essay
Separateness of spouses: conjugal resources in an Ashanti town
Female and male in West Africa • London • Published In 1983 • Pages: 156-168
By: Abu, Katharine.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article, Abu discusses marriage and residence patterns in an Ashanti town. Customary marriage is arranged by the matrilineage, which maintains a protective role over the wife. The wife continues to live with her matrilineage but provides meals for her husband, who occupies a separate residence. Cooking and sleeping arrangements rotate among wives in polygamous marriages. Men have little authority over their own children, who usually live with their mothers. ‘Lover’ or ‘free’ marriages are more commonly found in second marriages. Immigration has influenced joint co-residence patterns, although couples continue to earn separate incomes and keep separate budgets. In a new customary exchange the husband gives his wife ‘chop money’ to buy and cook food.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Property in movables
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Residence
- Household
- Family relationships
- Polygamy
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Akan
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Western Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard;1999
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- Not Specified
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Ashanti; Koforiduana, Ghana
- NotesAdditional notes
- Katharine Abu
- For bibliographical references see source 56: Anonymous
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 82020767
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Akan (African people)