The ethnographic research
The ethnographic research was conducted on members of the African origin who had an in-depth understanding and mastery of what constitutes the African culture. The members interviewed comprised village elders and other indigenous community members through an interactive session to understand the various facets of the rapidly changing culture. The group interviewed constituted of members from both genders, and residents of the area selected. Besides, those who participated in the interview sessions belonged to diverse age-sets ranging between young to older adults, particularly those without a history of dementia. Also, the group was comprised of both married and single participants as no specific criteria were developed on the interviewees’ marital status. Among the cultural concepts covered during the interview on the African culture entailed the family, kinship ties, and marriage practices and believes among the members.
Methodology
The interview was conducted in the Sub-Saharan Africa, among the divergent Bantu group that spans wide area coverage in the southern, southeast and central parts of the African continent. The time period covering the ethnographic research was during the middle of the second decade of the twenty-first century, a period characterized by massive cultural revolutions across the globe attributed to the modernization concept among others. The interview sessions consisted of observer-participant in-depth face-to-face studies in specific selected key informants. Open ended questions were asked following the introduction session by the interviewer to the selected respondent. Notably, the main documentation method was tape-recording, although note taking mode was also applied. Importantly, participant confidentiality was ensured before the commencement of the interview. Data reliability and validity was confirmed through multiple interview sessions with different selected key informants in the community.
Bantu Family Structure
The family unit is the most basic institution in the community as posited by the key informant. The system upholds the patriarchy mode of governance, although women function as the immediate heads of the families in case of absence of the man, for instance, in case of death or imprisonment. The convectional society among the Bantu people was composed of extended families, primarily constituting various related nuclear families which acted as single entities but interdependent on various circumstances, for instance, while executing various chores. However, the units were answerable to the eldest member of the family, especially the grandparents, who were highly respected and maintained law and order through settling emergent disputes amongst the junior members. Family size among the Bantu community consisted of large nuclear families with some having close to fifteen children per unit.
Family status in the community was mainly determined through property acquisition, for instance, in terms of livestock owned and the acquired land. Family members held various roles which dictated the type of chores to engage in daily. Mothers were the primary caretakers of the children in the family and often trained the young daughters the caregiving role and basic household chores like cooking and fetching water. The composition of the extended family varied comprising of grandparents, fathers and mothers, siblings, aunts and uncles and cousins, among others. Respect was cultivated and encouraged in the family structure and the community at large. However, the contemporary society’s family structure is different from the convectional one.
Bantu Kinship System
The major recognized kinship system of the Bantu community was the consanguine and the affine systems, depicting members related by blood ties and marriage ties respectively. However, the different communities constituting the Bantu speaking group in the African continent had bilateral decency where children often considered family members from both the mother’s and father’s side as relatives. Also, marriage was used to define close associations between members as community members often viewed families joined together through intermarriages as being close relatives. It was expected for members of the same kinship system in the Bantu community to treat each other with utmost respect and generosity especially on the occasion where the members paid a visit. Notably, although children in the Bantu group enjoyed close associations with family members of both the paternal and maternal side, they were posited to feel more close associations with relatives from the maternal side.
Bantu Marriage System
The Bantu culture and practices recognized polygamy as the standard structure in a family, although various personalities occasionally practiced monogamy form of marriage. The Bantu’s culture often viewed polygamy as a measure of wealth, amongst land and cattle hence those with many wives held significant positions in the community and were often consulted in times of important cultural practices. However, the culture does not recognize polyandry and other practices as consanguinity but emphasizes on exogamy, for instance, marriage ties between members of distinct unrelated groups. Wife inheritance practices were uncommon, although arranged marriages often occurred especially if members of the community took long in developing marriage interests while past the marriage window. Importantly, the Bantu culture upheld the payment of bride wealth as a marker for the marriage ties amongst the newly wed couples, and traditional marriage was the more prevalent form of marriage. Divorce was a rare occurrence and once it occurred, bride wealth was returnable to the initial suitor.
Culture is dynamic and diverse among various social groups in existence constituting different beliefs, morals, customs and habits and is often perpetuated from one generation to the next. Besides, human societies often define themselves through culture. Various lessons on cultural differences are evident, for instance, regarding family and marriage institutions where different communities hold divergent views on the subjects. Individual lessons drawn from the anthropological study was that people are products of their own culture. Among the observed differences between individual and the analyzed culture was in the family, kinship and marriage systems. Contrary to the discussed culture, my society values nuclear family and monogamy system of marriage. Besides, the kinship system recognizes close family members related with blood as opposed to those recognizing relatives by marriage ties.