Kinship and family life of the Herero
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Date
2000
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Abstract
Marriage and having children in marriage is ideal for Herero women, but regardless of that most Herero women give birth to out-of-wedlock children. Children are highly valued among the Herero, and motherhood is essential for womanhood. Because the age of marriage is high and for many women marriage is unattainable, women can not postpone giving birth until possible marriage and end up as single mothers. However, single motherhood among the Herero can not be defmed in the same way as in Western cultures. The Herero practice double descent, but regardless of patrilocal residence patrilineal descent is waning. Especially among women, matrilineal descent is emphasized. Children belong to the whole matrilineal descent group and especially help from brothers' and maternal uncles' is essential for single mothers. Children are also fostered out to close relatives. According to traditional custom women still often have children with their cross-cousins. In this way child gets support from its father and have close contacts with the father's family. Tensions rising from patrilocal residence form are alleviated by cross-cousin marriages
It is possible that the the defining of marriage by Western jural concept has left a number of such relationshps outside of legal unions which traditionally have had their place in society, and also led to a misunderstanding of illegitimacy of children. Social organization is very flexible and the legalization of marriages have caused people to choose different kind of strategies into their behaviour: polygyny has been replaced by several simultaneous girlfriends. However, among the Herero pre-and extra- marital relationships have most probably existed already before Western influence, and now concubinage is only newly applied to the changing circumstances. In today's Herero society, single motherhood is not sanctioned more than was polygyny or concubinage before, and children born to single mothers are not regarded as more illegitimate among the Herero than before. An ever-growing emphasis on matrilineality gives women freedom and power to decide about their family life, and strong identification with matrilineal descent group, children with cross-cousins, and fosterchild system prevent Herero women from dropping into a marginalized position in a changing situation where status of women is decided by Western jural concept
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Includes bibliographical references
Keywords
Kinship, Culture, Herero, Marriage, Single mothers