article
Matrilineal descent and marital stability: a Tanzanian case
Journal of Asian and African studies • 4 (2) • Published In 1969 • Pages: 122-131
By: Brain, James Lewton.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This study argues that marriage in Luguru society tends to be stable for the first twenty-or-so years, after which the rate of divorce rises rapidly as mothers leave to live with their sons and brothers. This pattern has to do with the internal dynamics of matrilineal descent and land tenure systems. The culturally-preferred residence pattern upon marriage is uxorilocal (the husband moves to live in the natal village of his wife). After the birth of the first child, however, the husband will prefer to rejoin his matrilineage where he holds land. The wife either stays behind on her own or moves with her husband. If she decides the later, the wife will have yet another decision to make later on, when her son marries and move out to live with his mother’s lineage. While these cycles might cause family separation and even divorce, the author underscores that one should not necessarily consider Luguru marriage as structurally unstable.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Residence
- Rule of descent
- Lineages
- Real property
- Family relationships
- Termination of marriage
- Basis of marriage
- Regulation of marriage
- Gender status
- Cousins
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Luguru
- 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
- article
- 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; 2020
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1965-1966
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1953-1966
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- northern Morogoro Region, Tanzania
- NotesAdditional notes
- James Brain
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 130-131)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 75001539
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Luguru (African people)