabiting adults. In Murdock’s opinion, the family is a universal human social grouping.

Functions of the family sexual relationships (that is determining people who can be consensually involved in sexual relationships); economic cooperation among members; reproduction ; and socialization of children.

The conjugal family is a unit comprising of spouses and their dependent children (Scott & Marshall, 2005 ). The extended family consists of two or more conjugal families that are related either by blood or marriage. An extended family combines at least two generations in defining relationships.

By implication, all members of a clan or kinship group may be members of a very large extended family.

Family of orientation/procreation The family into which one is born is the family of orientation. The family that one establishes is the family of procreation. (This is determined by one’s role in the family)

Kinship Kinship relationships exist primarily between individuals and groups who have consanguineous ties ( i.e related by blood) or secondarily through ties of affinity ( i.e marriage). Members of a kinship group are those who are/consider themselves as having descended from a common ancestor or those who are related by marriage.

Kinship in Africa K inship groups served (still serve) as political units in the absence of nation-states in the precolonial era. Kinship groups serve as the basis for inheritance. Basis for succession Basis for regulation of sexual relationships . Through kinship groups, people were organized into hunting and warring groups. The were useful for identity – the “we-they ” dichotomy was based on the kinship groups.

Lineage Unilineal descent – Matrilineal (through the mother) Bemba of Zambia, Ashanti of Ghana, Tuareg of Niger and Mali, and the Kom of Cameroun. Patrilineal (through the father e.g Igbo speaking people, the Fulani, the Nuer of Sudan, the Zulu and Swazi of South Africa ).

Lineage Bilateral or cognatic descent establishes descent through both the patrilineal and matrilineal system. Examples are found among Yako of Nigeria and Herero of Namibia and Botswana. Patriarchy , the social system based on the authority of men is pervasive even in matrilineal and cognatic kinship groups.

Marriage Marriage is a legally recognized relationship between a man and a woman, which confers on them certain rights and demands certain obligations of them (Scott & Marshall). People are considered married therefore if their coming together to live as married is not against the norms guiding marriage in their society.

Forms of marriage Monogamy - marriage of one man and one woman at a time. Polygamy/plural marriage – involving more than two people ( polygyny and polyandry) When an individual is involved in several monogamous marriages by divorcing one partner and remarrying, this is referred to as serial monogamy.

Forms of marriage Polyandry may be fraternal polyandry in which case the husbands are brothers or non-fraternal polyandry where the husbands are not related . Polyandry practiced among Irigwe of Plateau state, Massai of Kenya and Tanzania, Lele of Western Congo ( hohombe ). Polygyny is pervasive in Africa even in places where polyandry is practiced.

Other forms of marriage/practices Levirate Widow inheritance Sororate marriage – man marries sisters consecutively or concurrently ( sororal polygyny ) Ghost marriage (a female pater marries a wife and provides a consort/genitor to raise children for herself).

Rules on eligibility Endogamy requires that an individual marries within a defined category, community, or group. Exogamy requires an individual to marry from outside a group. Homogamy requires that an individual marries someone who is culturally similar to him/her ( i.e marriage to one’s type). The grounds of similarity may also be religion, social class, or gender, in which case homogamy may mean same-gender marriage i.e homosexual marriage.

Antecedents of Marriage and Family The story of Adam and Eve

Antecedents of Marriage and Family Engels’ account Hordes of hunting and gathering humans The Consanguine family The Punaluan family The Pairing family The M onogamous family

Rules of residence Patrilocal residence Matrilocal residence Avunculocal residence requires the new family to reside near the house or in the compound of the groom’s maternal uncle. B ilocal residence allows the couple to live with/near either of the spouse’s parents. A form of bilocal residence rule is ambilocal residence in which the couple shifts from residence with the groom’s kinship group to residence with the bride’s kinship group.

Rules of residence Matri-patrilocal residence is a form of ambilocal residence. Here, the new family resides with the bride’s group for a while (may be for the first one year or until the birth of the first child) and then move to live with the groom’s family indefinitely (Murdock, 1949). Duolocal means that the new family has no common residence and they remain in their families of orientation. Neolocal residence has become very popular. This rule of residence requires the new family to live in a new residence, away from the groups of the groom and the bride.

Pre-colonial economic and political arrangements including dispute resolution The family served as an economic institution in most African cultures. Many of the economic activities were dependent on the physical environment and required very simple technology and tools. Subsistence farming took place among all the peoples of Africa to varying degrees.

Economic activities Another major economic activity was pastoral farming. Maasai herdsmens are found in the Serengeti plains of Tanzania and Kenya, while the Fulani herdsmen are found across the savannah of West Africa in Mauritania, The Gambia, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Benin, Sierra Leone, Togo etc. Herdsmen are mostly nomadic since they must move to get pasture and food/water for their animals.

The peoples of Africa in the coastal areas and around the river basins are involved in fishing as a major economic activity. Some farming peoples in Africa include Ewe people of Ghana, the Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania, the Izon people of Nigeria, the Gun people of Benin Republic and Nigeria to mention but a few. Like herdsmen, traditional fishing peoples also migrate and often have enclaves outside their domains.

Economic activities Other major economic activities in traditional Africa include cloth weaving, leather works, iron smith, animal husbandry, hunting and gathering and trading. Today, many of these economic activities have been taken over by contemporary activities in industrial production and services.

Political systems There were acephalous /stateless groups as well as state groups. Among the stateless groups, there were no recognized supreme rulers beyond the family or village head. Agricultural Societies like the Temne of Sierra Leone, Igbo-speaking people of Nigeria, The Luo , Maasai and Nandi of Tanzania and Kenya, and the Galla of Ethiopia are examples of peoples without such supreme heads beyond the immediate family or village head ( Fyle , 1999). Others had states or empires. Examples include the Oyo Empire of the Yourba people in Nigeria, the Zulu Empire in South Africa, the Lunda Empire in East Africa and the Ashanti Kingdom in Ghana. The political institutions were saddled with the responsibility of dispute resolution.

Political systems In stateless communities, disputes were settled by family heads or village heads, and where disputes occurred between two of such villages, meetings were organized at the “senior village” or the village established by a senior patriarch. Among peoples with more clearly defined political systems, disputes were settled by kings and chiefs and where disputes occurred between two communities, the central or supreme head served as an arbiter ( Fyle , 1999).

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