Matriliny, Patriliny, and Wealth Flow Variations in Rural Malawi

Abstract

Literature on African kinship political economies suggest that under matriliny wealth flow would be biased towards a matrilineal line in that children would engage in transfers with their maternal more than their paternal relatives. Under patriliny the reverse would be the case. We explore these propositions using data from a sample survey of 1257 respondents in rural Malawi 29 percent of whom were from a predominantly matrilineal ethnic group 36 percent were from an ethnic group that is transforming from matrilineal to patrilineal practices and 35 percent were from a patrilineal ethnic group. These data were complemented by qualitative interviews of 18 respondents from the matrilineal ethnic group 20 from the transforming group and 18 from the patrilineal group. Results reveal little evidence to support the propositions. We think that the increasing privatisation of production and consumption that has over the years penetrated rural Malawi has led to some individualistic tendencies among rural Malawians and weakened both matrilineal and patrilineal influence on peoples wealth transfer behaviours. (authors)