IGALA people occupy the eastern part of Kogi State. They share common boundary with Idoma people of Benue State on the east, and are bounded by the Niger River on the west. On the southern border are the Anambra and Enugu Igbo, while to the west are the Bassa Komo and Bassa Nge.Most traditional African societies are organized along family lines, lineages, kindred groups and clans, which members are traced through descent. Human societies are organized around uni-lineal (matrilineal and patrilineal) descent principles. And individuals are related to one another based upon kinship, that is, by blood ties or consanguinity, for example, a child and its mother. Descent structures form corporate groups such as clans and lineages, which transcend and have existence beyond the individual members comprising them. Membership of descent group is involuntary, by birth.The basis of kinship is descent from a common ancestor. The most common descent group is the clan, which can be either patrilineal or matrilineal. A patrilineal system defines membership along the father's descent line. Members of a clan of patrilineal lineage comprise all those who are born from a common founding ancestor through the male line only. Matrilineal defines membership along the mother's descent line, that is, male and female offspring of each proceeding generations of mother's clan.This paper will explore traditional family patterns among the Igala within the framework of kinship and patrilineality.Traditional FamilyThe subject of traditional family is broad. There can be no generalization as one goes from one culture and people to another. There are different types of families across cultures. There is the nuclear consisting of the father, mother and the children. However, in most African setting, the extended family system consisting of the grandparents, father, mother, children as well as uncles, aunts, cousins and other kin is predominant.The family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. The function of the traditional family was companionship, affection, procreation and rearing of children, and economic cooperation. A family must be able to satisfy the physical and psychological needs of its members in order to maintain the family and survive as a group. Such needs include shelter, protection, source of income etc. The family structure refers to the members of the family and to familial positions such as mother, father, son, daughter, grandfather, grandmother, uncles and aunts, cousins and other kin.Traditional patternsThe Igala are patrilineal and authority in the family or clan resides in the men. Patilineality among the people inexplicably entails virolocal residence in which the woman moves into her husband's household among his paternal kinsmen, or sometimes his maternal kinsmen. The basic family unit is the nuclear family, made up of a husband, his wife and their children, as well as attached kin but rarely did you find this type of arrangement for the traditional Igala society was basically polygamous. As farmers, the need for more hands on the farm meant that men married more wives so that they could raise more children whose help was badly needed on the farm. Besides, in some parts polygamy was a status thing and reflection of a man's wealth. The more prevalent was the compound family in which you had a man, his wives and children. The nuclear and compound families are, in real sense, units of the wider and longer-lasting patilineal joint family which typically comprises two or more generations of brothers and sons, and their wives and children. In this way Igala families are long-lasting and self-perpetuating as the death of a member makes no difference to its overall structure. It can last over several generations with a membership of up to 100 or more.An Igala lineage comprises several extended families- the wives and offspring of brothers as well as wives and offspring of the father of these brothers and all the relations of the brothers of ones father.The clan is made up of several patrilineal related extended families or lineages and has numerous functions, including common name, and identity, exogamous marriages, property ownership, mutual economic and political support and protection from a rival or aggressor among others. As kin who have claim to a common ancestry, they recognize various ritual prohibitions, such as taboos on certain foods, totem etc, that give them a sense of unity and distinctiveness from others.Kinship relationshipThe concept of kinship flourishes well among the Igala. It has helped to construct groups that have lasted for generations and in which the close-knit ties of kinship provides powerful links through the notion of common 'blood'. And by claiming exclusive ancestry these groups can claim exclusive rights to clan and lineage property. This kind of kin relationship also provides for individual members a sense of personal identity and security. In traditional Igala society, kinship relationship plays important roles in the lives of the people by determining what land they could farm, whom they could marry, or have sexual relationship with, and their status in the community. It also means much more than blood ties or family or household. It includes a network of responsibilities, and support in which individual families are expected to fill certain roles and obligation.Among the Igala generic terms such as 'uncle', 'aunt' or 'grandparents' are often not sufficient to describe family relationship, rather very specific terms such as my 'maternal uncle' or 'maternal aunt' are used to clearly differentiate between patrilineal and matrilineal kin. Lineal relationships, which refer to those between grandparents and grand children, are well cherished. Relationships with uncles and aunts, cousin and nephews and nieces are essentially treated as those biological relatives. The Igala enjoys robust relationship among the maternal kin. As a 'daughter' he/she is loved, protected and enjoys lot of privileges but the right of inheritance is only with the paternal clan. Kinship relationships and obligations toward lineal, collateral and affina l kins (i.e between parent 'in-law, children-in-law and sibling-in-law as well as with partrilineal and martrilineal kin) are related to lines of descent, to residence, to inheritance of property, to marnage etc.Incest tabooIncest taboo refers to any cultural or norm that prohibit practices of sexual relation between relatives. Relations with clan members are permissible where no traceable genealogical relations exist, but members of different clans cannot have sexual relationship if there exists blood ties. The restrictions on marriage and sexual relation amongst kin in Igalaland is based on normative sense of decency and the unequivocal belief in the sanctity of blood ties. There are rules, though not written concerning appropriate and inappropriate sexual relation. Incest, which is sexual intercourse between individual related in certain degrees of kinship, is prohibited. If a man conducts inappropriate sexual relationship with a kin, it is believed that both will suffer severe afflictions from which they would not recover until they confess and the gods are properly appeased through sacrifice. It could also result in barrenness. Both would lose respect among the people as people will no longer take them seriously. In the past young girls involved in such acts hardly ever marry.Among the Igala, people relate to one another in different ways, and sometimes distantly, are classified as sibling, and other who are just as closely related genetically are not considered family because they are patrilineal and children belong in the father's clan. As a consequence of patrilineality relations between brother/sister, father/daughter, mother/son, uncle/niece etc are considered incestuous, though in certain matrilineal society father/daughter may not be such a problem. Sexual relation between a man and his mother's sister and mother's sister' daughter are considered incestuos. Similarly, a man and his father's sister cannot have a flirtatious relationship, have sex and marry, not even with his father's sister's daughter.*Micah discussed this topic with the National Museum Study Group in Port Harcourt recently.
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