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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Eve's Rib: Association Membership and Mental Health among Kru Women
Author:Buelow, George
Year:1980
Periodical:Liberian Studies Journal
Volume:9
Issue:1
Pages:23-33
Language:English
Geographic term:Liberia
Subjects:Kru
women's organizations
Women's Issues
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Health and Nutrition
Abstract:In this paper the author intends to provide a 'thick description' of the economic and psychological force of membership in women's voluntary associations in Grand Cess, Liberia, where the character of women's associations is conditioned on one hand by economic concerns, but, in a more important sense, dictated by the psychological force of belonging to value institutions that provide the organization for and rationale behind the ascription of high self-esteem. These sodalities are characterized by the interplay between religious and political action, and ceremonial artifacts and behaviors that are symbolic of shared beliefs, desires and intentions. Among the Kru, male and female sodalities bring power to beat on different goals in different ways because kinbased organizations (clans) are directed by males to the perceived detriment of women's political, domestic and emotional equality. Attention is focused not simply on the activities of voluntary association membership, but on what Kru women mean by such action in the context of leading independent lives within a patrilineal, patrifocal community. Ref.
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