article
Old women in Zulu culture
South African journal of ethnology • 8 • Published In 1985 • Pages: 98-108
By: Brindley, Marianne.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Marianne Brindley presents part of the results of her fieldwork among the Zulu people of Nkandla, in which she focuses on the role of women past the age of childbearing. This article, dealing primarily with childbirth, indicates the extensive involvement of old women in the major stages of procreation: conception, pregnancy, confinement, and the postpartum period. Accumulated knowledge and experience, but also associations of purity, appear to be the crucial characteristics determining the roles of old women. The positions of mother-in-law and paternal grandmother in particular, enable a woman to wield considerable power and influence. The author concludes that the action-patterns of old women at a confinement are indicative of an area of cultural life in which women have symbolic power over men (p. 98).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Sociocultural trends
- Cultural participation
- Grandparents and grandchildren
- Parents-in-law and children-in-law
- Sorcery
- Eschatology
- Conception
- Pregnancy
- Childbirth
- Difficult and unusual births
- Postnatal care
- Activities of the aged
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Zulu
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2005
- 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.
- 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 ; 2004
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1979-1982
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1979-1982
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Nkandla District, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa
- NotesAdditional notes
- the old woman and childbirth
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 108)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 88648489
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Zulu (African people)