THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION OF AFRICAN SYSTEM OF KINSHIP

Abstract

In societies that are more complex in terms of industrialization and territorial endowment kinship is difficult to be notice. This is largely because such societies have other agencies that carryout the duties the kin groups is supposed to perform. But in less industrialized societies where traditional values are prevalent kinship still play role for the individual. Most societies in Africa fall under this category. In these small scale traditional societies, social organizations and social structure are understood only through the idiom of social relationship arising from the mutual rights and obligations which mark the kinship system. In Africa, the foundation on which kinship operate outside the society is through the family and marriage. They are the only biological influence in kinship formation.