Enduring Polygamy

Plural Marriage and Social Change in an African Metropolis
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-1-9788-3114-8
Verlag: Rutgers University Press

Buch, Englisch, 246 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 68 g

Reihe: Politics of Marriage and Gender: Global Issues in Local Contexts

Why hasn’t polygamous marriage died out in African cities, as experts once expected it would? Enduring Polygamy considers this question in one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities: Bamako, the capital of Mali, where one in four wives is in a polygamous marriage. Using polygamy as a lens through which to survey sweeping changes in urban life, it offers ethnographic and demographic insights into the customs, gender norms and hierarchies, kinship structures, and laws affecting marriage, and situates polygamy within structures of inequality that shape marital options, especially for young Malian women. Through an approach of cultural relativism, the bookoffers an open-minded but unflinching perspective on a contested form of marriage. Without shying away from questions of patriarchy and women’s oppression, it presents polygamy from the everyday vantage points of Bamako residents themselves, allowing readers to make informed judgments about it and to appreciate fully the full spectrum of human cultural diversity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Whitehouse, Bruce

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie des Brauchtums und der Traditionen
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Familiensoziologie