• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.45
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• pp.269-293
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• 2016

This research studies the characteristics of the family systems of traditional societies in Black Africa. For this purpose, this study has chosen three subtopics: the distinctive features of traditional societies, marriage customs (polygamy and polyandry), and the societal features of patriarchal and matriarchal societies. First, we analyze men's and women's roles, ownership and management of the land, dowry, and social values of livestock as the distinctive features that support the family system in traditional Black African societies. These elements play an important role in increasing the number of family members. Next we analyze marriage customs-polygamy and polyandry-which increase the number of family members, on the one hand, and secure the labor force, on the other hand. Most traditional societies in Black Africa prectice polygamy. However, the $Bashil{\acute{e}}l{\acute{e}}$ and Bahima prectice polyandry. Polygamy in traditional societies in Black Africa is based on the traditional social customs that display the authority and dignity of the family head, who has control over all family members in both patrilineal and matrilineal societies. The authority and dignity of the family head are used to keep and increase the number of family members, that is, to secure the community firmly. Finally, most traditional societies are patrilineal. However, matrilineal societies are prevalent in the so-called Matrilineal Belt, which term refers to the savanna regions where Bantu peoples reside, that is, the coastal regions from the Angolan coast, bordering the Atlantic, to the Tanzanian and Mozambique coasts that border the Indian Ocean. These societies trace descent through the maternal bloodline. The traditional family system in Black Africa is based on economic social, and political factors, as well as on the community spirit of the members, which has resulted from the choices made to increase the prosperity and well-being of the people.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.41
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• pp.229-243
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• 2015

When ancient Chinese people called their relatives, both the marriage system and their blood ties are reflected in the kinship terms. For examples, the ancient China's unique marriage system, "yingqiehun," is reflected in kinship terms, like "shi," "di," and "zhi," which reflect the fact that women relatives married the same person, and thus resulting from the polygamy. Furthermore, there are good reasons to assume that there are master-and-servant relationships, as evidenced through the kinship terms "yingqiehun" from the beginning of polygamy. In this paper we will study the feature of their unique marital culture, "yingqiehun" by analyzing each meaning of "shi," "di," and "zhi" and other examples, and will also examine the cause of its prevalence at that time.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.50
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• pp.131-172
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• 2018

It is noted that nowadays, the bride wealth custom takes an extremely distorted form in African society. Such a phenomenon is a result that the male-dominant culture, Western religions, and capitalist economic system have been negatively combined into dynamic factors seen as bride wealth. This means that the concept of bride wealth has been incessantly reconstructed in the middle of clash and conflict of tradition and modernity. There is also little doubt that the practice is inextricably tangled with the common and current ways of livelihood, early marriage, polygyny, kinship/family structure, poverty, and migration labor. Bride wealth has become an increasingly commercialized element under a capitalist economic system. Accordingly, its traditional symbolism is seen to be subsequently weakening, whereas a tendency towards the reification of women is strengthening more in modern society that embraces modern customs bent on the protection of women's human rights. Its commercialization has produced a result, which instigates the noted violations of women's basic human rights, gender inequality, and promotion of domestic violence. The ways that people perceive bride wealth vary according to their own sex, generation, stratification, and ethnic background. Those people who negatively recognize bride wealth will increase with the deepening of its commercialization due to the influence of capitalism. Its color and effect will deepen and depend on how its agents correspond to socioeconomic changes. They will constantly reinterpret and reconstruct it within their own environments, but the basic human rights efforts are constantly under review by concerned individuals seeking to promote equality for women as a global effort.