Abstract
This chapter covers categories that have historically shaped authority, responsibility, and identity among Bantu-speaking communities in Africa’s Bantu Matrilineal Belt from the precolonial to the contemporary era. The societies that contribute to this analysis were primarily matrilineal. In such societies, women were hardly excluded from positions of authority, but rather maintained considerable authority even where and when patrilineal models or even patriarchy crept into the social system. Through practices of heterarchy, familial relations, and lifestages, women welded authority equal to and often greater than men.
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Saidi, C., Fourshey, C.C., Gonzales, R.M. (2019). Gender, Authority, and Identity in African History. In: Yacob-Haliso, O., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Women's Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77030-7_151-1
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Gender, Authority, and Identity in African History- Published:
- 06 May 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77030-7_151-2
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Gender, Authority, and Identity in African History- Published:
- 19 November 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77030-7_151-1