Rising Divorce Among the Nuer, 1936-1983

Bibliographic Data

ID2573871
AuthorsSharon Hutchinson (0000-0002-6891-6758), Sharon E Hutchinson (corresponding author)
Year1990
Volume25
Issue3
Pages393
Publication date1990-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMan (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0025-1496 • E-ISSN: 2397-2548
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2803710
OpenAlexW2254283836
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited8

Anthropologists have conumonly taken a view ofAfrican marriage that ethnocentrically equates 'stability' with the degree of rights husbands and their kin formally acquire in women through marriage payments. Recent historical evidence from the Sudanese Nuer, however, contradicts this assumption. Jural divorce rates have been rising rapidly over the last half century at the same time as Nuer husbands and their kin have been acquirng ever greater legal rights in their wives and children through the agency ofgovernment courts. The article shows how evolving court policies and practices in this regard have been working against women's interests within marriage. It also documents changing Nuer concepts ofmarrnage, divorce and bridewealth exchange between 1936 and 1983

Demographic economics · Economics · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Psychology