book chapter

The Gusii mothers of Nyansongo: Kenya, Africa

Mothers of six cultures; antecedents of child rearing [by] Leigh Minturn [and] William W. LambertNew YorkPublished In 1964 • Pages: 240-295

By: Minturn, Leigh, Lambert, William Wilson.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article Minturn and Lambert present a detailed study of family relationships in the community of Nyansongo, East Africa, with a primary focus on mother-child relations. The authors characterize the Gusii mothers of this community as being emotionally unstable, a factor which appears to be related to their heavy work burdens in the raising of garden crops, the supervision of cattle herds, and in the care of older children. As the results of these responsibilities the mothers' '…demands upon the children stem from grim necessity. The severity with which the mothers react to any defiance of their authority stems, in turn, from the necessity of insuring that children will obey them and help with the work. Since fathers are often not around they are not as useful to back up mothers' authority as they are in other cultures' (p. 252).
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Household
Family relationships
Polygamy
Infant care
Child care
Childhood activities
Techniques of socialization
Aggression training
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Gusii
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
Eastern Africa
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
book chapter
Evaluation
Creator TypesThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Psychologist
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
John Beierle ; 2005
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
no date
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)
Community of Nyansongo (a pseudonym), Republic of Kenya, East Africa
NotesAdditional notes
[by] Leigh Minturn [and] William W. Lambert
Includes bibliographical references (p. 294-295)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
64023863
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Gusii (African people)