Kinship of the Yoruba People
The kinship of the Yoruba people is
one that is in the linage structure.
Family is extremely important to them, but is interesting because it is
very much so different from that of Western and American cultures. In the
Yoruba family the father’s patrilinage is valued more than that of the mothers. Within the family seniority plays a
role. The older you are in the family
the more important you are. This is a
very similar quality that Western societies also posses. The Yoruba people live in a polygynous
society meaning that a man has multiple wives.
Within this domestic household there is a hierarchy of wives The first married is usually considered the
iyale. Iyale means mother of the
house. She is above the other wives and
has more pull then the others do. The
other wives are known as arecallediyawo.
Children may be in the same household, but because they have different
mothers they have different names. Full
siblings are omoiya and the children that are not of the same mother are called
omobabaor babakan. The structure of the
Yoruba people’s kinship may be different, but they have mothers, fathers,
brothers, sisters, husbands, and wives that care about each other. If you look at it from that perspective it
really is not that different from that of a Western culture.
-Dominique
Citation:
Schwab, B. William
1958 the Terminology of Kinship
and Marriage among the Yoruba. Africa: Journal of the International African
Institute 28(4): 301-313
Learning about the Yoruba people taught me that they aren't that different from Western cultures. Even in some western cultures we can see forms of polygyny. The Yoruba people love their families the same as us and that it is good to keep that in mind when learning of their practices that may be different from ours.
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