Lineage Structure, Marriage and the Family Amongst the Central Bantu

Abstract

Using the factors of family structure examined by Audrey Richards in a well-known essay, this article suggests that a more productive concept for the historical study of Central Africa than either the unique tribe or a group of societies identified by their rule of descent may be the lineage mode of production, in the restricted sense developed by P. P. Rey. Analysis of the organization of political, economic and ritual functions among the BaKongo, BaSuku, BaPende and other Zairean peoples shows the complementarity and flexibility of patrilateral and materilateral relationships. It is suggested that the greater ‘quantity’ of social structure exhibited by coastal peoples, as well as their matrilineal development, may result from the prolonged effects of the great Congo trade, especially the trade in slaves, modifying an old and generally bilateral system organized by networks of permanent matrimonial alliance. This system is characteristic of the Congo basin, Zimbabwe and Angola.