Cross-Cousin Marriage in Northern Ghana

Abstract

In recent years the discussion of cross-cousin marriage (XCM) I has concentrated upon the prescribed forms, and much ink has flowed in arguments about preferences and prescriptions, about the differences between normative rules and rates of occurrence (statistical 'norms'), and about the relation between these two aspects of social behaviour, and exactly what it is that prescriptive marriage prescribes (i.e. is it marriage with a particular person, sibling group, descent group or category of kin, for in each case the structural implications will differ?). The concentration on prescriptive forms is linked with the central role that Australia has played in the comparative study of kinship. This antipodean dominance derives partly from the timing and nature of European expansion in the area and partly from certain assumptions about the value of the Australian material as providing evidence for the origins of man's social institutions. Technologically, the Australian aborigines have the simplest living (or recently living) culture, so that those social institutions that are closely entailed with technology might be expected to reflect this fact. But Australian societies (as we have often been reminded) have had as long a past as any other human group, and when one compares certain aspects of their kinship institutions and religious beliefs with those of other parts of the world, one is impressed not so much by their 'elementary forms' (pace Durkheim and LeviStrauss) as by their highly specialised, morphologically complex nature. Be this as it may, it is possible that an examination of the more widespread and flexible institution of preferential cross-cousin marriage may throw some light upon the more rigid and formalistic systems to which theoretical attention has been largely devoted. This paper forms part of a series of studies of kinship variables among the peoples of northern Ghana and follows the method of limited comparison discussed in our artidcle on 'The circulation of women and children in northern Ghana' (Goody, J. & E. Ms.). We start by examining a few groups in which intensive fieldwork has been carried out, namely the Tallensi, Konkomba, LoDagaa and Gonja, in order to set out the problem. We then go on to consider all the available data on the peoples of northern Ghana in order to see how far the associations derived from the intensive studies are valid over the wider area. Finally, we discuss why the practice of cross-cousin marriage should take the form it does in these societies. 2 In addition to preferred cross-cousin marriage, we also want to focus attention on a related, but neglected, institution, that of prohibited cross-cousin marriage. Prohibitions are usually treated in the context of asymmetrical cross-cousin marriage, where one type (MBD or FZD) is allowed and the other forbidden. In dealing with preferential systems it is necessary to treat prohibitions as varying independently of prescriptions or preferences.