The web of kinship among the Tallensi: the second part of an analysis of the social structure of a Trans-Volta tribe

Fortes, Meyer

Book

The web of kinship among the Tallensi: the second part of an analysis of the social structure of a Trans-Volta tribe

Oxford University Press for the International African Institute • London • Published In 1949 • Pages:

By: Fortes, Meyer.

Abstract
This source is the second volume of a description and functional analysis of the social structure of the Tallensi, a large group living in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast Colony (present-day Ghana). The emphasis here is upon the ramifications of kinship in a patrilineal society and its intermeshing with the lineage principle. Attention is paid to the importance of the mother and of matrilineal kin in this overtly patrilineal society, and the spiritual, rather than legal, bonds developing among them. Also stressed are the tensions which arise from the opposition of kinship and the lineage principle, and the reduction of these tensions. Material culture is touched upon only as it is relevant to the problem under discussion. Fortes received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in psychology from the University of London in 1930, and subsequently studied under Bronislaw Malinowski and A. R. Radcliffe-Brown. While in the field he was influenced by the work of Raymond Firth. Fortes was William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge.

Subjects

Parents-in-law and children-in-law