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..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
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.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- 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
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Luo
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2010
- 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
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Anthropologist
- 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
- Teferi Abate Adem; 2009
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1968-1969
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1950-1978
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Nairobi and Luoland, Kenya
- NotesAdditional notes
- David Parkin
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-340) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 77093213
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Luo (Nilotic tribe) Social change
- Language and culture
- Ethnicity--Kenya