Craho - Marriage and Family

Marriage. Marriage is monogamous and very stable after the first child is born. The husband and his near kin must pay to his wife's kin a sort of bride-price, including guns, iron pans, axes, hoes, cloth, and beads. Long journeys to big cities are motivated by such payments. Bride-price is paid gradually and can always be negotiated. It pays for the wife's sexual favors and for her cooking. Its final portion is paid when there is divorce or during mourning for the wife's or husband's death. Residence is matrilocal.

Domestic Unit. Each elementary family has a garden and eats out of the same dishes and bowls. Food is prepared by a woman, from products of her own garden, and offered to all elementary families of the domestic group. A man hunts and a woman gathers mainly for the members of his or her elementary family, but meat and fruits are also shared with the other members of the domestic group and other near kin or affines. The elementary family is the principal economic unit. A domestic group, which occupies the same house, splits up when the building becomes too small to accommodate everybody or when the parents of the married women die. The domestic groups with a common origin are related through female members and constitute an exogamous unit, which is a designated residential segment. When a village migrates or when a residential segment or part of it moves from one village to another, the spatial position of each segment in the circle is maintained.

Inheritance. There are no fixed inheritance rules for indigenous cultural objects. These are discarded and anyone can keep them after the owner's death. There is a tendency for fathers to pass the ownership of cattle to their children during their lifetime.

Socialization. Infants and children are raised by their parents, older siblings, or other members of the domestic group. The Craho do not use physical punishment in child rearing. Children spend a large amount of time playing with their neighbors on village paths, in backyards, or in streams. Depending on their age and physical capacity, they can help the adults in their work.