In the Shadow of Marriage : Gender and Justice in an African Community

by Griffiths, Anne M. O.

• ISBN13: 9780226308753
• ISBN10: 0226308758
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Anne Griffiths originally went to Botswana to establish a university course in family law. But independent fieldwork in Botswana convinced her of the central role of the traditional customary legal system that stands alongside the colonial common law of courts and magistrates she was examining in her course. In the first comparative work on these two systems, Griffiths shows how the structure of both legal institutions is based on power and gender relations that heavily favor males. Griffiths's analysis is based on careful observation of how people actually experience the law as well as the more standard tools of statutes and cases familiar to Western legal scholars. She explains how women's access to law is determined by social relations over which they have little control. In this powerful feminist critique of law and anthropology, Griffiths shows how law and custom are inseparable for Kwena women. Both colonial common law and customary law pose comparable and constant challenges to Kwena women's attempts to improve their positions in society.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Preface	p. 1
Academic Narratives: Models and Methods in the Search for Meanings	p. 11
The Gendered Dynamics of Households: Managing Resources, Procreation, and Marriage	p. 39
Diverging Families: Social Stratification, Procreation, and Marriage	p. 62
Pregnancy and Marriage: The World of Negotiation and Dispute	p. 106
The Gendered World of Marriage: Claims of Desertion and Neglect	p. 134
Untying the Knot: Public Dissolution and Division of Property	p. 158
Final Partings: Institutional Encounters and the Shifting Boundaries of Law	p. 183
Reconfiguring Law: A Differentiating Perspective	p. 211
Appendixes
Procreative Relationships and Marriage in Three Families	p. 241
Text for Teko Mere's Hearing	p. 245
Text for Nyana Segethsho's Hearing	p. 249
Text for the Kgosidintsis' Hearing	p. 253
Text for the Makokas' Hearing	p. 262
Text for Mmathari's and Tshotego's Hearing	p. 264
Notes	p. 271
References	p. 285
Index	p. 299
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