article
Land use rights and gender in Ovamboland, north-central Namibia, since the 1930s
Fennia • 187 (1) • Published In 2009 • Pages: 5-15
By: Siiskonen, Harri.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This examination of changes in the traditional Ovambo land tenure system focuses on the property and inheritance rights of women. The distribution of those rights and associated duties within matrilineal lineages favored male members at the expense of women in general and widows and orphans in particular. Widows and divorced women held highly insecure, derivative rights acquired only through secondary marriage to a land-owning, in most cases already married man. The discussion includes reforms that occurred due to advocacy efforts by Christian Missionaries and policy changes pursued by Namibian political leaders.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Real property
- Inheritance
- Gender status
- Termination of marriage
- Secondary marriages
- Celibacy
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Ovambo
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southern 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.
- Historical Geographer
- 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.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Teferi Abate Adem; 2021
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- not applicable
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1925-1992
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- north-central Namibia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Harri Siiskonen
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 14-15)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 25018203
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Ovambo (African people)