Some Changes in the Matrilineal Family System among the Chewa of Malawi since the Nineteenth Century

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Periodical article

Title:	Some Changes in the Matrilineal Family System among the Chewa of Malawi since the Nineteenth Century
Author:	Phiri, Kings M.
Year:	1983
Periodical:	The Journal of African History
Volume:	24
Issue:	2
Pages:	257-274
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Malawi
Subjects:	Chewa matriarchy Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Women's Issues History and Exploration
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/181644
Abstract:	Examines the nature of the family in a matrilineal context and its adaptation to historical change, using the Chewa of Central Malawi as an example. The mid-nineteenth century is taken as a point of departure, due to the availability from that time onwards of both written and oral sources. An attempt is made to delineate changes in traditional family structure and relationships which resulted from a variety of developments within and outside Chewa society: slave trade in the 19th century, the opportunity to acquire women who could be married virilocally, the intrusion of patrilineal peoples, the spread of certain Christian missionary teachings, and labour migrancy and cash cropping. Map, notes.