Publisher: Cambridge University Press
E-ISSN: 1750-0184|34|1|9-20
ISSN: 0001-9720
Source: Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, Vol.34, Iss.1, 1964-01, pp. : 9-20
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Abstract
Many accounts of African tribal societies lack information concerning the role of women in social control and political organization. Social control is seen largely as the prerogative of males, even in societies where matriliny serves as a basis for establishing rules of succession to positions of authority. Of course, there are exceptional cases where authority and political leadership has been vested in women, e.g. the Lobedu of the Transvaal, but generally speaking, the establishment and maintenance of law and order by legitimate authority, within a specific territory, has been considered by many anthropologists to be almost exclusively the preoccupation and franchise of the male members of a society.