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.

43

1962

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amongst most of them (certainly the Amba, Soga, Fulani, Tallensi, 
Bedouin, and Lakher -- the position in the other cases is not entirely 
clear) marriage does not incorporate a woman fully in her husband's 
group. Thus this is a feature shared by the Somali and a number of 
other patrilineal societies with unstable marriage. The question now 
arises as to whether there is here a significant point of distinction 
between these patrilineal societies and those other patrilineal societies 
where marriage is stable. It would appear that this is in fact the 
case, for amongst the Nuer (Evans-Pritchard, 1945, 1951), the Zulu 
(Gluckman, op.cit.; Krige, 1950, pp.120-123), the Shona (Holleman, 
1952, pp.202-211), the Kgatla Tswana (Schapera, 1940, pp.93-116, 275-304), 
the old Ngoni' (Barnes, 1951), and the Kumam, [See note 1] who are 
all characterised by stable marriage, a wife is firmly incorporated 
in her husband's group. Thus, as was anticipated earlier in this chapter, 
it would seem that there is in fact some correlation between the extent 
to which a woman's ties with her own agnatic kin are dissolved by 
marriage to the advantage of her husband's group, and the stability 
of marriage. Whether or not this correlation holds in all patrilineal 
cases and in societies where descent is traced other than agnatically, 
would of course require a much more extensive survey than can be attempted 
here. Superficially, however, it would seem that this interpretation 
also applies to matrilineal societies where marriage is usually unstable 
and where after marriage a woman retains her own matrilineal affiliation 
and is not absorbed into her husband's group.

It will of course be evident that to speak, as I have done here, of 
the degree to which marriage incorporates a woman in her husband's 
group is to speak in vague terms. And to state the position more generally 
in terms of a distinction between patrilineal societies where men 
and women are bound more or less equally by agnation, and those where 
they are not, is even more imprecise. Ideally, however, the position 
can be examined in the light of what (and to what extent) legal responsibilities 
are shouldered by the husband's group in respect of a wife, and what 
by the wife's own kin. As I have shown, amongst the Somali the distribution 
of legal responsibility in respect of a wife between the two lineages 
concerned can be assessed directly and even quantitatively. For here 
it is the wife's kin rather than the husband's who are involved when 
her blood-wealth is at stake and it is they who are concerned in all 
other serious issues in which she is implicated. In contrast, the 
husband's responsibility only extends to minor matters. In such patrilineal 
societies with stable marriage as the Nuer [See note 2] and kgatla, 
[See note] however, where a women is firmly integrated in her husband's 
group, it is the latter who are responsible at law for the person 
and possessions of the wife. [See note 4]

Thus, accepting the inevitable limitations of such a cursory review 
of so complicated a problem as this, it appears that in patrilineal 
societies, and perhaps generally, there is a correlation between the 
stability of marriage and the degree to which marriage removes a woman 
from the legal charge of her own kin and places her in the legal care 
of her husband's group. In patrilineal societies, where men and women 
are subject to similar agnatic allegiances and where a wife retains 
much of her premarital legal status, marriage seems to be unstable. 
[See note 5] Conversely, where the wife relinquishes her pre-marital 
legal status and is incorporated in her husband's group, men and women 
here being subject to dissimilar agnatic loyalties, marriage is stable. 
These differences in marriage stability correspond to variations in 
the functional implications of agnatic descent in different types 
of patrilineal societies.

[Note 1] J. van Velsen, Family, Cash, and Cattle among the Kumam (forthcoming).

[Note 2] See Howell, 1954, pp. 57-58.

[Note 3] See Schapera, 1940, pp. 103-104.

[Note 4] I have been unable to substantiate this fully from the literature 
on all the patrilineal societies cited above as possessing stable 
marriage. Accounts of tribal marriage seem often to be surprisingly 
deficient on this point.

[Note 5] Fortes, 1959, p. 210, seems to take the same view although 
he states the correlation more generally, for he writes: "divorce 
is correlated with the degree to which a person has jural status that 
is independent of his or her status as a spouse. For a woman the significant 
factor is the degree to which she retains her stat us as a daughter 
and sister after marriage, for this determines her claims on support 
as well as her jural status outside the conjugal relationship."

Ideas-About-Marriage

113; 114; 121; 171; 581; 613; 673

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