ANTH/WMGS 326 Issues in the Anthropology of Kinship
Winter 2018
Mar. 21: The gender of marriage partners
Required reading: Njambi, Wairimũ Ngarũiya and William E. O'Brien (2000) “Revisiting ‘Woman-Woman Marriage’: Notes on Gĩkũyũ Women.” NWSA Journal, 12(1): 1-23.

- a fairly structural-functionalist definition of marriage, with some flexibility:
    Marriage is a socially binding contract that usually involves some definition of sexual relationship, access to property, mutual obligations for the provision of income or services, and outlines obligations and rights to children.

- what is the history of how “African woman-woman marriage” has been understood by anthropologists?
- what do Njambi and O’Brien argue is involved in woman-woman marriage among the Gĩkũyũ women they interview?
    - what is involved in the establishment of a woman-woman marriage?
    - what are the reasons these women give for marrying in this way?
    - what does the marriage consist of?
    - what are the contextual pressures against woman-woman marriage?
- based on the evidence here, does this fit the above definition of marriage?
    - does it add further ideas about what the basis of marriage might be in some cases?
    - is there any value to developing a broad universal definition of marriage, within which particular cultural variations can be examined and compared?



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