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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Disharmonious spouses and harmonious siblings: conceptualizing household formation among urban residents in Qwaqwa |
Author: | Niehaus, Isak A. |
Year: | 1994 |
Periodical: | African Studies |
Volume: | 53 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 115-135 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | South Africa Qwaqwa |
Subjects: | family urban households Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Urbanization and Migration Women's Issues Cultural Roles Marital Relations and Nuptiality Family Life |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/00020189408707791 |
Abstract: | Ethnographic studies on southern Africa have recorded intense levels of marital instability and domestic disorganization. Yet little attention has been focused on new forms of households that have emerged in this context. With reference to case material on the town of Phuthaditjhaba in Qwaqwa, South Africa, this paper suggests that cooperative relations between siblings have become a central principle underlying household formation. It shows that out of a sample of 80 households only 11 households contained no siblings groups. A nuanced account of domestic life in the labour-sending areas of southern Africa demands recognition of the greater advantages offered by consanguineal ties over affinal ties as bases of cooperation and support. The paper is based on research carried out in Qwaqwa in the 1980s and was presented to the conference of the Association for Anthropology in Southern Africa at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, in September 1989. |