article
Secondary marriage in northern Nigeria
Africa • 23 (4) • Published In 1953 • Pages: 298-323
By: Smith, M. G. (Michael Garfield).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a look at marriage practices among the Kagoro and Kadara (FF34). The author makes the case that marriages play an important role along with religious rituals in maintaining social organization. Both groups are organized into localized, exogamous patrilineages, several of which can reside in the same village. A group of villages form a community that shares religious activities. There are three types of marriage: betrothal, widow-inheritance, and so-called "secondary marriage." Betrothal most often occurs between lineages living in the same community, and involves bride payment and service. In widow-inheritance, a man may inherit the wife of his real or classificatory brother, or the wife of his maternal or paternal grandfather. Secondary marriage occurs when a wife deserts her husband to live with another man. The first marriage is never annulled and the wife may in fact return to him at some point, or go live with yet another man. Such marriages are forbidden between members of the same community or lineage. One form of secondary marriage practiced by the Kagoro is wife-abduction between communities. The Kagoro distinguish between three types of marriageable relationships between groups: those that can intermarry ([n]niendi[/n]), those that cannot intermarry ([n]bin[/n]), and those that cannot intermarry but between which wife abduction is permitted ([n]nendwang[/n]).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Sociocultural trends
- Marriage
- Localized kin groups
- Inter-community relations
- External relations
- Legal norms
- Theological systems
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Katab
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2015
- 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
- article
- 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.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard; 2013
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1950
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1926-1950
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- north-central Nigeria
- NotesAdditional notes
- M. G. Smith
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 29010790
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Katab (African people)