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Saturday, July 20, 2013

Zulu Kinship

     Zulu society has the basic lower, middle, and upper classes. The lower classes live in the rural areas and focus on their agriculture. Most rural areas have no electricity, transportation, clean water, or clinics. Urban areas make up the Zulu middle class, although it is not much better than rural lifestyle. Neither areas have effective education so the few that do migrate into cities are left in the poor parts of the city.

     Kinship in Zulu culture is referred to as Surname, which is the bloodline of a family. It is Zulu custom for a father have several wife's if chosen to do so. This means that children grew up with extremely large families. Families often share the same name and although they are not directly related, they are not available for marriage. Clans grow large in Africa and it is common for marriage to outsiders because of this limited personal. Zulu Chiefs had the highest place in Zulu society, but had they fail their constituents they were be put to death along with their people. Now the Zulu have a mixed cultural view and have typical African lives.

Cited: http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Rwanda-to-Syria/Zulu.html

1 comment:

  1. The Zulu have now have a mixture of Christian views and their cultural views. Living in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa as part of the country, the Zulu are now Assimilated into African Culture. I Think this is a wonderful thing since the Zulu were at war for most of 19th and 20th centuries. I believe their are still many people in the province that follow the Zulu Culture but in the end the British brought Christianity to South Africa and the Zulu people. Those living in the KwaZulu-Natal province also may continue their kinship especially the Zulu chiefs who still run some areas.

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