Children of the Dancing Ground, Children of the House: Costs and Benefits of Marriage Rules (South Turkana, Kenya)

Abstract

The arid land occupied by the South Turkana in northwestern Kenya is characterized by relatively well distributed water resources, complex vegetation communities, and low-density patches of forage which vary with low predictability in time and space. The people's coping strategies include a high dependence on livestock, use of multiple pathways of food energy transfer from plants through livestock to people, and extreme nomadism both to provide herds with necessary resources and to protect them from environmental hazards. Traditional marriage practices benefit wealthy herd owners, elder sons, and formally married women and contribute to the resilience and persistence of the South Turkana pastoral production system as a whole. However, these practices disadvantage other classes of Turkana society, particularly women unable to complete the marriage process and nonmarital children. This analysis contributes to an understanding of marriage in general, demonstrates the value of long-term multidisciplinary stud...