Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- List of case studies
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on transliteration
- List of abbreviations and symbols
- Part I CONTEXTS
- Part II SOCIAL GROUPS AND MARRIAGE
- 4 Patriliny, gender and endogamy
- 5 The Maduzai subtribe
- 6 Household production and reproduction
- Part III IDEOLOGIES OF EQUALITY AND INEQUALITY
- Part IV CASE STUDIES AND STRUCTURAL IMPLICATIONS
- Notes
- References
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology
4 - Patriliny, gender and endogamy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- List of case studies
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Note on transliteration
- List of abbreviations and symbols
- Part I CONTEXTS
- Part II SOCIAL GROUPS AND MARRIAGE
- 4 Patriliny, gender and endogamy
- 5 The Maduzai subtribe
- 6 Household production and reproduction
- Part III IDEOLOGIES OF EQUALITY AND INEQUALITY
- Part IV CASE STUDIES AND STRUCTURAL IMPLICATIONS
- Notes
- References
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Summary
Durrani insist that they transmit property and status through the male line and that nothing is inherited or passed on through women, whose only claim on their father's estate is the trousseau provided for their first marriage. Nor has a widow any claim other than a provision for her maintenance which is administered by her husband's heirs. In most contexts Durrani men and women discuss issues which might be analysed under the heading of agnation as if it were only applicable to men. From this point of view patrilineal descent is a fundamental principle of Durrani social organization and underlies all their concepts of social grouping. Not only is the male role in procreation held to be primary, but descent is considered to be unalterable and to determine tribal membership. As they put it, ‘Descent (nasab) makes a tribe (tayfa)’; and queries about descent demand an answer in terms of a named tribal group.
Social groups, agnatic and affinal ties
The Durrani confederacy is divided into a more or less fixed configuration of recognized tribes and tribal divisions. The names of these and their genealogical relation to each other are perpetuated by written Durrani and local histories originating in their southwestern homeland. Learned tribesmen in the north have knowledge, and sometimes copies, of versions of these histories.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Bartered BridesPolitics, Gender and Marriage in an Afghan Tribal Society, pp. 45 - 66Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991