the detachability of women: gender and kinship in processes of socioeconomic change among the Gusii of Kenya

Abstract

This article examines the role of gender and kinship identities in shaping women's access to social and economic resources among the Gusii and Luyia in Kenya. High population densities, cash crop production, market dependency, and wage labor are ubiquitous in the fertile Kenya highlands. However, changes in gender relationships and family forms vary and are not attributable to political‐economic factors alone. The results of these transformations also depend on the content of women's relationships with their natal kin, and on the role of marriage in defining the character of women's social identities. [social change, kinship, gender, marriage, family, East Africa, Gusii, Luyia]