Reconsidering Ivor Wilks’s 'Big Bang' Theory of Akan History
Ghana Studies v.14(2011): 11-52
42 Pages Posted: 13 Apr 2016
Date Written: January 1, 2011
Abstract
The paper challenges Ivor Wilks's "big bang" theory of Akan history for what concerns the recent origin of matriclans (sixteenth century). The article is based on the analysis of the different kinship systems of the Akan area, and on the analysis of the widespread custom of cross-cousin marriage, which is labeled as 'marriage in the house' exactly as the marriage with a slave that was in use until the first decades of the twentieth century. The article concludes that the origin of matriclans and matrilineality must be dated back of centuries before the sixteenth century.
Keywords: Akan, clan, lineage, matrilineality, matriclan, kinship, marriage, slavery
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