Types of Marriages:

Marriage in Senegal (slides start) http://www.gpc.peachnet.edu/~rcarrie/marriage/senegal/sld001.htm

• West Aftrican nation, former French colony


• mixed tribes and religions


• slides are of a Muslim family


• men permitted to take as many as four wives as long as they can support them


• decides civil cases on tribal tradition and common sense


• rcarrie in community about 3 months, stayed in guest house with colleague in a 3 year study


• wives rotate on either daily or weekly basis


• first wife requested and helped select

15 Slides:

1. head of household, head man of village, owns farm, serves as magistrate, runs dry goods store


2. one of his fields, kept by his wives


3. women keep vegetable gardens for food and for sale, keep cash


4. head wife, at 42 yo, very ill with debilitating disease (fatal)


5. two other wives pounding millet grain


6. closeup on wife punding grain


7. family compound, roofs of storage, work areas, residence


8. co-wife washing rice for meal


9. making peanut butter (each wife has a seperate residence with her children)


10. cooperative cooking over a wood fire


11. sharing child care, co-mothering


12. village communal water pump (as far as 1 mi from residence), gossip time


13. bath time (requires more water, more firewood)


14. tea available for guests


15. Market Day, dressed up

Advantages:

• housing built by hand from local materials


• no mortgages ;)


• family structure resists disaster

anecdotes about moving villagers into apartment buildings

discussion of advatages of former English colonies over former French colonies: English left behind more infrastructure and technology

Senegalese were quite baffled by the idea of American households with no co-wives raising children, and were horrified by the idea of hiring strangers to help out (domestics, babysitters).

Most Senegalese and most Africans speak four languages.

Group project: Analysis of marriage types (handout form):
Zoe: polyandry and polygyny both present (no film today)

Chart: Polyandry effective at stabilizing population growth

Enforced monogamy in Western systems cause Serial Monogamy

50 multiple guess questions on definitions and rules
Handout: Exam II Essay Guide
rcarrie will pick 3 or 4, pick 2 to write on

3. very similar to chart handout we just worked on

email prof with questions or in office before class Wed