Reproduction - sotsioloogia
Ndembu of Zambia: Infertility
Ritual & Social Structure
· Unable to achieve pregnancy woman consults a diviner
· Seance ensues, attended by woman's kin and reveals the cause
· The diagnosis is invariably one where the afflicted woman is "caught" by an offended maternal ancestor who has emerged from her grave to sit
in the woman'sbody
· The explanation lies not so much in magic or medicine but social structure: Ndembu are matrilineal and virilocal
· The tensions are built into the social fabric: Conflicting loyalties, allegiances mark the fault lines
· Failure to conceive draws attention to the major sourceof tension within society and an opportunity to work through the social structural
tensions
Changing Face of Relationships?
· Childlessness or "infertility" a `norm violation'?
· Normative Motherhood, Prescriptive Fatherhood?
· Is heteronormative marriage on the decline?
· Conjugal bond weakening and Cohabitation of the
rise?
annaabi.ee 
