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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Gendering Commonality: African Men and the 1883 Commission on Native Law and Custom |
Author: | Erlank, Natasha |
Year: | 2003 |
Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies |
Volume: | 29 |
Issue: | 4 |
Period: | December |
Pages: | 937-953 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | images gender relations Fingo Nguni Xhosa colonialism customary law sexuality History and Exploration Law, Human Rights and Violence Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Politics and Government Women's Issues Historical/Biographical Cultural Roles Law, Legal Issues, and Human Rights Sex Roles Marital Relations and Nuptiality |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0305707032000135905 |
Abstract: | Towards the end of the 19th century racial and embryonic national categories were created and contested in South Africa in a public discourse that was ostensibly more to do with the differences that existed in the sex and gender codes of Africans and Europeans. This occurred especially within the hearings surrounding the 1883 Commission on Native Law and Custom instituted by the Cape colonial government. This commission was meant to examine the attitudes of Fingo, Xhosa and Thembu men from the Eastern Cape in positions of authority, towards a range of African practices and customs mostly to do with sexual norms and the nature of relations between the sexes. The commissioners tended to regard these customs as retrogressive, comparing them unfavourably with European gender norms. By contrast, African men maintained a staunch defence of customary practice. This led to dissent between the commissioners and the witnesses over the relative value of practices such as circumcision, initiation, female choice in marriage, 'lobola' (bridewealth), and polygamy. This paper discusses the changes in African attitudes towards sexuality and gender which the Commission reflected, the dissent expressed and the consequent implications for communities constructed around gender differences. Notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract] |