On Preferential/Prescriptive Marriage and the Function of Kinship Systems

The Rukuba Case (Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria)1

Bibliographic Data

ID2452156
AuthorsJean-Claude Muller (Université de Montréal, corresponding author), Jean‐claude Muller
Year1973
Volume75
Issue5
Pages1563-1576
Publication date1973-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Anthropologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7294 • E-ISSN: 1548-1433
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/aa.1973.75.5.02a00230
OpenAlexW2164271465
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited9

This article examines the relevance of the distinction between preferential and prescriptive marriage through a particular case, that of the Rukuba. It will be shown that the Rukuba people have three distinct conceptual models of prescriptive and preferential marriage for uterine sisters, according to their birth order. The conceptual model is prescriptive for the first two girls and, although the model is only said by the Rukuba to be preferential for the third and following sisters, statistical evidence shows that this marriage is also prescriptive. Since the Rukuba prescriptive marriage is not a kinship marriage but a marriage which nevertheless produces a peculiar systematic delayed exchange of women, some of the recent assumptions propounded by Lévi-Strauss about the function of kinship systems are criticized

Biology · Economics · Evolutionary biology · Fictive kinship · Function (biology · Genealogy · Kinship · Order (exchange · Political science · Relevance (law · Sociology · State (computer science · Anthropology · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · History · Land Rights and Reforms · Law · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Mathematics

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