Costume and Culture
The Yalunka(Jallonke) prefer to live in large settlements and villages as opposed to small ones. Many of the large settlements have remained in their current locations since the 18th century. The Yalunka society is basically patriarchal, which means that the family households are headed by the men. A household typically consists of a man, his wife or wives, and their unmarried children. The family is the major social unit for the Yalunka. Extended households, which consist of two or more married men and their families, may also adjoin the nuclear family, forming an extended family compound. The Yalunka live in round huts that have brick walls and cone-shaped, straw-thatched roofs. Within the village or settlement, the huts are grouped in compounds around a courtyard and are surrounded by a fence.
Polygyny (having multiple wives) is a common practice among the Yalunka. Marriages among Yalunka are traditionally arranged. According to Islamic law, a man may have up to four wives. However, his first wife has authority over any subsequent wives. The husband has complete control over his wives and is responsible for feeding and clothing them. He also helps the wives' parents when necessary. The wives' duties include maintaining the house, preparing the meals, washing the clothes, and helping with the farm work. When a man dies, one of his brothers traditionally marries his wife or wives so that the children remain in the family.
Read more about this topic: Yalunka People
Famous quotes containing the words costume and, costume and/or culture:
“My neighbors tell me of their adventures with famous gentlemen and ladies, what notabilities they met at the dinner-table; but I am no more interested in such things than in the contents of the Daily Times. The interest and the conversation are about costume and manners chiefly; but a goose is a goose still, dress it as you will.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Sleep takes off the costume of circumstance, arms us with terrible freedom, so that every will rushes to a deed.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)