Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures, maps and tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: the people and the problem
- PART I THE LEGACY OF THE PAST
- PART II RESPONSES TO CHANGE
- 6 The seeds of change
- 7 Occupation, migration and education
- 8 Being Dyula in the twentieth century
- 9 Dyula Islam: the new orthodoxy
- 10 Kinship in a changing world
- 11 Conclusions: Heraclitus' paradox
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology
10 - Kinship in a changing world
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures, maps and tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: the people and the problem
- PART I THE LEGACY OF THE PAST
- PART II RESPONSES TO CHANGE
- 6 The seeds of change
- 7 Occupation, migration and education
- 8 Being Dyula in the twentieth century
- 9 Dyula Islam: the new orthodoxy
- 10 Kinship in a changing world
- 11 Conclusions: Heraclitus' paradox
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology
Summary
The kinship system of the Dyula was very well adapted to their precolonial status as an ethnic minority enjoying a monopoly over trade. The basic units in the system were the joint family and the kabila, or clan ward; the preference for in-marriage within the kabila provided an integrating mechanism. For males particularly, the joint family was both a budgetary unit and a unit of production, headed by the senior male of the group. The association of several joint families within a single kabila reinforced this structure of authority. Accession to leadership within the kabila was ascribed according to strict principles of seniority determining a precise order of succession. Strong pressures to settle internal disputes within the framework of a kabila council further buttressed the moral authority of senior members over their junior dependents. On the other hand, the kabila was large enough to serve as a bridge between individual joint families on the one hand and the local community as a whole on the other. Kabilas were, on occasion, units of economic specialization, and they were inevitably a preponderant factor in local faction politics. High rates of in-marriage within the kabila, accentuating the relative independence rather than the interdependence of the constituent kabilas within any local community tended to impede political integration on a larger scale. On the other hand, such a pattern of marriage made junior members of the kabila doubly dependent on seniors in positions of authority in order to obtain wives.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Traders Without TradeResponses to Change in Two Dyula Communities, pp. 138 - 163Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982