Chabot College Differences Between Matrilineal & Matrilocal Societies Essay I need help to revise my essay. Please see the feedback file to know about wha

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Please let me know if you have any question. Thanks A matrilineal and matrilocal Muslim society in flux:
Negotiating gender and family relations in the Comoros
Sophie Blanchy
Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, Volume 89, Number
1, February 2019, pp. 21-39 (Article)
Published by Cambridge University Press
For additional information about this article
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/721504
Access provided at 29 Mar 2020 05:48 GMT from Chabot College
Africa 89 (1) 2019: 21–39
doi:10.1017/S0001972018000682
A matrilineal and matrilocal Muslim society in ?ux:
negotiating gender and family relations in the
Comoros
Sophie Blanchy
Matrilineality and matrilocality designate speci?c forms of social organization in
which women occupy central positions (Aberle 1961; Matthieu 2007). The terms
‘matricentrality’ and ‘matrifocality’ are also applied in anthropological literature
to attitudes and behaviours centred on the mother (and linked to unstable partnerships or long absences of men) (Schröter 2013: 7). Aberle calculated that matriliny
is found in 15 per cent of societies and is associated with matrilocal or uxorilocal
residence in 7 per cent of these. Some of these societies, especially those observed
in Southeast Asia1 and on the East African coast (Lewis 1980; Bonate 2006) and
offshore islands (Blanchy 2010), are Muslim. The question that then arises is how
these societies integrate the patriarchal type of normative framework that Islam
introduced during its historical expansion from Arabia. In these societies, since
the nineteenth century, modernist Islam and its contemporary Sala? and
Wahhabi varieties have strongly in?uenced communities with regard to gender
issues (Schröter 2013). Furthermore, migration and urban life are favouring the
nuclear family and are rendering matrilineal land ownership and inheritance
modes less relevant. Yet, as a result of their colonial and postcolonial history
and present-day migrations, populations have also taken up Western ideas of
gender equality and women’s emancipation. In northern Mozambique, Bonate
(2006: 139) observes that matriliny has endured despite strong historical ties to
the Swahili world and Islam’s long presence. She argues that the colonial and postcolonial state contributed to this endurance and to maintaining the con?ict
between Islamic and ‘traditional’ African authorities, although the boundary
between them is not clear-cut (ibid.: 158).
The question of male authority underlies the relation between matriliny and
Islam. A man always controls the descent group in matrilineal societies, but
who that man should be is negotiable. The so-called loyalty con?ict between a
man’s descent group and that of his wife, identi?ed as the matrilineal puzzle in
the 1950s (Richards 1950), has been viewed differently by later researchers. As
argued by Douglas (1969: 126), the straddling position of dual residence and
dual loyalty gives men the opportunity to organize strong intergroup alliances.
Matrilineal descent groups must exchange men to perpetuate themselves.
Strategies of building matrimonial alliances between lineages are central to
Sophie Blanchy is Emeritus Research Professor of Anthropology at the Centre National de la
Recherche Scienti?que. She is the author of Maisons des femmes, cités des hommes: ?liation,
âge et pouvoir à Ngazidja (Comores) (Société d’Ethnologie, Nanterre, 2010). Email: sophie.
blanchy@cnrs.fr
1
Schröter (2013: 13–14) notes the concentration of matrifocal Muslim societies in western
Indonesia and eastern Malaysia, the Minangkabau being the most famous case (see Josselin de
Jong 1960).
© International African Institute 2019
22
Sophie Blanchy
male political action. At the domestic level, these societies have been classi?ed into
three types according to the distribution of authority: husband dominant, brother
dominant or neither dominant (Schlegel 1972 quoted in Matthieu 2007: 7–9). The
latter is statistically associated with matrilocal residence and important social positions ascribed to women. This classi?cation helps us see the space granted to
women in the domestic sphere, but also in social and political life, and to identify
forms of gender complementarity. Moreover, considering matriliny more as ‘a
cluster of features’ than as a system (Saul 1992: 346 quoted in Peters 1997: 138)
may explain its endurance in various political, economic and religious contexts.
Ngazidja Island is an example of a matrilineal and matrilocal Muslim society. It
is situated in the Comoros archipelago in the south-western region of the Indian
Ocean. On the island, matriliny is linked to a local political organization based on
an age system and a male political assembly (Blanchy 2010). I argue that this link
explains the speci?c way in which matrilineal and Islamic ideologies interact.
Matriliny arrived with the African Bantu peoples inhabiting the island.
Children belong to the matrilineage; land is passed down to women’s children
under the responsibility of the elder brother and sister, who are also responsible
for the reputation and rank of their matriliny (hinya) or house (daho). All
Comorians follow the rule of matri-uxorilocal residence: boys live in their
mother’s house and then in a bachelor house; and men in the houses of their
wife, co-wives or successive wives.
The matrilineages and masculine age system interact within a local political
structure named mdji, or city. Mdji refers simultaneously to the locality, village
or town, and to the political assembly, formed by men representing their matrilineages in the age system. Men formally assemble on the public square
(bangwe), which is bordered by masonry benches, or informally when meeting
in their houses or elsewhere for various reasons. The formula ãda na mila refers
to the oral law elaborated by each city. Ãda designates the ceremonial exchanges
and feasts organized for the celebration of the lifecycle steps of a relative (birth,
circumcision, wedding, funeral) and for gaining titles in the age and rank
system. Shepherd (1977: 356) notes that ãda – meaning ‘custom’ in Arabic, but
more usually ‘customary payment’ in Swahili and Comorian – does not have
here the connotation ‘customary as opposed to Islamic’ which it has in
Indonesia, despite the use of the same word.2
Islam was introduced at the end of the ?rst millennium by migrants of Arab and
Persian origin. From the seventeenth century onwards, references are made to the
arrival, mainly from Hadramawt, of sharifs (men who claim descent from the
Prophet and follow a principle of patrilineal descent).3 Comorians follow
the Sha??i school of Sunni Islam and are af?liated with Su? orders introduced
at the end of the nineteenth century. The gradual expansion of Islamic institutions
in the archipelago, later followed by French colonization, established a legal pluralism based on oral ãda na mila, Islamic jurisprudence and common law (largely
2
She adds that little helpful light is shed on Comorian marriage by Indonesian material
(Shepherd 1977).
3
See Martin (1974: 371, on the title of sayyids, sharifs and mashai’ikh given to these holy men),
Bang (2003), Blanchy (2015) and Mohammed (2016).
Gender and family in the Comoros
23
inspired by French law). The contradictory resulting rules are applied on different
scales or to different areas of public and private life.
Migration, mainly towards France, which is estimated as involving as many as a
quarter to a third of Ngazidja’s population,4 has not lessened the preoccupation
with the system of status at home. Rather, it is linked to it and fuels ãda exchanges.
It is worth underlining that the status achieved by men and women engaged in
ceremonial exchanges is without an equivalent in other available social spaces,
but is not accessible to everyone. The aims and values presented by Islamic reformism therefore are of interest.
This article addresses the various ways in which the Ngazidja people negotiate
gender and family relations by referring to matrilineal or Islamic norms and
values. I show how matriliny, enacted in Ngazidja through the mdji (city), the
local political organization, shapes gender conceptions and familial relations;
and how Islamic norms and values provide direction with regard to gender interactions in the public sphere, conjugal and familial relations, and legal issues.
Gender relations must be considered between brother and sister, the central kin
pair in Ngazidja, as well as between husband and wife, marriage being ruled by
Islamic law but alliances by other rationales. The two matrimonial regimes
(Islamic marriage with or without ceremonial exchanges) ?rst described by
Shepherd (1977) illustrate this distinction. The key issue of male authority will
be explored through the conceptions of fatherhood produced in matrilineal and
Muslim contexts. I then examine the in?uence of Islamic reform and Western
norms on family and gender relations in Ngazidja.
Gender relations in the context of matriliny and matrilocal residence
Matriliny is not the absence of men, nor is it a mirror image of patriliny. Rather, it
is a speci?c organization of relations of authority, power and mediation between
men and women (Peters 1997; Schlegel 1972). Matrilineal descent coexists with a
quality of openness in effective descent groups, not only because each line depends
on one woman’s fecundity and often has to recruit members through indirect
lineal descent, but principally because the connecting links between groups are
male and the intergroup alliance is generally strong (Douglas 1969: 125–6). In
Ngazidja, conjugal unions are not necessarily long-lasting but father–child relations embody enduring alliances between lineages. Relations between brothers
and sisters, on the other hand, are built on cooperation and great affection.
In each generation, the matrilineage in Ngazidja is made up of brothers and
sisters. According to the context, matrilineage is said to be hinya, mba (womb)
or daho (house). Daho can designate the whole lineage, a segment descended
from one grandmother, or one household. The eldest have the title of head of
the house and act in its name; for this, there has to be solidarity among brothers
and sisters, although the roles of ?rstborn and younger members are distinct. Both
boys and girls see their futures take shape within the framework of the possibilities
4
In France, the population census does not ask any questions regarding ‘ethnicity’, only about
legal nationality. Furthermore, there is no accurate record of the immigrant population in France
(Chalard and Dumont 2007: 14).
24
Sophie Blanchy
and limitations offered to them by their family and social position; their rank
among siblings and that of their mother and grandmother; the rank of their
lineage in the city; and the wealth of the house (daho). The eldest boy and girl
are responsible for the reproduction of the house and its public representation.
This reproduction occurs with the daughter’s ‘great’ marriage, ndola nkuu,
which takes place at signi?cant cost and with the exchange of goods known as
ãda. This speci?c matrimonial regime adds a political, economic and social
dimension to the Islamic union. The preferred partner in a great marriage,
which must occur between two lineages of the same city, is a real or classi?catory
cross-cousin, matrilateral or patrilateral (in this case, a man is given back to the
father’s lineage, which is appreciated). It must be the ?rst marriage for the
bride, but not for the groom, who is usually older and has already been
married. The house is represented in the public sphere by the brother’s and
son’s move up the rungs of age and rank (which also requires expenses and
exchanges) (Blanchy 2003).
When a young man enters the age system, he has the status of mnamdji, son of
the city. He has to celebrate a great marriage to achieve the status of mdru mbaba
(father) or mdru mdzima (accomplished man), which allows him to sit on and
speak in the mdji (assembly). Each man’s value on the marriage market
depends on primogeniture, the rank of his matrilineage and, today, wages
earned in the Comoros or through migration. The brother–sister ?rstborn pair
is, then, at the centre of a system through which the houses exchange men, men
provide the houses with children, and men represent the houses in the assembly.
Matrilineal descent mitigates male dominance. Women’s authority is not always
as public as that of men, but the example of Ngazidja shows that it is very real and
even tangible. Women have an indirect in?uence in the public sphere and in the
assembly. When an elder sister is married in a great marriage, the husband
becomes an accomplished man by entering into her house. The woman, empowered by this achievement, mobilizes her husband’s mediation to organize the marriage of her brother, who in turn becomes accomplished and can sit on the
assembly. She also gives birth to children, raises them and later marries her daughter and passes the house on to her. Her son-in-law enters the house and becomes
an accomplished man, over whom she may exercise a certain power, notably that
of chasing him out if there is con?ict, although the husband is usually respected as
the one who brings honour (nde wutrio sheo) to the house. The cycle is then completed, and she has reached the political status of mdzadze wa ãda, mother of ãda.
This status, available to the eldest daughters of each family, is a privilege but also a
responsibility that each woman assumes according to her personality. She has to
mobilize human and ?nancial resources in her matrilineage, her quarter and her
village (mdji) through a constant physical presence and monetary contributions.
Elder sisters are well aware that, by being married and then marrying their
brother and daughter by ãda, they participate in the political process of producing
men as fathers and accomplished men. An accomplished man has a part in the
sharing of cattle meat and money in the mdji as long as he is married, and the
meat, which is ?rst sent to the wife’s house, is then shared with the sister’s.
After divorce, the man has no access to these bene?ts until he marries again to
a woman previously married by ãda. Indebted to sisters and wives, the men
send them a considerable portion of the goods exchanged in a great marriage,
which the women redistribute among their female groups: women of their
Gender and family in the Comoros
25
matrilineage, their neighbourhood, and their associations. This sense of debt also
takes root in the gendered division of domestic tasks, which makes all women
‘mothers’ to their male matrilateral kin – and sometimes they are addressed as
such, mdzadze. In turn, these male kin receive frequent requests from the
women for help in everyday life.
Young, educated men who wish to dedicate their resources to other projects
often oppose the age and status system, but over time they are discredited in
public and pressurized by their families, mainly their female kin, and eventually
they submit. Women’s views of this vary depending on their position and age.
Older mothers view it favourably as they bene?t after a lifetime of contributions.
Younger sisters, married in religious ceremonies without ãda, live in the shadow of
their elders with regard to exchanges. They can improve their status by marrying
an intellectual educated in Arabic or French, a sharif, or a rich man. In the background in female society to some extent, younger sisters are, at the same time, freer
to act independently, if possible with the help of a dynamic husband, either to
create a new house by celebrating the great marriage of their elder daughter or
granddaughter, or to devote themselves to different areas of achievement
(Islamic or Western education, teaching, trade or business). The eldest sister
(mhuu) has a destiny distinct from that of her younger sisters, called wanashe.
This is also true to a degree for brothers; the younger siblings are all supposed
to contribute ?rst to the great marriages of their elder sister and brother.
The fact that men and women still ?nd in ãda unparalleled conditions for personal achievement while ful?lling their collective moral commitments make
Ngazidja unique from a sociological perspective (Blanchy 2013). However, due
to differences in position between elders and juniors, and between rich and
poor, people are affected differently by ãda ceremonial exchanges and status.
The old social divisions of lower status – ?shermen and slaves – have nevertheless
established their own political ‘cities’ on an identical model. Money from migration fuels competition between localities through great marriage feasts and the
modernization of infrastructure.
Islamic norms, values and law in matrilineal and matrilocal society
Introduced before the eleventh century, Islam has been combined in various ways
with local social and political organization (Blanchy 2012). It also occupies a large
place in the perception of personal and group identities. Comorians feel connected
to the Muslim world through religious education and culture, the calendar of
important celebrations, clothing, music and a certain ethos, and personal status
is governed by Islamic jurisprudence. All individual and collective rituals,
whether they involve the person, the house, the age system or the city, have an
Islamic form (Chouzour 1994; Ahmed 1999; Blanchy 2007a). The call to prayer
made during the husband’s ritual entry into the house means that a Muslim is
entering into a Muslim household. Despite a certain number of contradictions,
legal pluralism makes the coexistence of institutions possible and offers social
actors choices to justify their conduct. The real paradox between Islam and matriliny may thus be seen in the fact that, despite the con?icting rules about af?liation,
inheritance and residence, matrilineal marriage, like marriage in (patrilineal)
Islam, is easily dissolved and often unstable (Lewis 1980: 55).
26
Sophie Blanchy
Con?icting, alternating or complementary?
Depending on the case, the relations between ãda na mila (customary oral laws)
and dini (religion) can be seen as con?icting, alternating or complementary.
Hierarchies and the expenses of the exchange system contradict the religion’s
values of fraternity and disinterestedness. Muslim contestation sprang ?rst from
the Su? orders introduced at the end of the nineteenth century by the networks
of sharifs. The popular Shadhiliyya spread from Ngazidja throughout the archipelago, to Madagascar and the African coast, by a sharif born in Moroni,
Sayyid Muhammad b. Shaykh Ahmad al-Ma?aruf (1852–1904). This was followed by the Qadiriyya and the Rifaiyya. The af?liation of Comorians to these
Su? orders became widespread in the middle of the twentieth century, strengthening the social networks of villages and urban districts. More secretive is the
?Alawiyya, which is connected to the sharifs Ba ?Alawi.
Sayyid Muhammad al-Ma?aruf criticized marked social inequalities, attacking
in particular the expense of great marriages, and promoted a lifestyle based only
on religious values called darwesh (meaning poor in Persian and designating a very
pious Muslim in Arabic). He tried to develop the wedding celebration ki-darwesh
or lillahi, which was limited to its religious form (Blanchy 2000). Here, people’s
choice between ãda and dini (religion) may be alternating or complementary.
Men who declare themselves darwesh and refuse ãda engagements must therefore
spend time in the zawiya (centre) of the Su? order to which they belong rather than
in the public sphere. On the other hand, accomplished men at the end of their
careers sometimes withdraw from the public sphere and frequent only the zawiya.
Nevertheless, Islam in?uences ãda na mila f…
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