Zulu grandmothers socialization of granddaughters
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/sajg.v6i1.106Abstract
Qualitative exploratory research among Zulu grandmothers and granddaughters was carried out in 199S in KwaZulu-Natal. Preliminary analysis of data from interviews and participant observation is briefly reported here. This analysis suggests that older women continue to have important roles in Zulu families, including teaching granddaughters about work and respectful behaviour. At the same time, there are tensions and stresses between the generations and between Zulu ideas about women's roles and transformations of women's roles in contemporary South Africa. Interviewees' perceptions of critical junctures of these interpersonal and sociocultural tensions focussed on premarital sexual behaviour and pregnancies, respect between the generations, and education and its effects on the roles of Zulu women (and more broadly, gender relations), and women's possibilities for success in the formal economy and modern world. Aware of these tensions and problems, grandmothers are not giving up their mission to socialise granddaughters into Zulu culture, even when there are failures such as a granddaughters falling pregnant. At the same time, they are looking for ways to enhance their granddaughters' life chances through formal education.References
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Vilakazi, A. 1962, Zulu transformations. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal.
Brindley, M. 1982. The role of old women in Zulu culture. Ph.D. thesis. Kwadlangezwa: University of Zululand.
Campbell, C. 1994. Intergenerational conflict in township families: transforming notions of "respect" and changing power relations. Southern African Journal of Gerontology. 3(2): 37-42.
Cattell, M.G. 1989. Knowledge and social change in Samia. Western Kenya. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology. 4(3): 225-244.
Cattell, M.G. 1994. Nowadays it isn't easy to advise the young: grandmothers and granddaughters among Abaluyia of Kenya. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 9(2): 157-178.
Everatt, D. & Orkin, M. 1994. Families should stay together": intergenerational attitudes among South African youth. Southern African Journal of Gerontology, 3.(2): 43-48.
Foner, N. 1984. Ages in conflict: a cross-cultural perspective on inequality between old and young. New York: Columbia University Press.
Krige, E.J. 1936. The social system of the Zulus. Pietermaritzburg: Schuter & Shooter.
Mler, V. 1993. Intergenerational family relations and wellbeing in three generation urban black households. Cape Town: HSRC/UCT Centre for Gerontology.
Ngubane, H. 1977. Body and mind in Zulu medicine. London: Academic Press.
Preston-Whyte, E. & Zondi, M. 1992. In: Bunnan, S. & Preston-Whyte, E. (Eds) Questionable issue: illegitimacy in South Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press, pp. 226-246.
Vilakazi, A. 1962, Zulu transformations. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal.
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1997-04-01
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