Book
The cultural definition of political response: lineal destiny among the Luo
Academic Press • London • Published In 1978 • Pages: xvii, 347
By: Parkin, David J..
Abstract
This book analyzes the cultural and economic reasons for the continuity of polygyny among ethnic Luo families in Nairobi, Kenya. It shows that Luo men invested their hard earned urban wage in marrying two or more wives because of the practical advantages this institution gave them for maintaining residence and linkages both in Nairobi and their rural birth place. More specifically, polygyny enabled urban men to retain certain economic interests and political influence in the countryside while remaining in full-time urban wage employment and while living within an urban nuclear family of one co-wife and her children. They did so by alternating each co-wife to spend an equal time during the year in town and at the rural home, supervising the family smallholding.
- Subjects
- Cultural identity and pride
- Ethos
- Functional and adaptational interpretations
- Polygamy
- Gender status
- Education system
- Urban and rural life
- Family relationships
- Social relationships and groups
- Status, role, and prestige
- Classes
- Lineages
- Mode of marriage
- Regulation of marriage
- Kinship regulation of sex
- Extramarital sex relations
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Political parties
- Political movements
- Inter-ethnic relations
- Sociocultural trends
- culture
- Luo
- HRAF PubDate
- 2010
- Region
- Africa
- Sub Region
- Eastern Africa
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Teferi Abate Adem; 2009
- Field Date
- 1968-1969
- Coverage Date
- 1950-1978
- Coverage Place
- Nairobi and Luoland, Kenya
- Notes
- David Parkin
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-340) and index
- LCCN
- 77093213
- LCSH
- Luo (Nilotic tribe) Social change
- Language and culture
- Ethnicity--Kenya