Kanbi - Marriage and Family



Monogamous unions are normative. Extramarital liaisons of male and female spouses are not unusual. Hypergamy is practiced and ekuda (marriage circles) exist whose members must intermarry. The father of the bride is ceremonially and financially the inferior party in marital negotiations and is required to pay an exorbitant fee in order to secure a son-in-law of suit able social standing. Postmarital residence is patrilocal. The joint family, consisting of either a couple together with their children or a large group extending five or more generations, is the basic domestic unit. Male children inherit the parental estate. During his lifetime, a father is the manager of the ancestral estate, but no part of this estate may be encumbered without the consent of his sons. By birth they are entitled to be coparceners with their father. If the ancestral estate remains undivided after the death of the father, the eldest son becomes its manager and all family members have a right to maintenance from its proceeds. The responsibility for the raising of children is assumed largely by the mother, but it is shared to some extent by all members of the joint family.

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