CHAPTER SIX

marriage, family AND KINSHIP

Man differs from the animal in his sex urge and desires. Animals become sexually excited during specific periods in their life, in a state of estrus or heat. The female animal is not excited externally. As opposed to this, men and women are externally stimulated. Sex act for man is more a psychological act than mere biological act. While man is stimulated by visual means, women are more excited by the tactile medium and tenderness. Sex act is therefore is more of a sharing, a physical intimacy arising out of a spiritual need for one another.

The continued and sustained marriage is necessary for man because of the need of care for the human infant. Human infant cannot survive nor enter into the society without proper enculturation. As opposed to most animals human infants are totally dependent upon their parents for their very existence. Maturation period for human is much longer in this respect.  Hence the society everywhere stipulates certain systems of marriages. Family therefore is the key to the maintenance of the society. In God's scheme also, family is central, and be works through the family rather than through individuals. This is particularly true in the Sudanese cultures where, family is highly developed in comparison with more technically advanced cultures elsewhere where the family is breaking down.

Potential mates

Every culture defines eligible partners for their youth. In most Sudanese cultures these are within the tribes, but outside of one's own clan. This sort of arrangement is known as exogamy.

In the biblical periods of the Patriarchs, cousin marriages were considered preferable. So we see Abraham marrying his own cosister, Isaac and Jacob marrying their uncle's daughters etc. This practice is found among the Coptic Christians (both orthodox and evangelical) in the Northern Sudan. However in most Southern Sudanese cultures such practice are not accepted and special precautions are taken to avoid any cousin marriages by introducing them at festival occasions. There is rigid taboo in cousin marriages. There are several incest taboos also among the Southern Sudanese that closely resemble the Leviticus 18 regulations. These are meant to avoid disruption of families by sex within the family circle and consequent competition for sex.

Women Hunting

The various practices and rituals of the cultures in Sudan indicate, apart from old familiar stories, the fact that women hunting and snatching were wildly practices in this country. Even today, after proper settlement of marriage by paying bride price and getting family permission, the bridegroom is supposed to carry away the bride by forcefully entering her home.  There can be very severe fighting during this time where the bride’s brothers and friends try to stop the bridegroom from taking her away.  Such practices are a remnance of the earlier bride hunting practices. Invasions by another tribe on to neighboring tribe are often practiced even today. A detailed description of wife hunting is given in Judges 21.    The rapture or the taking away or snatching away of the church by Jesus is also reminiscent of this old custom.

Courtship and Marriage

Most cultures have very strict courtship regulations and have premarital sex regulations. A wide spectrum of allowances is seen throughout Africa.  Some tribes in West Africa do not marry unless the girl become pregnant and assures of her fertility.  Even if the actual marriage does not take place it does not matter because the man who marries her accepts the wife with the child because children are an asset. However in the North and the South Sudan premarital sex is strictly forbidden.  In the Western and Northern Sudan women circumcision ensures that premarital sex is practically impossible.

Fidelity within Marriage

Majority of the Sudanese cultures requires rigid fidelity within the marriage, though in some cultures wife sharing may be practiced as a sign of honoring a close friend or guest. Among the Nubians particularly the wife may maintain lovers of her own without arousing the jealousy of her husband.

Levirate and Ghost Marriages

If a brother dies, it is the duty of the surviving brother to take all the wives of his dead brother as his own. lf the man does not have a brother; his son should marry all the young wives of his father. Thus it is the responsibility of the nearest of kin to take over the wives and continue to procreate. Children born in these relations are considered to be the children of the dead man. This is the law of the levitate, This vas practiced by the Jews and the law governing this is found in Deuteronomy 25:5. If a brother died without marrying, his surviving brother may marry a girl on behalf of the dead brother and thus may maintain his name. This is known as the Ghost marriages. Both the levirate and the ghost marriages are widely practiced in the Southern Sudan.

Polygamy

This is a general terminology for having more than one mate.

Serial polygamy is practiced widely in America where they take a mate at a time in a series. Polygamy is practiced in most parts of the world, where one man may take more than one wife at a time. This is practiced all over the Sudan as well. This is closely connected kith the status and wealth of a person. For example Nida gives the following simplified economic cycle for the Shilluk.

Polyandry, the system where one woman keeps more than one husband and, group marriages where a group of men and women will have sexual access within the group are not found in the Sudan.

Monogamy- One man - one wife equal considered as the Christian ideal. But it limited areas of the world.

status matrimony is practices only in Polygamy are probably the major problem faced by the Christian churches in the Sudan. There have been great emphasis on monogamy within the churches and very often the churches forced the converts to divorce all wives except one, if they were to remain within the church. This has led to great many sufferings. which one of the wives is disposable? That will you do kith the children of the divorced wives? What will the divorced women do? Particularly if they are past child bearing age, they will be living a miserable existence. Be should not forget that even though monogamy is the ideal, God did allow polygamy in the Old Testament period, 'because of their hard heartedness.' There are occasions when the ideal may be violated to maintain Biblical absolutism. For example what will we do in a situation where there are excess of one sex. In Jamaica for example soon after the world war there were almost three women for one man. How do we apply Biblical Absolutism and cultural relativism in this case?

Kinship

Tribe is a close knit unit by kinship relations. There are essentially three different types of ties.

* The affinal ties arise by intermarriage,

* the consanguine ties arise by blood relation through parentage, and * the fictive ties arise by legal ceremonial or religious oath.

A missionary may enter into a kinship relation by marriage or by fictive relation.

A clear understanding of kinship relation is essential for any serious entry into a culture. Diagrammatic analysis of kinship is probably of great help in understanding the kinship structure. Here are the special symbols used in such studies.

                                 M     Male                     F          Female      =      Marriage              

Sometimes relations are indicated by shorthand:

Fa       Father          Mo       Mother       Br       Brother

Si        Sister           So        Son            Da      Daughter

Hu      Husband       Wi        Wife

The clan is the sociological unit in the Sudan, who claim a common descent from a male ancestor. Thus this is an example of Patrilineal descent. Other types of descents like matrilineal descent (mother centered), Bilateral descent and Ambilineal descents are not found in the Sudan. It is a man's world.

The origin of the clan is usually traced to a mythical totem animal, totem bird, totem fish or a spirit.  The members of the patrilineal descent are shaded in the above diagram

In the Sudan kinship relations are of extreme importance, that they have special names for almost every relationship.

Major systems of kinship terminology are:

• The Omaha system
• the Crow system
• the Iroquis system
• the Hawaiian system
• the Eskimo system and
• the Sudanese system

We show below two of these systems for comparison where equally marked  kin are known by the same relational names. {The symbols used are ! @ $ % & *  ** ( ) +  ++}    Sudanese terminology is associated everywhere in the world with relatively great political complexity, class stratification and occupational specialization.

Eskimo System

Sudanese System

Notice that in the Sudanese system each relationship has unique names

Age -set systems

ln addition to the kinship bindings, people of the same age group form an age set which have greater unity as a group. They are composed of groups of persons of similar age and sex who move together through life's stages. This is mostly found among the Nilotics of the Sudan. Entry into an age group is usually through an initiation ceremony. Transitions to new stages are associated with succession of rites. The bond between the same age group – who usually assumes a set name for themselves – is much more stronger than other bonds. Excommunication from their age group is equivalent to exile. This extreme punishment is given only for crimes against society. Reinstatement is possible only by  sacrificing their pet  ox from whom he derived his ox-name.

Blood Brother

Some societies accepts a foreigner into their society on equal footing after they have found him to be trustworthy. This is often initiated through rituals. For example among the cadis this is performed by mixing the blood of the person with the adopting clan brother.

Reflection in the Church

It will be worthwhile to study these groups and family so as to assimilate the major features of the system into the church structure itself. It is certainly evident from the study that church elders must be chosen from among the heads of the families. Deacons may form an age group set who may eventually become elders. Organizations for the various age groups with corresponding teachings and activities will help the church life relevant and growing.

QUESTIONS

1. Study the various types of marriages in the Old Testament.

2. Discuss the various types of marriages in your culture and compare them with those found in the old testament.

3. What are some of the courtship customs in your tribe?

4. What are the restrictions in sexual partnership in your tribe?

5.  Define adultery and incest in terms of your culture. What punishment do they invoke?

6. What solutions can we offer to polygamy, levirate marriage, ghost marriage etc.?

7. Search the scripture to find teaches about polygamy and levitate systems.  Is there any direct commandment regarding these?  Why did God allow his great friends like Moses and Abraham to have several wives?

8. Study the kinship relations as found in the Old Testament starting from Terah.

9. Diagram the kinship relations in your family as far as you can. (Mark yourself as ego)

10. Collect the kinship terminology in your culture.