article
Dahomean marriage: a revaluation
Africa • 19 (4) • Published In 1949 • Pages: 273-287
By: Bohannan, Laura.
Abstract
This article re-evaluates the sociological context that led to the presence of thirteen ‘types’ of marriage in Dahomey. It traces this paradox to the culturally defined distinction contracting parties make between rights in a woman as wife—rights in uxorem—and rights in a woman as to the children she may bear, rights in genetricem. The fact that these rights are usually held concomitantly in Dahomey justifies a consideration of their distribution when they are not so coupled, as being of equal influence on the form and functions of the marriage—functions which are sociologically of a wider scope than the regulation of inter-personal relations between man and woman. The articles shows that in all the thirteen ‘types’ of marriage listed by Herskovits, with the possible exception of some instances of ‘friend custody’, rights in uxorem are recognized and that where they are recognized the status of the husband is regulated vis-à-vis his wife; he is also the socially recognized father of her children. Rights in genetricem may be vested (a) in the wife's or in the husband's lineage, (b) in an office, ‘title’, or ‘name’, and these rights give original jural authority over the woman's children—rights which may later be transferred without prejudice to the rights held in the mother and other children.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2017
- Region
- Africa
- Sub Region
- Western Africa
- Document Type
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Teferi Abate Adem ; 2014
- Field Date
- not specified
- Coverage Date
- 1930-1949
- Coverage Place
- Dahomey Kingdom (Benin since 1975)
- Notes
- Laura Bohannan
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCN
- 29010790
- LCSH
- Fon (African people)