Family and kinship have changed drastically over time in the
Tutsi group. Many years ago family clans were highly significant. They lived
together in solidarity until geographical mobility forced them to disperse. (Piddington
page 178) Marriage plays an important role in society as woman are expected to
marry and reproduce. “Unlike in the
past, most couples today select their own mates, though approval of the family
is expected. “(Culture of Burundi)
Inheritance through a family stay within the
male gender, status and clan affiliation, along with possessions is passed down
from a father and divvied between his sons. Families live in close proximity,
usually, a wife has her own household while the husbands extend family live
within close quarters. Both the wife and husbands kin have important social
relations to the family. (Culture of Burundi) Today though clans only serve the
purpose of defining marriage partners, their purpose and significance has died
out over time, though historically they were of major importance.
2004 Culture of Burundi. Advameg
Inc. Electronic Document. http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Burundi.html,
accessed on March 13, 20014
Piddington, Ralph
1965. Kinship and Geographical Mobility.
Electronic document.http://books.google.com/book
Accessed on March 13, 2014
Electronic document.http://books.google.com/book
Accessed on March 13, 2014
Zar, Maryam
2010. Stand Up if you Know about Ruwanda. The
voice of Womanfound. October 24. Electronic Document. http://womenfound.wordpress.com/category/tutsi/
Accessed on March 13, 2014
I think I is very interesting how the gender inequality plays such a big role in clans. The father passes down the inheritance to his sons, the fathers family typically lives in close proximity while the mother’s family lives farther, the male dominance is powerful here. I assumed the male prominence in this group, but I did not know it would go to such lengths.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about how the family has changed so much over the time. That land and availability of resources can change a community so significantly. Land has a higher priority than a clan sticking together. In this type of society it is a fight to survive, and sometimes one must leave lovedones to do so. I thought this topic was well thought out and nicely put into words.
Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteThis is a good post, and your ethnographic post also makes it easier to talk about family and kinship examples we used in class. Even if it was not about this group, you can make critical comments relating examples from class, or your book, as they discuss family and kinship, roles, and all that. It is important, please. IN terms of refs, please look at Krizia, and look at Stephanie's post, they both got it. Start coordinating efforts for the final presentation. Good work. Thank you!
Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteYour references are good. I have a couple of suggestions:
1. I like the fact you are citing, but since you would need page numbers for the citation that you have in quotations (and I think it is a web page, so you don't have it), why don't you paraphrase it instead. When you use quotations you need to add the page number. Now, if you paraphrase it, you would still need to fix your authors in the text. For instance, you would need to write (Villamar 2014); meaning, author and year. If no year on the web page, just write (Villamar N.d.). Of course, I am using my name, but you will use their names (or web page name instead of the last name). YOu have time to do this after the presentation.
Now, for your presentation, please try to incorporate some of the course content related to marriage or descent. You are talking about patrilineages, so why not mention this. If you do this, and later in the day tomorrow, edit your reflection incorporating course content, I it will reflect in my final evaluatino of the blog tomorrow night. Thanks