Matrilocality

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Longhouse of the matrilineal Iroquois , for around 500 people (USA 1885)
Interior view of a longhouse (Mokotakan Open Air Museum, Quebec Province , 2007)

Matrilocality ( Latin mater "mother", locus "place": place of residence with the mother) describes a sequence of housing ( residence rule ) in ethnosociology in which a married couple sets up their household at the mother's place of residence of one of the two spouses and the other partner after marriage draws in. Early social anthropology understood this to mean living with the wife's mother.

Uxori locality ("at the place of the wife") is more general and describes the establishment of marital residence with the wife, her mother, family or at the place of her ancestry group ( lineage , clan ), the husband also includes. Uxorilokal is preferred to the misleading matrilokal with the meaning “with or near the woman's family” . The term uxori- local is derived from the Latin uxor "wife" ("woman": mulier ), while the male equivalent viri- local is derived from vir "man" ("husband": maritus ), a reflection of the female subordination in the roman marriage .

Women- centered residence rules can be found worldwide in 32 percent of all matri- linear ethnic groups and indigenous peoples , which are only classified according to the maternal line and which in turn make up 13 percent of the 1300 ethnic groups recorded. In them, the close relationships between the wife, her sisters, her mother and their sisters ( aunts ) remain, while the husband's family is not considered related. Usually mothers, sisters and daughters form a core group. This centering on the mother is also known as matrifocality (focus: center of interest) to point out the woman as the central figure of the family, household identity and continuity, with the father often absent or of very little importance. The women-centered core groups can be connected in extensive matrix lineages , within which all kinship relationships are derived from a common original ancestral mother . All husbands remain part of their own family, be it matrilineal or patrilinear according to the patriarchal line . Worldwide there is only one ethnic group with a patri- linear rule of descent, but a matri- local residential sequence rule.

Avunculocality ("at the place of the mother's brother") refers to taking up residence with the husband's uncle : with his mother's brother. This residence rule is only found in matrilineal societies; the mirror-inverted case of a husband moving in with his wife's mother-brother practically does not occur. 38 percent of all matrilineal ethnic groups live locally avunku , this rule of residence holds the men connected by common descent together and spatially disperses the matrilineally connected women. Mother brothers and sister sons form the core of the residential unit here. The sister sons are born in the house of the mother's brother of the sister's husband; as young people or adults, however, they leave this household and henceforth live with their own mother-brother ( uncle ). The avunculocal rule is sometimes understood in the specialist literature in the sense of "at the place of the wife's mother's brother"; adult children often change there because they do not see themselves as part of their father's family, but follow their maternal line. This is why avunculocality is a woman-centered rule of living, because the place of residence with the husband's mother's brother is derived from his / her mother's line. However, Avunku locality is not directly linked to the social paternity of the Avunculate , which is particularly practiced in the case of the NATO- local residential sequence (separate residence “at the place of birth”).

Residence pattern

The residence pattern of choice of residence found in practice can deviate from the cultural norm of the residence rule customary in a society . In the present day, many ethnic groups with traditionally women-centered rules of living prefer the modern nuclear family and a new place of residence is established ( neo-locality ), especially in cities (see the matrilineal Minangkabau on Sumatra), or wives move to their husbands' families ( patrilocalism ). This is often due to economic reasons, for example the dependence on jobs.

Residence and Descent

Evaluations of the data sets of around 1200 ethnic groups in the Ethnographic Atlas resulted in the following distribution values ​​for the rules of residence (residence) in societies with a matrilinear rule of descent (descent):

  • 13 percent of all ethnicities worldwide arrange their ancestry in a matri- linear manner , only according to the maternal line (164 societies):
    • 37.8 percent live avunku- locally at the parent brother of husband
    • 32.3 percent live uxori / matri- locally with their wives, their mother, family, ancestry group ( lineage ) or clan
    • 18.3 percent live viri / patrician locally the husband or his father
    • 11.6 percent live primarily nato- local (remaining separately “at the place of birth”) or neo- local (residence “at the new place”)

While matrilineal peoples have all the different options for choosing a residence , peoples organized along the lines of the patriarchal line establish marital residence almost exclusively with men.

However, the social anthropologist Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek notes in 2011: “Today this reference to the descent systems is mostly rejected and therefore advocates not using the terms patriotic or matriolocal. […] Overall, despite extensive proposals for definitions and prescriptions, there is still no uniform classification of the various forms of residence in ethno-sociology. ”More unambiguous is“ virilocality: with relatives of the husband - uxorilocality: with relatives of the wife ”.

See also

literature

  • Thomas Bargatzky : Ethnology. An introduction to the science of the primordial societies. Buske, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-87548-039-2 , p. 112/113: Chapter Deszendenzgruppen und Lokalgruppen ( page views in the Google book search).
  • William Tulio Divale: An Explanation for Matrilocal Residence. In: Dana Raphael (Ed.): Being Female. Reproduction, Power and Change. Mouton, Den Haag 1975, ISBN 90-279-7599-X , pp. 99-108 ( reading excerpt in Google book search).

Web links

  • Lukas, Schindler, Stockinger: Uxorilokale Residenz. Avunculocal residence. In: Online Interactive Glossary: ​​Marriage, Marriage, and Family. Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1997 (detailed notes, with references).
  • Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Definition of matrilocal, uxorilocal, avunculocal. (PDF file: 705 kB, 206 pages) (No longer available online.) In: Introduction to Ethnosociology (Part 2/2). Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2006, pp. 209/210 , archived from the original on October 1, 2008 (documents from their 2006 lecture, more detailed than 2011).;
  • Brian Schwimmer: Matrilocal Residence. In: Tutorial: Kinship and Social Organization. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Canada, 2003 (English, extensive kinship tutorial).;

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Thomas Bargatzky : Ethnology. An introduction to the science of the primordial societies. Buske, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-87548-039-2 , p. 112: Chapter 5.2 Descendent groups and local groups ( side view in the Google book search).
  2. ↑ Brian Schwimmer matrilocal residence. In: Tutorial: Kinship and Social Organization. University of Manitoba, 1995, accessed February 22, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Lukas, Schindler, Stockinger: Uxorilokale Residenz. In: Online Interactive Glossary: ​​Marriage, Marriage, and Family. Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1997, accessed on February 22, 2019 .
  4. ^ A b Hans-Rudolf Wicker: Relationship between Deszendenz and Postmaritaler Residenz. (PDF file: 387 kB, 47 pages). In: Guide to Introductory Lecture in Social Anthropology (1995–2012). University of Bern, 2012, p. 14 , accessed on February 22, 2019 . The numbers on p. 14:
    164 matrilineal ethnic groups - their marital residence after marriage ( residence rule ):
    • 62 (37.8%) live avunculocally with the mother's brother (uncle) of the wife or husband
    • 53 (32.3%) live uxori / matri-locally with their wives or their mother
    • 30 (18.3%) live viri / patri-locally with the husband or his father
    • 19 (11.6%) have different rules of residence: neolokal , natolokal u. a.
  5. ↑ a b The Ethnographic Atlas by George P. Murdock now contains data sets on 1300 ethnic groups (as of December 2015 in the InterSciWiki ), of which often only samples were evaluated, for example in the HRAF project .
  6. ^ J. Patrick Gray: Ethnographic Atlas Codebook. In: World Cultures. Volume 10, No. 1, 1998, pp. 86–136, here p. 104: Table 43 Descent: Major Type (one of the few evaluations of all 1267 ethnic groups at that time; PDF file; 2.4 MB; 52 pages, without page numbers on eclectic.ss.uci.edu);
    Quote: "584 Patrilineal […] 160 Matrilineal […] 52 Duolateral […] 49 Ambilineal […] 11 Quasi-lineages […] 349 bilateral […] 45 Mixed […] 17 Missing data". Percentages: 46.1% patrilinear; 12.6% matrilinear.
  7. ^ Hans-Rudolf Wicker: Relationship between Deszendenz and Postmaritaler Residenz. (PDF file: 387 kB, 47 pages). In: Guide to Introductory Lecture in Social Anthropology (1995–2012). University of Bern, 2012, p. 13 , accessed on February 22, 2019 . Quote: “In societies in which […] the matri- or uxorilocal order of living dominates, mothers, sisters and daughters usually form a core group. Avunculocality is closely related to matrilinearity. "
  8. ↑ Duden online : Focus 3). Retrieved December 8, 2019; Quote: “3. Focus, center of interest, a matter, an argument, a discourse ”.
  9. ^ Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: matrifocal. (PDF; 747 kB, 43 pages). In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (part 4/5). Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, p. 152 , archived from the original on October 5, 2013 ; accessed on February 22, 2019 . Quote: “matrifocal: This is a group that is centered around the mother. Here the father is often absent or plays a very subordinate role. The term matrifocality is u. a. used to indicate that women are central to the family, household identity and continuity. (SEYMOUR-SMITH 1986: p. 184) […] Definition of »matrifocal« according to BARGATZKY: »This describes a form of family that essentially consists of household groups, in which a woman, her children and the children of her daughters are the core represent. Such a family form arises due to a sharp separation into a domestic and a public-political-ritual area, whereby the gender roles assign activity (p. 50) and dominance to women in the former area, but to men in the latter. The role of men in the public sector is relatively independent of the role they play in the domestic sector. [...] Marital or non-marital connections between a woman and a man can therefore be unstable without the stability of the matrifocal family having to be affected by it; a woman can maintain relationships with different men who quasi ›visiting unions‹ (see RT Smith 1973: 142) with her. «(BARGATZKY 1985: p. 49 f)“
  10. ↑ Brian Schwimmer Matrifocality: An emerging empirical and theoretical issue. In: Tutorial: Kinship and Social Organization. University of Manitoba, 2003, accessed February 22, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Brian Schwimmer Avunculocal Residence. In: Tutorial: Kinship and Social Organization. University of Manitoba, 1995, accessed February 22, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Lukas, Schindler, Stockinger: Avunculokale Residenz. In: Online Interactive Glossary: ​​Marriage, Marriage, and Family. University of Vienna, 1997, accessed on February 22, 2019 .
  13. ^ Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Residence rules and residence practice. (PDF; 853 kB, 52 pages). In: Introduction to the Forms of Social Organization (Part 3/5). Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, pp. 95–96 , archived from the original on October 17, 2013 ; accessed on February 22, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Robin Fox: Kinship and Marriage. To Anthropological Perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1967, ISBN 0-521-27823-6 , p. 115 (English; side view in Google book search).
  15. ↑ Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: No uniform use of various terms. (PDF; 853 kB, 52 pages). In: Introduction to the Forms of Social Organization (Part 3/5). Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, p. 94 , archived from the original on October 17, 2013 ; accessed on February 22, 2019 .