Marriage and the family in northern Somlailand.

Lewis,-Ioan-M.

Society-Somali-Africa

General

1955-1957

East African Studies, 15, Kampala, Uganda, East African Institute 
of Social Research.

42

1962

[Previous page continued]
Although selected from a limited range of sources, these examples, 
widely distributed geographically, and differing considerably in economic 
a nd political structure, provide good evidence that stable marriage 
is not invariably associated with patrilineal descent. And since in 
most cases, although marriage is unstable, considerable marriage payments 
are made, there is thus no demonstrable correlation between patrilineal 
descent as such, high bride-wealth, and stable marriage. Nor, it should 
be added, is there any reason t o doubt that the societies instanced 
are all in fact firmly patrilineal in descent and affiliation. The 
unstable character of their marital institutions cannot therefore 
be attributed to changes in the system of descent such as those which 
Barnes (1951) suggests account for the instability of marriage amongst 
the present-day Ngoni of Northern Rhodesia. [See note 1]

Mitchell, (op.cit., p.7), however, recognising the existence of patrilineal 
societies where marriage tends to be unstable, has attempted to account 
for this in terms of a distinction between marriages which transfer 
genetricial rights to the husband and his group, and those which transfer 
genetricial rights to the husband only. Thus in modern urban African 
conditions the nature of marriage and its stability are held to change 
concurrently with general structural changes attendant upon urbanisation. 
In the case of peoples with agnatic descent, patrilineages shed some 
of their corporate functions and marriage confers genetricial rights 
on individuals rather than upon groups, marriage in these circumstances 
being unstable. This explanation, however, cannot satisfactorily apply 
to the particular patrilineal societies cited above. For although 
there are differences amongst them in the extent to which the husband 
is regarded as the legal father of all his wife's children, whoever 
begets them, [See note 2] all these peoples appear to practise some 
form of leviratic and sororatic marriage. This shows that for them 
marriage is not merely an individual contract between a man and a 
woman, but also an alliance involving the transfer of genetricial 
rights between their lineages. Thus her e, as in the Somali case, 
marriage implies some measure of corporate union where the wife is 
married to her husband's group as a whole; and yet marriage is unstable.

Thus neither in logic nor in reality are there grounds for assuming 
that marriage in patrilineal societies necessarily involves the permanent 
transfer of genetricial rights to the husband and his group. A man, 
and potentially his lineage also, can enjoy full rights over the affiliation 
of a woman's children without possessing permanent control of her 
fertility. Here the word permanent must be emphasised. Much of the 
confusion in the discussion of the stability of marriage in tribal 
societies seems to arise from a failure to distinguish between the 
acquisition of full genetricial rights and the permanent holding of 
these rights. In theory and often in practice these are entirely separate 
issues. If, however, marriage is defined as a contract which among 
st other things includes the transfer of genetricial rights, then 
clearly when these are permanently bestowed upon the husband and his 
group marriage must be stable. But there is no necessary correlation 
between the acquisition of genetricial rights and marriage stability. 
It is merely tautological to state that in those patrilineal societies 
where genetricial rights are permanently held by a husband marriage 
is stable, whereas in other cases where they are not held permanently 
marriage is unstable. Thus preoccupation with the position in regard 
to the transfer of genetricial rights leads eventually to an impasse.

Further consideration of the patrilineal societies with unstable marriage 
which have been cited above suggests, however, that they share a common 
feature which may be of significance in this discussion. As with the 
Somali,
[Continued next page]

[Note 1] Stonning (1959,p.190 ff.). however,attempts to correlate 
the instability of contemporary Fulani marriage with structural changes, 
but nevertheless considers that the Fulani are still today strongly 
patrilineal; so that, whatever the position may have been in the past, 
the present situation is that unstable marriage and strong agnation 
occur together amongst the Fulani.

[Note 2] i.e. a distinction between the physical father or genitor 
and the leg al father or pater, Thus among the Soga illegitimate children 
belong to the lineage of the man who begets them (the genitor) not 
to the legal father, the man married to their mother. (Fallers, op. 
cit., p.120).

Ideas-About-Marriage; Economics-Of-Marriage

121; 171; 581; 583; 613

DOC:3982