The History of the Family in Africa: Introduction

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Periodical article

Title:	The History of the Family in Africa: Introduction
Authors:	Marks, Shula Rathbone, Richard
Year:	1983
Periodical:	The Journal of African History
Volume:	24
Issue:	2
Pages:	145-161
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Subsaharan Africa Africa
Subjects:	family Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/181637
Abstract:	Historians of Africa have tended to take kinship as the 'given', unchanging category of analysis, rather than as something itself to be analysed and traced in its changed configuration over time. This weakness undoubtely arises from the intractability of the sources, but cannot entirely be explained because of this. There is also an acute problem of definition and of deciding the appropriate unit of study. In the different parts of Africa different factors have played a major role in reshaping the nature of the settlement group and the social institutions relating to the family. Notes.