African Women 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Redefining Kin and Family Social Relations: Burial Societies and Emergency Relief in Botswana |
| Author: | Ngwenya, Barbara Ntombi |
| Year: | 2003 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Social Development in Africa (ISSN 1012-1080) |
| Volume: | 18 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 85-110 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Botswana Southern Africa |
| Subjects: | burial societies Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Women's Issues Cultural Roles organizations sociology Burial Social groups Funeral rites and ceremonies kinship AIDS (Disease) Social crisis |
| Abstract: | Based amongst others on fieldwork conducted in Botswana (Gaborone and Ramotswa) between February 1997 and August 1998, the author discusses the provision of financial relief to members' households by women-centred local institutions known as burial societies (diswaeti) in the event of death. The omnipresence of death and dying in Botswana does not necessarily precipitate despondency; instead it underwrites commitments by members of burial societies to new sensibilities and to imaginative interventions that regenerate, rather than wear out, kin relations. By providing emergency financial and non-financial support, burial societies find practical ways to minimize social tensions and reduce animosity between individuals, family and kin. In the burial society community, therefore, the social process of providing emergency financial and non-financial relief is more than an instrumental task: it is a nuanced cultural process that redefines kin and family social relations. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract] |
