ABSTRACT
An important moulding force in Lovedu family relationships is polygyny. In religious ceremonies affecting the family as a whole, the eldest daughter of the chief wife would officiate; in case of illness, a man's uterine sister might be asked to officiate. It is a man's uterine sisters that play the biggest part in his life, for in this, as in everything, the individual family is always asserting itself as against the larger, polygynous family group. A well-marked characteristic of Lovedu society, one that clearly distinguishes it from the strictly patrilineal Zulu, Xhosa, and Pondo, is the importance of the mother's side of the family. When a man is engaged to his mother's brother's daughter, there will be gifts of beer from the girl's family. But the greatest of all bonds between a man and his mother's side of the family is conceived by the Lovedu to be one of love.
