5. vii. - The hair of the mother and the child is shaved. Culture and values are adaptive .. These are many. Marriage 4. 2. Christianity: Christianity has weakened African Kinship ties by introducing new ties by the Christian family. Yet in some communities when a woman is pregnant she is not allowed to talk to her husband directly. Your husband or wife, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law are all kinsmen related to you through marriage. Second, an identifying drum beat used at ceremonies. Although children are our main focus, we have a holistic approach to the problem . What was the structure of the polygynous family? Communal worship prayers are offered to God to thank Him for whatever he has done. 4. They are free most of them and can get time for the younger generation. Family. The moral values learnt include:- -Obedience/loyalty. The basic family unit among the Bemba was not the nuclear family. 8 It brings poverty to the family involved as sometimes it takes the bread winner 9 At times it brings misunderstanding in the community when the cause of death is blamed on someone or some people. East Lansing, Michigan State University, 1980, Unpublished M. A. Thesis. 4. The dramatic social changes in Africa during the last three decades of political independence from European colonialism have obviously affected the traditional family. They can also reveal-hidden information e.g. However, as a prospective husband, you are told to pay for the marriage and not the bride. ii. Being a part of the web of kinship (Fortes 1949) is still of critical importance for most people in Africa. Many people today acquire Christian names. Second Edition, London: Cambridge University Press, 1984, Ch. They are given time to heal. Would provide medical care e.g. (Buffalo: Amulefi Publishing Company, 1980). (New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1961)p.76. Western Culture: Has provided the spirit of individualization. There is socialization to raise boys and girls to become responsible and acceptable adults of the village, community, and ultimately society. Kinship relationships also determine social obligations and responsibilities, such as who has the right to inherit property or who is responsible for caring for children 6. false T/F: Female slaves generally worked outdoors while male slaves did domestic work. Family plays a central role in African society. These carried with them all the heavy social obligations demanded of a mother or father, daughter or son. v. There was a lot of fairness in the distribution of property. Some of the issues that were the products of the Eurocentrically biased judgements include the following two. The study of African societies has become an established area of scholarship, with sophisticated analyses that are far from earlier works . - They are given financial assistance. (Ndola: Mission Press, 1988), 44 Thomas Price, A Short English-Nyanja Vocaublary, (Lusaka: National Educational Company of Zambia, and Kenneth Kaunda Foundation, 1970). We do not sell brides in our society. The education provided is a lifelong process. - Some widows and children are not accepted or welcomed in their new homes. It is also a way of remembering important events in the society. There has been a lot of interference from Christian religious beliefs. - People write wills to share or decide who should inherit their property. 3. 36 Lucy P. Mair African Marriage and Social Change, in Survey of African Marriage and Family Life. The continued, persistent and wide use of the term bride price to describe the valuables that were often given to the brides parents before marriage was legitimated is one excellent example of evaluating and perceiving a custom from a biased Eurocentric perspective. - Rainmakers are special people who have the ability to make rain. They advise the expectant mother on how to take care of herself. Which factors have led to the weakening of kinship ties in Kenya today? - In some communities e.g. Marriage is no longer a must and many people decide not to marry. The cultural and physical diversity added with the dramatic social changes of the last three decades on the continent makes the family pattern situation so variegated as to defy any sweeping generalizations. - Among the Luo the bride could be accompanied by her other sisters and on the first night, the people would witness the breaking of virginity. The San society in general and the kinship system in particular are very different from contemporary American society. Importance of kinship ties to TAS v. In some cases if a man is married and wants another wife his first or other wives would be involved in making the proposal. 6 It separates one from the loved ones. By Timothy T. Schwartz, PhD. A community has distinct beliefs, customs and cultural practices. 8. 3. Virginity is not highly valued and many people break their virginity at stage of adolescence. This difficulty in generalization bone of diversity was already apparent to many early scholars of the African traditional family like Mair(1) and Goode(2). 4. The common descriptions of the African traditional family in the literature is Eurocentric and biased. 42 Yizenge A. Chondoka, Traditional Marriages in Zambia: A Study in Cultural History. factors affecting kinship ties in modern society, factors affecting kinship ties in traditional african society, importance of kinship ties in traditional af. The youth are taught to be courageous in order to be able to face challenges in life e.g. 2 William J. To give the mother time to recover the lost energy. At times girls could be given to repay debts. In some communities if a woman is barren, she would bring another woman to bring children on her behalf. 7. - Sometimes the orphans and widows have their property destroyed or snatched. Death is believed to be a next journey to the world of the spirits. Severing the ties of kinship is among the body sins and it is among the major sins. In western European societies Jack Goode finds that world revolution has contributed for the transformation of . For example, sickness in the indigenous African worldview is not only an imbalance of the body, but also an imbalance in one's social life, which can be linked to a breakdown in one's kinship and family relations or even to one's relationship with one's ancestors. iii. | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples There was never a distinction between the biological and non-biological kin as far as primary parental obligations were concerned. Headmanships of villages, court offices, ritual titles, and chieftainships are passed on in this way. Importance of Naming 1. 5. Girls take care of the babies and fetch firewood. There is no proper dosage of the herbs. 2. Laziness was condemned or punished to ensure that people owned what they had actually worked for. vii. 2. Grandparents are charged with the duty of counseling. - During this period of seclusion:- i. 16. GAZETTE: How have ancestors . After initiation one is now free to marry and has a right to inherit his fathers property. Aboriginal kinship ties, values, beliefs, identity and language are maintained by the family. Lusaka: National Educational Company of Zambia, and Kenneth Kaunda Foundation, 1970. She organizes the disposal of the placenta (after birth). Naming gives identity to a person before a child is given a name she or he is not considered as having full identity. p119. Communal activities: People participate in communal activities e.g. Religion: People have some religious beliefs, which promote unity, and every community believes in the existence of one God. A woman inherits her maternal grandmother or sisters. v. Marking of the body (scarification) - During initiation, the initiates are removed from the rest of the community. IV, pp.66-87. Girls, in distinction to boys, seldom have time to play games.21, Among the Bemba people of Northern Zambia, marriage is matrilocal. - In African traditional society, each individual is related to the other. It was used to bury the dead, the spirits were believed to dwell on land or below the ground. As such disputes over land ownership were rare, this is because:- i. - In most African communities a widow was inherited by the husbands close relatives. Life is seen to begin from the time of conception since unborn children are taken as part of the community. At childhood children are taught to obey parents and the elderly. Marriage has been commercialized - many people demand higher payment for their daughter. However the mode of dressing has seriously changed due to western influence. Colson, Elizabeth., Marriage and the Family among the Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia., Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1958. Death must have a cause. People who have become educated consider the shaving of the hair unnecessary. Clitoridectomy Female circumcision. Courtship gives the two families time to prepare in advance for the real marriage. 6. These views were expressed before 1930s and as late as 1960s. Th importance whice h UNICEF attaches to the family is also based on the Conventio onn the Eliminatio onf - Marriage ensures that children are not born outside wedlock. But rather as curiosities that were to succumb to the superior European monogamous marriage values legitimated by Christianity. There are basically eight primary kinswife father son, father daughter mother son, wife; father son, father daughter, mother son, mother daughter; brother sister; and younger brother/sister older brother/sister. The kin group is also a source of emotional and spiritual belonging. Diseases such as epidemics would kill people. The husband could take his wife home if the marriage was thought stable especially after the couple has had two or more children. Urbanization has undermined the role of of the elders as it becomes difficult for elders to operate as the people come from different backgrounds. 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