Gynecology

Gynaegamy is a form of marriage in which a woman marries another woman by paying a bride price . This institution is called woman marriage in English-language literature and occurs in around forty African ethnic groups . A distinction is made between the leviral and the autonomous form of gynaegamy . The Gynaegamie exists in more than 40 ethnic groups in Northeast, East, Southeast, South and West Africa (z. B. in Benin, Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania).

The leviral form is the marriage of a mostly older, childless woman with a younger woman in the name of a deceased or fictitious relative. In this form of marriage, social and inheritance law considerations are decisive, because the children born by the younger woman during the gynecological marriage are considered to be descendants and heirs of the deceased or fictitious man and the older woman. This is why particularly rich, older women are interested in a gynecological marriage.

The autonomous form is the marriage of a wealthy but childless woman in her own name. The children of the younger partner of the gynecological marriage then become heirs to the rich woman.

The most important criterion for the selection of the biological father ( genitor ) is that he is married so that he does not endanger the existence of the gynecological marriage. With the conception of the children he does not enter into any further obligation. In the leviral form of the gynecological marriage, the genitor should come from the lineage of the deceased husband of the older woman or from that of her father.

literature

Elisabeth Tietmeyer : Women marry women. A comparative study of gynecology in Africa . Renner, Hohenschäftlarn near Munich 1985, ISBN 978-3-87673-103-2 .
Elisabeth Tietmeyer: Gynaegamy in Transition. The Agíkúyú between tradition and adaptation . Lit, Hamburg / Münster 1991, ISBN 978-3-88660-653-5 .

Individual evidence

↑ Unless otherwise stated, the presentation is based on: Rita Schäfer, women's organizations and development cooperation. Traditional and modern African women's associations in an inter-ethnic comparison . Centaurus-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Pfaffenweiler 1995, ISBN 978-3-89085-957-6 , p. 46 ff.
^ Difference and Gender, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-496-02631-6 , p. 164 Definition of Gynaegamie by Elisabeth Tietmeyer
↑ Ute Luig, Dynamic Constructs. Concepts of person, self and gender in African societies . In: Gabriele Jancke and Claudia Ulbrich (eds.), From the individual to the person. New concepts in the area of tension between autobiography theory and self-testimony research , Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 978-3-89244-899-0 , pp. 29–50, here p. 44.

[1] Unless otherwise stated, the presentation is based on: Rita Schäfer, women's organizations and development cooperation. Traditional and modern African women's associations in an inter-ethnic comparison . Centaurus-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Pfaffenweiler 1995, ISBN 978-3-89085-957-6 , p. 46 ff.

[2] Difference and Gender, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-496-02631-6 , p. 164 Definition of Gynaegamie by Elisabeth Tietmeyer

[3] Ute Luig, Dynamic Constructs. Concepts of person, self and gender in African societies . In: Gabriele Jancke and Claudia Ulbrich (eds.), From the individual to the person. New concepts in the area of tension between autobiography theory and self-testimony research , Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 978-3-89244-899-0 , pp. 29–50, here p. 44.