Bridewealth, Women & Land
Social Change Among the Gusii of Kenya

By Thomas Hakansson
Dec. 1988
Almqvist & Wiksell
ISBN: 91-554-2190-3
238 p.
$46.50 Paper Original

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The present study examines the persistence of bridewealth and its manifestations with changing social and economic conditions among the Gusii people of Kenya. It examines the changing role of bridewealth in structuring male-female relationships with a focus on resource allocation and family affairs. The analysis focuses on the marginalization of women and the prevalence of informal unions among poor farmers, as well as in altered relationships between employed women and their natal kin, and between wife-givers and wife-takers among the members of the wealthy educated.

African Studies
Anthropology
Series: Uppsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology

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