Journal ArticleDOI
Lineage Structure, Marriage and the Family Amongst the Central Bantu
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In this paper, it is suggested that the greater "quantity" of social structure exhibited by coastal peoples, as well as their matrilineal development, may result from the prolonged effects of the great Congo trade, especially the trade in slaves, modifying an old and generally bilateral system organized by networks of permanent matrimonial alliance.Abstract:
Using the factors of family structure examined by Audrey Richards in a well-known essay, this article suggests that a more productive concept for the historical study of Central Africa than either the unique tribe or a group of societies identified by their rule of descent may be the lineage mode of production, in the restricted sense developed by P. P. Rey. Analysis of the organization of political, economic and ritual functions among the BaKongo, BaSuku, BaPende and other Zairean peoples shows the complementarity and flexibility of patrilateral and materilateral relationships. It is suggested that the greater ‘quantity’ of social structure exhibited by coastal peoples, as well as their matrilineal development, may result from the prolonged effects of the great Congo trade, especially the trade in slaves, modifying an old and generally bilateral system organized by networks of permanent matrimonial alliance. This system is characteristic of the Congo basin, Zimbabwe and Angola.read more
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Social Institutions, and Access to Resources
TL;DR: For over a decade African economies have been plagued by recurrent food shortages, economic decline and growing disparities between the living standards of rich and poor as discussed by the authors, and to a large extent food shortages and rural impoverishment may be attributed to external shocks such as world recession, oil price shocks, deteriorating terms of trade and mounting debt service obligations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Some Changes in the Matrilineal Family System Among the Chewa of Malawi Since the Nineteenth Century
TL;DR: In practice, however, there are a number of factors which have tended to mitigate the impact of these tendencies in the system, as far as men or husbands are concerned.
Journal ArticleDOI
African Historical Studies: Academic Knowledge as 'Usable Past' and Radical Scholarship
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an overview of the history of black history as a research field in the 19th-century economic and social systems, focusing on the differences between the main competing schools, rather than their similarities.
Book
The Holocaust and New World Slavery: A Comparative History
TL;DR: In this paper, Katz analyzes the fundamental differences between the two systems and re-evaluates our understanding of the Nazi agenda, and shows that slave women were valued as workers, as reproducers of future slaves, and as sexual objects, and that slave children were value as commodities.
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African Systems of Kinship and Marriage
TL;DR: Kinship among the Swazi, Hilda Kuper Nyakyusa kinship, Monica Wilson kinship and marriage among the Lozi of northern Rhodesia and the Zulu of Natal, Max Gluckman kinship among Tswana, I Schapera some types of family structure amongst the central Bantu, AI Richards kinship as discussed by the authors, M Fortes double descent among the Yako, Daryll Forde dual descent in the Nuba hills.
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