Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T04:10:23.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Polygyny: an indicator of nutritional stress in African agricultural societies?1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Extract

There are many variables which affect nutritional status (Bennett and Stanfield, 1972: 7–8). A number of recent nutritional surveys have tried to assess the influence of polygyny on the incidence of malnutrition, though to date no clear relationship has been found between the two. This may partly reflect a methodological problem: accurate determination of a woman's marital status is not easily achieved by questionnaire, and this is especially true in view of the developmental instability of polygynous households (Muhsam, 1956: 16). Yet questionnaires are frequently used in nutrition surveys and they can generate large quantities of data, although Johnston et al. have urged that studies be simplified in the interests of discovering some underlying structure (1980: 292). As a result of the massive bulk of disparate data, multivariate analysis has come to the fore in an attempt to establish significant correlations among the many variables which can be associated with malnutrition. But, as McDowell and Hoorweg point out (1975: 98), this method requires that an adequate research design be employed: it is not good enough to collect the data first and to seek the associations afterwards. The data to be collected must be carefully chosen so that pre-selected hypotheses can be tested. An anthropological perspective is very important in determining this choice of data. For example, although the term ‘polygynous’ describes a woman's marital status, it gives no indication of her position in a household relative to at least one other wife. For this reason it would be preferable to make the polygynous household, rather than the individual woman, the unit of study. Specific information could then be collected to clarify if there are constraints or advantages experienced by different wives within a polygynous household, or between wives in polygynous and monogamous households, in order to see whether these influence the nutritional status of their children.

Résumé

Polygamie et niveaux de nutrition dans les sociétés africaines agricoles

Un certain nombre d'études sur la nutrition compare les enfants issus de mariages monogames et polygames, cet article traite de l'influence que la polygamie peut avoir sur l'incidence de la malnutrition. II semble y avoir quelques différences entre les sociétés qui pratiquent la polygamie et celles qui ne la pratiquent pas: bien qu'il faille souligner que la polygamie se présente sous diverses formes. Les chasseurs/ramasseurs comme les ‘Kung San’ sont monogames et les traits attribués aux sociétiés polygames, comme l'héritage du patrimoine et la compétition sont absents et le ‘Kwashiorkor’ est inconnu. Il est suggéré que la résidence matrilocale donne aux femmes un meilleur contrôle des ressources alimentaires, bien que quelques sociétés patrilocales, comme les ‘Lango’, laissant également aux femmes le contrôle des aliments de subsistance. Dans beaucoup de sociétés patrilocales cependant, la nourriture et les ressources productives sont souvent assignées de façon plus rigoureuse. Il est avancé que la polygamie était traditionnellement associée à une agriculture rotatoire et des terres abondantes. Dans les régions où les terres font défaut, la polygamie n'est plus économiquement faisable et les femmes polygames ne reçoivent pas suffisament de terre pour nourrir leur famille. Ce manque peut être contre balancé si les femmes ont d'autres moyens de gagner de l'argent pour acheter la nourriture, mais quelquefois les maris s'approprient tout l'argent liquide. L'économie de vente des récoltes a permis l'émergence de nouvelles règies en ce qui concerne l'assignation des ressources du ménage. Si une femme est dans une position vulnérable à l'interieur d'un ménage polygame, c'est à dire, si elle a plusieurs jeunes enfants, très peu de terre et ne peut gagner d'argent par elle même, ses enfants courent le risque de malnutrition. En Afrique de l'Ouest, beaucoup de femmes sont des commercants indépendants et subviennent à leurs besoins sans l'aide le leurs maris. La polygamie permet aux femmes plus de liberté de continuer leurs entreprises commerciales, et le conflit entre co-femmes est contrôlé. L'importance du divorce comme résolution de conflit est noté. Les hauts taux de divorce ne mènent pas nécessairement à la désertion des enfants, vu que: l'adoption et la mise en nourrice sont souvent institutionalisés. Il est considéré que la lien entre la polygamie et le taboo d'un relèvement de couches prolongé n'a pas encore été prouvé et demande une examination plus detaillée de la présentation, distribution et intensité de la polygamie. L'article se termine sur quelques suggestions telles que l'élaboration d'etudes de nutrition futures permettant d'amasser les matériaux pertinants à une comparaison de mariages monogames et polygames, et les categories de femmes polygames ‘en danger’.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baxter, P. T. W. Forthcoming. ‘Butter for barley and barley for cash: petty transactions in an Arssi market’, 7th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. Transactions.Google Scholar
Bennet, F. J. and Stanfield, J. P. 1972. ‘The clinical conditions and aetiology of malnutrition in Uganda’, in Amann, V. F., Belashaw, D. G. R. and Stanfield, J. P. (eds.) Nutrition and Food in an African Economy, Vol. 1. Kampala: Makerere University. 19.Google Scholar
Boserup, E. 1970. Woman's Role in Economic Development. New York: St Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. and Caldwell, P. 1981. ‘The function of child spacing in traditional societies and the direction of change’ and ‘Cause and sequence in the reduction of postnatal abstinence in Ibadan City, Nigeria’, in Page, H. J. and Lesthaeghe, R. (eds.) Child Spacing in Tropical Africa. London: Academic Press. 7392, 181–200.Google Scholar
Clignet, R. 1970. Many Wives, Many Powers. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, R. 1971. Dominance and Defiance, a study of marital instability in an Islamic Society. Anthropological Studies No. 6. Washington DC: American Anthropological Association.Google Scholar
Collier, J. F. 1974 ‘Women in polities’ in Rosaldo, M. Z. and Lamphere, L. (eds.) Woman, Culture and Society. Stanford, Calif. University Press. 8997.Google Scholar
Colson, E. 1958. Marriage and Family among the Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Crosby, K. H. 1937. ‘Polygamy in Mende Country’, Africa 10 (2), 249–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curley, R. T. 1973. Elder, Shades and Women. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorjahn, V. R. 1959. ‘The factor of polygyny in African demography’, in Bascom, W. R. and Hersovits, M. J. (eds.) Continuity and Change in African Cultures. Chicago, I11.: Chicago University Press. 87113.Google Scholar
Douglas, M. 1969. ‘Is matriliny doomed in Africa?’ in Douglas, M. and Kaberry, P. M. (eds.) Man in Africa. London: Tavistock. 121–35.Google Scholar
Eide, W. B. and Steady, F. C. 1980. ‘Individual and social energy flows; Bridging nutritional and anthropological thinking about women's work in rural Africa: some theoretical considerations’, in Jerome, N. W., Kandel, R. F. and Pelto, G. H. (eds.) Nutritional Anthropology. Contemporary Approaches to Diet and Culture. New York: Redgrave. 6185.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. and L., S. 1936. ‘Food in the domestic economy of the Tallensi’, Africa 9 (3). 237–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, L. F. (ed.) 1967. East African Childhood. Nairobi: OUP.Google Scholar
Goody, E. N. 1973. Contexts of Kinship. An essay in the Family Sociology of the Gonja of Northern Ghana. Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology: CUP.Google Scholar
Goody, J. 1958. ‘The fission of domestic groups among the LoDagabe’, in Goody, J. (ed.) The Developmental Cycle in Domestic Groups. Cambridge: CUP. 5392.Google Scholar
Gordon, J. E., Chitkara, I. D. and Wyon, J. B. 1963. ‘Weaning Diarrhoea’, American Journal of Medical Science 245. 345–76.Google Scholar
Gray, F. H. 1981. ‘Birth intervals, postpartum sexual abstinence and child health’, in Page, H. J. and Lesthaeghe, R. (eds.) Child Spacing in Tropical Africa. London: Academic Press. 93110.Google Scholar
Huber, H. 1973. Marriage and the Family in Rural Bukwaya. Fribourg, Switzerland: University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, F. E., Newman, B., Cravioto, J., DeLicardie, E. and Scholl, T. 1980. ‘A factor analysis of correlates of nutritional status in Mexican children, birth to 3 years’, in Greene, L. S. and Johnston, F. E. (eds.) Social and Biological Predictors of Nutritional Status, Physical Growth and Neurological Development. London: Academic Press. 291307.Google Scholar
Konner, M. J. 1976. ‘Maternal care, infant behaviour and development among the !Kung’, in Lee, R. B. and DeVore, I. (eds.) Kalahari Hunter–Gatherers, Studies of the !Kung San and their Neighbours. Cambridge, Mass, and London: Harvard University Press. 218–46.Google Scholar
Lamphere, L. 1974.‘Strategies, co-operation and conflict among women in domestic groups’, in Rosaldo, M. Z. and Lamphere, L. (eds.) Woman, Culture and Society. Stanford Calif.: University Press. 97112.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. 1976. !Kung spatial organisation’, in Lee, R. B. and DeVore, I. (eds.) Kalahari Hunter–Gatherers. Studies of the !Kung San and their Neighbours. Cambridge, Mass, and London: Harvard University Press. 7398.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. 1979. The !Kung San. Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Leis, N. B. 1974. ‘Women in groups: Ijaw women's associations’, in Rosaldo, M. Z. and Lamphere, L. (eds.) Woman, Culture and Society. Stanford, Calif.: University Press. 223–42.Google Scholar
Lesthaeghe, R., Ohadike, O., Kocher, J. and Page, H. J. 1981. ‘Child spacing and fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa: an overview of issues’, in Page, H. J. and Lesthaeghe, R. (eds.) Child Spacing in Tropical Africa. London: Academic Press. 324.Google Scholar
LeVine, R. A. 1964. ‘The Gusii family’, in Gray, R. F. and Gulliver, P. H. (eds.) The Family Estate in Africa. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 6382.Google Scholar
MacCormack, C. P. 1979. ‘Sande: the public face of a secret society’, in Jules-Rosette, B. (ed.) The New Religion of Africa. Norwood, N. J.: Ablex. 2737.Google Scholar
McCrae, J. E. 1966. ‘The ecology of malnutrition in a Buganda village, Uganda’. London University: unpublished M.Sc. thesis.Google Scholar
McDowell, I. and Hoorweg, J. 1975. ‘Social environment and out-patient recovery from malnutrition’, Ecology of Food and Nutrition 4. 91101.Google Scholar
Minturn, L. and Lambert, W. W. 1964. Mothers of Six Cultures: Antecedents of Child-rearing. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Mønsted, M. 1977. ‘The changing division of labour within rural families in Kenya’, in Caldwell, J. C. (ed.) Family and Fertility Change. Changing African Family Series. Canberra: Australian National University. 259313.Google Scholar
Muhsam, H. V. 1956. ‘Fertility of polygynous marriages’, Population Studies X(1). 316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nukunya, G. K. 1969. Kinship and Marriage among the Anlo Ewe. London; Athlone Press.Google Scholar
O'Leary, M. 1983. ‘Population, economy and domestic groups, the Kitui case’, Africa 53(1). 6476.Google Scholar
Oppong, C. 1977. ‘The crumbling of high fertility supports. Data from a study of Ghanaian Primary School Teachers’, in Caldwell, J. C. (ed.) Family and Fertility Change. Changing African Family Series. Canberra: Australian National University. 331361.Google Scholar
Popkin, B. M. 1980. ‘Time allocation of the mother and child nutrition’, Ecology of Food and Nutrition 9. 114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richards, A. I. 1939. Land, Labour and Dietin Northern Rhodesia. Oxford University Press for The International African Institute.Google Scholar
Sanday, P. R. 1974. ‘Female status in the public domain’, in Rosaldo, M. Z. and Lamphere, L. (eds.) Woman, Culture and Society. Stanford, Calif.: University Press. 189206.Google Scholar
Saucier, J. F. 1972. ‘Correlates of the long postpartum taboo: a cross cultural study’, Current Anthropology 13 (2). 238–49.Google Scholar
Schoenmaeckers, R., Shah, I. H., Lesthaeghe, R. and Tambashe, O. 1981. ‘The child spacing tradition and the postpartum taboo in tropical Africa: anthropological evidence’, in Page, H. J. and Lesthaeghe, R. (eds.) Child Spacing in Tropical Africa. London: Academic Press. 2572.Google Scholar
Sharman, A. 1972. ‘Food consumption patterns in East Uganda’, in Amann, V. F., Belshaw, D. G. R. and Stanfield, J. P. (eds.) Nutrition and Food in an African Economy, Vol. 1. Kampala: Makerere University. 7094.Google Scholar
Spencer, P. 1980. ‘Polygyny as a measure of social differentiation in Africa’, in Mitchell, J. C. (ed.) Numerical Techniques in Social Anthropology. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues.Google Scholar
Truswell, A. S. and Hansen, J. D. L. 1976. ‘Medical research among the !Kung’, in Lee, R. B. and DeVore, I. (eds.) Kalahari Hunter–Gatherers Studies of the !Kung San and their Neighbours. Cambridge, Mass, and London: Harvard University Press. 166195.Google Scholar
Wagner, G. 1970. The Bantu of Western Kenya. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Welbourn, H. F. 1963. ‘Social factors, nutrition and child mortality in a rural subsistence economy’, Ecology of Food and Nutrition 8. 227–40.Google Scholar
Williams, C. D. 1933. Archives of Disease in Childhood 8. 423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winans, E. V. 1964. ‘The Shambala family’, in Gray, R. F. and Gullivers, P. H. (eds.) The Family Estate in Africa. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 3561.Google Scholar
Woodburn, J. 1982. ‘Egalitarian Societies’, Man 17(3). 431–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar