AFS 158: Family, Kinship and Descent Systems

This course is intended to assist students familiarize with the definitions and classification of the different types of family, kinship and descent systems in Africa from anthropological and sociological perspectives. Highlights will be on the importance and functions of the family, the kinship arrangement and the descent groups, with reference to ancestral genealogy, and the conservative roles they help to perpetuate to the utmost benefit of generations. Students will be encouraged to attempt to trace their family roots and kinship through the descent groups. They will be required to interrogate the systems, identify the impact of modernity on the systems, and debate the place and future of the systems in contemporary scheme of social arrangement.