1g (Grluque of Anthropology migrant laborer, from her understanding of Ngoni life, and from her own cultural and economic experiences, Margaret Read succeeded in distorting the way most people lived. Her approach presumed ‘ideal types’ and total viewed these ‘systems’ in ‘opposition’ led to the con- iny was bad for agricultural practices, was deficient, and would be ‘taken over’ by a more efficient patriliny. In this article, I re-examine the Nyasaland evidence provided by Read and her own use of it, and argue that perspective, her idea of a ‘permanent neficial, Her dation of aspects from worked on two projects. pologist for the three-vil tion Survey, and, having ied and supervised and hampered African agric the agricultural officer of the mi reported their shared assur 2 a fesul of her prior notlons ns between patiineal Ngont Audrey Richards’s Legacy Anthropological \ding about African matriliny was just emerging in the late 1930s, mostly from the work of Audrey Richards on matrilineal oe I } Brantley: Through Ngoni though Richards’s book, Land, Labow ile Read was in Nyasaland, Read's work was done a decade before ’s 1950 article on matrilineal family structure identified the ex yin what Richards termed the ‘matrilineal belt’ (of stretched from Nyasaland) examined pa toral thesis, which she finished as Hunger and ig secondary evidence on themselves properly could be attributed to matrilineal practices (Richards, Bemba men, leaving for migrant work, ceased giving bride service to their wife’s Richards reported that husbands began giving small money payments fo hanging from an Uuxoriloeal to a vitilocal residence pattern, these changes as a breakdown’ of traditional society. It was not known at the time that citimene150 Gritique of Anthropology 17) ly, even the situe ations which Read documented were much more complex. ‘The Nyasaland Nutrition Survey ‘The initial conducted ‘Nyasaland, came from a committee wit ‘ican Language and Cultures (IAL ‘an active part because of her anthropological wor Ay the purpose of the survey was to understand Africa ‘African production systems, through the new science of nutrition (Worboys, 1987, | research and the social context which anthropology could provide, The original to study a single ‘tribal’ dict over an entire year (PRO/CAB/58/199), a colonial office committee to include a comparison gro! logical areas with different foods in ciplinary team would observe three villages over an annual agrie excle (PRO/CAB/38/208) ‘The Nyasaland villages lakeshore cassava-growers with escarpment 2 Unlike maize, cassava could be harvested all year a restricted planting and harvesting cycle. The specific because they were familiar to the British medical and ag ‘on the team, and because one was an Ngoni village, which to take advantage of Read's anthropological expertise. The fact that the designated villages included pat ‘matrilineal Chewa a and some Ngoni-Chewa mixture was simply coi seen, revealed variations of practice. ges, located just west of Nkotakota, on the southvves Lake Nyasa, included a lakeshore village (1200") of 30 Yao households hil side village (3000°) of 30 Chewa households, and a plateau village (4500°) ff 55 Ngoni households.® Even though travel up and down the escarpment wvas difficult, especially in the rainy season, the villages were close enough Tor the team to work in all three of them, though unevenly. Although the villages were treated as discrete types by the survey team, Read's research ir complexities, which had implications for nutritional quality. For ge was surrounded by mixed villages of Chewa, Yao and Nyamveezi people who were Muslims, Its numbers had been declining for years and its female members re selected with the aim of comparing plateau maizegrowers. 1d and did not have chosen Brantley. Through Ngon far outnumbered the males. Even though all villagers traced descent to a Beaween those who were lave wives. Moreover, internal com- ipparently because of the increasing ‘and the desire for material ‘The people of these three which Read knew well. B tablished themselves along the west coas his headquarters at Nkotakota, whence he ma along the lake and westward up the escar From the traders from the east had restricted African movements and reformed political ui -ectly to the ways in which people organized around mat feracted, Once peace had brought an end es and the systems of slavery or cli only spread out, but the colonial system made their new locations perma- nent and overlayered them with new criteria for authority. This process ced the size of plots, severely con- strained the mobil that barely vely new. Two hamlets of the their old village area in 1900, while the other hamlet had gained nearby land in 1904 (LSE/READ 1/27H). The lakeshore Yao, who had originally come to the area in 1876, first tried to live inland where they could grow maize, but when the warring stopped and Jumbe allocated them rights to152 ‘Anthropology 172) the lakeshore in 1910, they moved near the lake and resigned them- 7 ceaur Ngor ally once been their slave "The second transforming force for these villagers was their being thrust it tax began to be collected ‘vigorously 1989: 173). Here, tax, as in son more easily modified w ‘cash crop. In contrast, young m to acquire the means for brideprice. Read argued meven) impact on food production and mart away, the duration of their stay, lages. People in the Yao village, 5 miles i Nkotakota, had virtually all been converted to At the Universities’ Mission to central Africa, establ 1962), A new marriage form emerged - . A Dutch Reformed Church had opened in 1909 on the upper escarpment, just about equi adults (25%) from the hilide Chewa vile and fourteen icism through ice 1895 (Blox from the plateau Ngoni Ghristian identity contributed (o internal friction as non .everely divided. On the plateau, it seemed to hav cooperation within the Ngoni village, and in + resource available to villagers, since it posed no conflicts with Despite colonial Christian and commer jineal influences which anced previous Swahili and Ngoni ones, the primary socio-economic ideology guiding practice in this larger Nkotakota region came from the numerically dominant matrilineal Chewa, and much about the Yao pattern ‘was similar. Chewa had once been part ofa larger centralized Marav state, but power had decentralized co the village level, where the highest polit thority, by the time of the study in 1938, was in the hands of the male | | Brantley: Through Ngoni anja to refer: primary divisions withi For instance, the lakeshore village was a single banjadespi inhabitants were divided betwee: yers had be hamlets. tural, and craft skills first. The nkhaswe as guardi rages of his sisters. The husband-to-be gave a small token gift to parents, and before the marriage was completed, bi , 1983: 260) agreed could dh token payment and take his wife to in walking distance, close enough older children, espe: eit grandmothers, A were sent back to live death payment (camtupa) thus they had money to hire h communal beer partes were widely used ich for along sively Chewa, were obtained from the male matrilineal male head of the matrilineage, or nkhasue. He established his lage site, and held the rights to hold initiations (mzinda). He se time for the initiation rites for women (cinanwal), w of the land was believed 10 be scage. The nthoswe controlled the rights to woodlands and uncultivated grasslands, gave permission forthe first grass ‘burning, and received some parts of all wild animals hunted by villagers, ‘This process had facilitated shifting agriculture and village movements. Although among their southern Yao, Mang’anja and Lomwe neighbors, is cencral area, Read is brother was the184 Critique of Anthropology 17(2) the last surviving brother died, a family guardian of her uterine descendants under the leader- ship of her eldest nyau secret society," which Phiri argues provided temporary escape from the restrictions on their roles as uxorilocal husbands because, when they were meeting and dancing (which they did especially for funerals), they were above the law of the community (Phi ‘According to the survey evidence, when the dancing groups arrived rey were always fed, so nyaumen gained extra benefits during food shortages "This basic description of daily living is generally appropriate for the Yao village (cf. Roberts, 1964), except that Yao men were often involved in absence from home led to a pattern Wg them to bride service. Yao men wer nally worked less in the fiel acquire wives eschew agricultural work, than did Chewa men “guard Several things seem clear from this general picture. W valued as reproducers of a matrilineage and as ag Thildrea belonged to matrilineages; the roles of husband, father and rere overshadowed by the role of maternal brother; and the conjugal jeeds of the matrlineage. Acco ‘carried no penalties (LSE/READ to Read, divorce was easy, espec 1/211). ‘To all of the survey researchers, but especially to Read, the highly cen- incal organization offered a marked contrast to matriliny. Ngoni had conquered Chewa in this area around 1875, but after the Pax Britannica at the turn of the century, when people began to return to their homes, those Ngoni on the plateau were a numerical minority living. ith, Chewa, Like most Ngoni in the central their Chewa deper lages within a 120-20-mile radius. Their strongly patrilineal ideology was ‘much like that Richards had described for the southeastern Bantu and was sm their own Zulu roots, but when Read described how this ideal n amended, she gave modifications of old patrilineal practices ‘adaptations of new matrilineal ones. ideal practices, brideprice (Jobola) was paid in cat In Ngo was rare because brideprice had to be returned, and wives lived Polygamy, commonly practised, usually represented wealth. Society was organized on the basis of age-sets, which had once facilitated military regi ments, and ‘big houses’, which represented local | | | | Brantley: Through Ng bridepsice was paid in specie rather than cae, and divorce was sil iff cal. olvny fennel ten due co the nertane of deceased vother’s wife rather than ata matk of greater wealth. gests Famctioned in onlya limited way, but male elder etamed contol ove the women ad ees formed eo bi houses’ under the authority of his two senior wives, and eves m fe and every household in re sense of mutual obligation was strong. The the two granaris, the few catle and wages of rete With the loss of large cattle herds to tinderpes and their move to different tary preferences this village had few of men, men ng men were ates to help with food production hese vast changes of inter- on from skvery, warfare, Islam, colonialism and cases there is evidence of marriage and residential n. On the plateau, where one might have expected most mar- ages in the Ngoni village to involve brideprice id on the hill side, where one might have expected bri (chikemuini) marriages sg ohh lage reflected what Read 1/27H) between the two previous forms, called chitegwa,! which essentially facilitated a change to Virilocal residence. Whereas lobola involved a series of gifts in instalments, often cattle or goats, chilengwa involved a one-time gift (worth anywhere from two shillings to one pound, or from a fowl to asheep) which was given bythe groom to his wife's fa es the man was allowed to take age, b woallow fe, but he had to allow ler children ogo tothe mothers family and he sil agreed to pay a death fee. Chitengua changed residence but did not displace chikamusini. Read's interpretation was that chifengwa was a ‘compromise between matrilineal and patrilineal descent and residence’ and that it ‘reflects Ngoni influence’ (LSE/READ 1/271)156 Be (Grtique of Anthropology 172) t lage had 21 traditional chikamuini marriages, 26 ‘matrilineal group upon her deat {LSE/READ 1/27H) Two | _ anid children were under the car nailed chikamwini and most —|-—-—=—staken care of by his [the father jenerations prevously, r i Adaptations facittated more d wore between cros+-cous might have been brought about by forces other tha Ngoni influence, 1¢ conjugal family as an independent unit ‘dof shifting cultivation. In this v lengua marked a -|_—_which was supposed to gain patrilineal control over children. In 1939 there ty. ul “lmoveswere within 5 —--=~=~SC(ere still 4 cross-cousin marriages out of 22 in the lakeshore ‘authority of the matrilineage over ——-»-=_«€VetY Woman in the village was linked by matrilineal bonds, of the 16 men in residence (LSE/READ 1/25), so male conflicts between, ws husbands emerged, especi wed sisters. Unusual in a matril is village than men, but because so many of the iscrepancy was less evident (LSE/READ 1/2 Jateau village, where Read says the typical form of though there were only 20 of them compared with | 37 chitengwa and 21 chikamwin, the Tauer mostly among the fami \¢ interprets chilengwa as a transition: ‘itis chitengua marriages will be converted later on to lobola’ (LSE/READ | 1/27P). Given the extensive Ni this : including three of the chief's wives, involved, since chitengwaincluded the retent iren and compensation for a wife's de as significant as those of Ngoni hillside and plateau villages were were gone from the lakeshore ge let for an average vo hoe or cary loads, and men rom the pat se years and headed to the mines of to wor ys, lakeshore men were gone for more l working a labor managers on estates, and they gar | When identifing men who had never rewrned | sideand ploteau | had “disappear 1/3% NNS/READ 19-20), Though the lakeshore villagers had most closely followed the model of westerniz- ation and had the most secure food crop, some of them still experienced the greatest difficulty acquiring food, and the difference was dered. 7 ; wee villages, more than several women were left thout husbands to help them, how did they fare? In the Chewa hil (NNS/READ 22). The patiern of N ig streambeds in the surrounding Chewa villages fon the plateau reflect marriages whereby a husband could benefit from his wife's rights to the land,!* Moreover, chitengwa allowed an increasing mber of Ngoni men to avoid paying extensive labola, even when they were ying Ngoni women. Phiri (1983: 266-7) recounts that those Ngoni who were descended from Ciwere at Dowa (as was true for the Ngoni in the plateau village) had incorporated many Chewa institutions; Read saw all changes as Ngont influence. The lakeshore village reported that the marriage pattern two gener ations previously had been one of matrilineal cross-cousin marriages. As the \ergy expended (NNS/II-10). Women without husbands had Villagers converted to Christianity, however, a new form of ma oped led chimangiso which, according to Read, was s. As young wives, they worked their mothers’ gardens. Some the lobola marriage of the Nj some of ils features’ (LSE/READ on kin in other vi sin exchange for this later practice nas con JTL). A significant payment sterling) was given to the bride's paren (NNS/READ 14), and had to be rerumed to reside with her husband, who was not Hable for a p‘Griique of Anthropology sand (10 women had osand away aid 9 women were domed oF ed a compensating factors. PON re Pepsves and the cers athe Sostoragesets ensured dat all ser agacultaal els, The maples of cooking and Food shortages these nage to be more at onal sureeynevaled cos dec 0 pany she Shimoni, coves, and Sh practices (U5E/READ ‘rity and the availabi women were given assistance igranaries of the owo ‘houses’ and thy ating groups across households also overcame omen otherwise might suffer. Read viewed this ‘calturally successful than the find and, although she attribute that ‘associated the factors of chi Complex cooking and eating groups with pat remind nt the labor Ban To naan nay. and 12 women Who Were i hurbands (9 wet dalton, there nee 18 young women Past si aed a sing ah eit mothe, Wi 3S Puberty who were unify ilage and Hie expectation dat dey would sng a ey cmaiing unmarried women had ad re anand from among the surrounding accept marca men in the vilage over age 18 compoced of 181 saree tec food cneumsances. All of them Were i erecta rowing slicien casa Wa nye produced soley by he wom "The most nt his village then, + of people ‘main problem, Tabor, but cassava problem, sh found in the tiny lagoon near the village, ‘and the lake was restricted to men only. Fis such taboos, magic and co inherited (NNS/I-7). Wome provide fish had to do wit Evidence exists that brothe! fish, It was hard to cation. “The desire for the higher s classes and mi ‘eastern central Africa, wornen at t ‘a cash crop labor-intensive rice. Mos is arduous work they + Sisted only by paid labor. They came to be responsible for Paying school Feechd for buying clothes for their children without counting of * f a er TTEe Brantley: Through Ngoni additional help from their brothers or their husbands or from their chil 1. Fathers, when questioned as to why dheywere not paying school fees, replied, “They have their mother. I cannot be made poor because of them’ (LSE/READ 1/30: 8), Children’s comments indicate the pressure on their mothers, many of whom had wage-caring husbands and brothers. ‘We ask our mothers for school fees and for clothes and for pennies because ing rice and firewood and other things’ (LSE/READ 1/30: 2). Read noted with approval that men in the Yao lakeshore village Kept personal control of wages and that they spent them on their elementary family, but she expressed surprise that some mat ribution pat terns remained. A few men had. plots, and they would give proceeds, which, according to Read, did not bution’. Proceeds from women's to their chi upon their ranking in the matrilineage a in the Chu ity, three women were res} ‘community decisions in the lakeshore village, especi to feeding the women who had no husbands. Itw ir sisters in women-headed he ige from mat pa men) who were the most vulnerable nutritionally ax grate (LSE/READ 1/2! ‘was hardly positive. she predicted thi ). Her example here for a patriline Patrilineal Preferences? At first, then, in the view of researchers who expected that pat hhigher on some imaginary evolutionary scale and woul it appearedas if the Yao lakeshore village showed that patriliny was ‘over matriliny. Yet this was not entirely the case, Aspects of Inatriliny persisted, particularly regarding distribution and control Tand, though practices were selective. Italso appeared that Ngoni were encing a trend among Chewa that Read interpreted as one toward patriliny 'e trend was toward virilocality, and the changes regarding tnarital ‘were going both ways. Moreover, in the more popular form of be to the m: wife's death, Surely Read had seen evidence of even more extensive Ngoni modifications during her previous work, especially with Ciwere’s Ngoni at Dowa. Ngoni there apparently not only practised matrilineal descent and160 ue of Anthropology u secret societies and women’s villag ngworthy, 1975: 21; Swart, 1974 nearby Dedza di .out exception’ ad und going to reside in the wife's home (1951: ance rules but adopted nya marriage practice 104), ‘Amore general he evidence as a change to patriliny was ) chat there were differ- yperstious and pi ide village attributed their tong neighbors, to the practices ‘model farmers’ ‘Chewa and Yao men were not the survey team launched -ked with fish surrounded the plateau village (CBA). ‘So what was the role of the Bemba, as described by Ric food production? Unlike 1¢ Nyasaland villages did ing agricultural labor, In ‘was a woman and ‘common at peak periods gained through reciprocal fen helped ver} factions based o matrilineal family of Liwewe and virtually swork was not shared vidualism overrode communal work. Wor the bass of birth status, and the spirit of ind Tost ofthe work and eal ‘was needed to cultivate rice, the cash crop, and ah ‘cash, It appears that the spirit of cinasi, or neighborliness, provided what fever basis existed for cohesion and sharing, but economic comp id ‘economic secrecy Kept this from evolving into charity (LSE/READ 1/25). Brantley: Through Ng ‘The Christian basis for sharing was never mentioned, and some of the most and the least successful food production prevailed here, but the existence of a single mauilineage made no difference whatsoever. ‘Women’s Roles The key problem in Read's interpretati only disadvantages related to m: ty of farnilies and ageic is that she seemed able to see iny, to which she attributed th tural decline. She was both reflecting a mare ing to provide evidence that se she appears to have husband] would be dependent pon the charity of hin 628-9) is a She argued that women’s isolation made them more conservative an absentee under the patrilocal marriage system’ ie Richards notedez Gritique of Anthropology 172) structure, “In par- functional under a adapted to a the case with a conjugally organize ied that the only changes he had been peopl able to find of Cewa matrilineal social organization giving way in the face lineal character of the social structure’ (1952: 262). ‘There was ample evidence of general failure to meet colonial agri- the larg Chanock directly challenged Read’s interpretations about matriliny and agriculture: Margaret Read likewise persuaded herself, wit the help of Ngoni informants, that the Ngoni were responsible for the the agriculeural area. Yet see the Ngoni .. as overlords of a wibute economy iculture which was often damaged, rather than 977: 400, citing Read, and the exploiters of an created, by their presence. He also challenged Kettlewell whe a postcolonial context, had written: Here, Kectlewell seems to be presuming private ownership of land by men. as a goal. Chanock also pointed out that the evidence contradicted Read's, and Kett preconceived notions: ‘was the matrilineal areas which, in producers of the agricultural cure appeared to decay, appar When Richards noted: “The fact is surely that the Bemba woman isin a freer position living among her ‘own people and is co-operating with those she is most closely identified with : divorce and she, too, indicated a possible problem, but only if seen from a perspective that viewed marriage stability and husbands’ needs as paramount. i | | | Current Status of the Villages ‘The greatest test of Read’s conclusions is whether the survey villages com- By 1992 wh locations, thoug! each had declined in size.!* The Chief’s co ‘Chewa court rather than an Nj had been at the tie of the sure, ols epresented the orginal Linewe ae and plateat wiles se they co land elsewhere for yroming food ps, especialy tobacco, Some ofthe plateau Ngont fs oF the Chena hemlet which was 2 part of th Siinge) had moved to Néabw, the village founded in 1927 by theit Ngont Vilage chick Tobacco thrived there and soll was better for maize Some of Fe hllge Chews (mow fom te Chea Rane rou ont the plateau at Kaneonga joining some othe Sout ateshore Yao apparenly mov viduals. Th \ger was there an excess of uni In the generation nas brought wives 10 surprising] ‘matrilineage based on the land and, even with the mu ough marriage, Chewa again. After ma of these villagers adopted nus marriage patterns but retained matri ts. The flexibility required by circumstance and atrilineal inheritance are reflected in the current _ yeta polygynous Muslim. become more of the norm in‘of Anthropology 17(2) ‘marriage with neighboring Chewa to a mixed they di price, but the ideology of matr matrilineage remair In their recently edited book on 3) include no specific cases of mati ‘Nyasaland survey support many of the princip! i e-owned land is the be term survival strategy for Africa thrive.}? A new Iook at relationship to the need for wages and/or cash a lineage-related practice may provide workable st narrow ecological niches where agricultural yield is low (Douglas, 1969: jes for migrant labor to South Africa 170s, more men had to spend more time eal organization or vit roduction even for producing food with th locality seemed to have no the returning male. Condusions A.close look at Read’s evidence does not shows that aspects of patriliny not only fai that women were often directly disadvantaged, Her evidence, when set jon, shows a much more complex situation of ial benefit. When Read left Nyasaland in 1939, her primary goal was to write her Ngoni book (which did not appear until 1956) and finish her report o1 (LSE/MAL 496). Interpreting aspects of mati the extensive evidence she collected belies the oversimplified tations which to print immediately. ‘The assumpt dence, prevailed Read's publications. But, had the evidence, the Nyasaland Nutrition Survey and the wider, comparative evidence of the Brantley: Through Ngor ‘emigrant labor study been made available in the early 1940s, they would have shown then the ways in which Africans were accomrodatit mn the practices of ‘patriliny’ a ining separate and distinc Europeans rather iny were not dichot- 000. 250,238), teen printed by Berry and Petty {ij Bec ert esos of he epee cee eaeeeen ks for my166 ‘Gaitique of Anthropology 17(2) 10. Compare Fleming (1971: 57) for his findings in northern Malawi 1992) argues that nya was not an original part of Chewa © oghan discovered regarding at the original Nyasaland Nutri- ‘expected the villages (Moore and Vaughan, 1994). 19 See especially Bassett, Introduction’ and Bruce, Chapter 1 30, 1/32 *y Report: Emigration from Nyasaland: Its Effects Life”, presented to the Native Welfare in Nyasaland (nd, but probably 1940) 3 Bromislan» Malinowski Papers, London School of Economics LSE/MAL 496 Margaret Read, Correspondence. 4 BS, Platt Fils, Medical Research Council, London MRC/PLATT. 2176 5 Public Record Office London PRO/CAB ational Institute of African Languages and Proposal for a Nutrition Survey of an African Tribe’, September 1936 58/208 Memorandum &: 6 Brantley Interviews, August 1992 CLBAL (Lakeshore); CLBsH (H (Plateau). Brantley: Through Ngor aan Suro Pape, 1938-1943 ‘culture, Food, and Health. London: Academy Books. te “The Universiti’ Mision o Cena Afi Vo. 8. London The Un mo Cental Alia (Journal of Southern Afican Mary Douglas and Phy mber) 87-1 1¢ Acheva and Angoni of the Dowa District of ‘the Nyasaland Protectorate’, journal of the Royal Anthropological Institue of Great Brisin and Fretand 63. V.(1968) Agricultural Change in Nyasaland: 1945-1960, Palo Alto Stan- ford University Food Research Insti 3. Nairobi, Kenya: Hast African ‘Mait, Lucy (1952) ‘Marriage and Family in the Dedza District of Nyasaland’, Journal ofthe Royal Anthropological Institute BY: 102-12, 0. 1994) Cutting Down Trees: Gender, Nutrition Province of Zambia, 1390-1990. London: the Matrilineal Family System among the Chewa of Malawi Since the Nineteenth Century’, Journal of African History 24(Q): 2577468 Gritique of Anthropology 17(2) rica and its Effects on Tribal Life’, les Africa's early colonial nutrition Africa, and women's reproduc Jeon of Nyasaland. London: Oxford University Pres their Fates: Grnsing Up Among the Neon of Nyasa versity of California, Davis, Department of [emait:clbrantiey@uedavis.edu) is, Audrey (1932) Hu ‘Southern Bantu. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul ibal Government in Transition: The Bs the Royal African Sociaty 34: Supple lage Census in the Study of Culture Contact, Richards, Audrey ( North-eastern Rho ‘Audrey (1935b) "The 28 20-88, “Audrey (1936) “The Story of Bwembya of the Bemba Tribe, Northern Margery Perham (ed.) Tew Africans, pp. 17-40. London: Faber Land, Latour and Diet in Northern Rhodesia: An Economic sity of London. ) The Craton of Tribaion in Southern Africa Berkeley: University | ‘and Landeg White (1989) “Tribalism and the Political History of | on of Tribaliom in Southern Africa, pp. 1d Family Labour in Southern Malawi: the Early Colonial Period’, Wood 7 sre and Hegemony in sity of Malawi, Chan Worboys, Social History of Meine Bullen 40: 25-6, ‘= Cynthia Brantley is an Associate Professor of African history at the University fof California, Davis. Her research areas include Kenya and Malawi. She is the author of The Girama and Colonial Resistance in Kenya, 1800-1920 and articles in