Grandparenthood and modernization: The changing status of male and female elders in Tiriki, Kenya, and Irigwe, Nigeria

Abstract

Tiriki, Kenya, and Irigwe, Nigeria, are both patrilineal agricultural, age graded societies in which grandparenthood is a prerequisite for elderhood. Strikingly dissimilar marriage and cultural belief systems, however, underlie each society's markedly polarized male-female gender roles, and strongly gerontocratic authority structures. These contrasting beliefs have fostered differing social responses to similar British colonial, and post-colonial modernization experiences. Today male-female role polarization has decreased in Irigwe, and elders' authority has markedly diminished. Gender role differentiation has diminished in Tiriki, but male elders' status has remained high, and women elders' status has increased.