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| Title: | Marriage Payments, Debt and Fatherhood among the Bangoua: A Lacanian Analysis of a Kinship System |
| Author: | Pradelles de Latour, Charles-Henry |
| Year: | 1994 |
| Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
| Volume: | 64 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 21-33 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Cameroon |
| Subjects: | Bamileke bridewealth Women's Issues Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Cultural Roles Marital Relations and Nuptiality |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1161093 |
| Abstract: | This article examines marriage payments, debt and fatherhood among the Bangoua, a Bamileke chiefdom on the plateau of the Central Western Region of Cameroon. Applying some concepts developed by J. Lacan, the author suggests that a woman represents two values, an exchange value and a pleasure ('jouissance') value. The Lacanian 'jouissance' is the pleasure associated with incestuous attraction. While the exchange value of a woman is repayable, her pleasure value is inalienable and, therefore, permanent. The author demonstrates that marriage payments and ceremonies among the Bangoua have one main aim: to settle a special debt which enables a girl's status to change from that of daughter to that of spouse. They also serve to legitimate the incest prohibition between father and daughter, which is the main incest interdiction in Bamileke society. The matrimonial alliance establishes the paternal functions of three fathers: the real father, the mother's father and the ancestors. It appears that, for this patrilineal society, the main social law is linked to a symbolic order in language and, paradoxically, is focused on the mother's lineage (her father and ancestors). Bibliogr., notes, sum. in English and French. |
