ABSTRACT

Traditional institutions are far from having lost all effectiveness in towns; the problems relative to an urban population should therefore be posed in terms of ambivalence. In researches devoted to traditional social structures and organization it is hardly necessary to mention the fact that the study of marriage forms and the significance of matrimonial alliances are one of the basic preoccupations of social anthropology in Africa. In the process of field-work it is an essential guide-line in the analysis of group structures, the definition of inter-relations, and the delimitation of global societies. An exhaustive description of concrete matrimonial networks provides an approach to most of the aspects of the social organization of a given society. The research touches on a more general aspect of the development of urban marriage which involves the whole set of traditional rules, concerned in the choice of a spouse, which are undergoing important modifications.