ABSTRACT
Socioeconomic differentiation in eastern Africa is increasing and a stratum of wealthy elites is forming. There are few studies which pay attention to how the institution of bridewealth has changed in relation to increased social and economic stratification, and how it is used by the new elites. This chapter presents a brief outline of how the elite of the Gusii people in western Kenya manage marriages aiming at establishing favorable social connections and how the bridewealth system contributes to the perpetuation of socioeconomic status through generations. The most influential theoretical framework relating marriage payments to socioeconomic stratification and property control was formulated by Jack Goody and modified by Alice Schlegel and Robert Eloul. The socioeconomic inequality found in Eastern Africa correspond to Schlegels and Goody’s defining criteria for economic stratification in dowry paying societies. In the modern bridewealth system, women are evaluated according to earning capacity and parents’ socioeconomic status.
