In the Shadow of Marriage

by Griffiths, Anne M. O.

• ISBN13: 9780226308739
• ISBN10: 0226308731
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-01-19
• 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	ix
PREFACE	1	(10)
ONE Academic Narratives: Models and Methods in the Search for Meanings	11	(28)
TWO The Gendered Dynamics of Households: Managing Resources, Procreation, and Marriage	39	(23)
THREE Diverging Families: Social Stratification, Procreation, and Marriage	62	(44)
FOUR Pregnancy and Marriage: The World of Negotiation and Dispute	106	(28)
FIVE The Gendered World of Marriage: Claims of Desertion and Neglect	134	(24)
SIX Untying the Knot: Public Dissolution and Division of Property	158	(25)
SEVEN Final Partings: Institutional Encounters and the Shifting Boundaries of Law	183	(28)
EIGHT Reconfiguring Law: A Differentiating Perspective	211	(30)
APPENDIXES	241	(30)
A: Procreative Relationships and Marriage in Three Families	241	(4)
B: Text for Teko Mere's Hearing	245	(4)
C: Text for Nyana Segethsho's Hearing	249	(4)
D: Text for the Kgosidintsis' Hearing	253	(9)
E: Text for the Makokas' Hearing	262	(2)
F: Text for Mmathari's and Tshotego's Hearing	264	(7)
NOTES	271	(14)
REFERENCES	285	(14)
INDEX	299