ANTH 1616: Family and Kinship in Africa

ANTH 1616: Family andKinship in AfricaSpring 2010, Harvard University

KINSHIP IS A SOCIAL FACT.

“Social facts exist outside of individuals and are not reducible to psychological facts.

A great deal of social research is based on the assumption that people are influenced by social

forces that emerge from the interaction of humans but that transcend individuals.”

The Mamas and

the Papas

•Alliance Theory vs. Descent Theory

•Matrilineal and Patrilineal Descent

•The Mother’s Brother (your uncle)

•Age Sets

What makes a family?

Kinship occurs when people give cultural recognition and cultural significance to biological facts of relatedness

LINEAGE: The Search for Continental Kinship

Blood is thicker than water. Even ocean water.

Compared to U.S.

Small Scale

Patriarchal

Very white

Also weird.

Koli vs. Sumo

•Modernity & Tradition

•Modernity vs. Tradition

•Modernity/Tradition Dualism

The Changing African Family

Nuclear Kinship

Anthropological Understandings of the

WorldScheper-Hughes and Lock

The Patrimonial State

BIG MAN POLITICS: AFRICAN UNION 2002

Les Feministas

Mothernity:

“Motherhood is a more powerful metaphor for the commonality of women’s

experiences than sisterhood.”

Kinship Problems in the Anthropology of Africa

Biological antecedents & political entitlementsSocial changes emerging from modernizing

passionsHow religion mucks things upViolence and ruptureGender-Based ViolenceReproductive HealthState Construction and State CorruptionCitizenship, Legal Change, and Human Rights