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| Title: | Ga women's autonomy: a critique of the concepts and economy of the household and family |
| Author: | Fayorsey, Clara |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Periodical: | African Anthropology (ISSN 1024-0969) |
| Volume: | 2 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Period: | March |
| Pages: | 91-130 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Ghana West Africa |
| Subjects: | Ga gender relations Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Women's Issues Cultural Roles Family Life Sex Roles Anthropology, Folklore, Culture Social and cultural anthropology kinship urban areas Gă (African people) Women's role Accra (Ghana) |
| Abstract: | This paper describes social changes among the Ga in Central Accra, or Ga Mashi, Ghana, on the basis of research carried out among 216 Ga households in 1991. It analyses the changes in gender relations that occurred due to shifts in residential patterns, and the emergence of strong matrilateral households in Central Accra. It discusses the problems involved in the use of the terms 'family' and 'household' in the Ga urban context. Among the urban Ga, for example, household does not imply coresidence and, therefore, it does not have the connotation of intimacy and sharing. Economic relations within the Ga household are characterized by exchange rather than pooling. Attention is paid to the economic separateness of men and women in order to assess the position of urban Ga women. The paper analyses the formation of the matricomplex, an economically based corporate kin group of matrilaterally related females, its economic organization, the marginalization of the role of men as household heads, the effect of these changes on gender relations, and women's autonomy, despite the fact that Ga society is traditionally patrilineal. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |
