The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the Soninke family
adapts to the socio-economic conditions surrounding their society by paying
special attention to family size and structures.
The Soninke society along the Senegal valley has been placed outside
the main stream of development policies adopted by the central
government since the colonial period. This is a major reason why twenty
to thirty percent of one village have been forced to emigrate to
France. Almost all the emigrants are male, and they live in France
without wife and children. Remittances from the emigrants are used not
only for the expenditures needed to sustain the daily life of the family but
also for the common expenditures needed for community development
in the village. Today, emigration has become essential for the Soninke
people to live on in such a depressed region.
The migration observed in Soninke society has been maintained by
large families and their ties. Simultaneously, it is confirmed that family
structures are adversely influenced by the migration itself. The migration
to France, with its completely different customs and culture, cannot
continue without the cohesion of the emigrants. It is observed that the
traditional age systems and class relationships seen in the village are
brought into France. On the other hand, it is confirmed that the status
of head of family has been gradually enforced due to continuous migration.
The patriarchal system seen in Soninke society becomes a major
element in producing families of twenty two point four (22.4) persons
on average, as surveyed at the village of Gande. When the actual
conditions of the large families are clarified, using the three basic comp"
of nents of "compound (concession) ", "household (menage) " and amily nucleus (noyau familial) ", the following five family types are
revealed, namely;
1. mononuclear family, : a couple + single lineal descendants
(+ a lineal ascendant +
other single relatives),
2. expanded mononuclear family, : 1 + at least one single collateral
relative,
3. polynuclear family,: 1 + at least one family nucleus
of lineal relatives,
4. collateral polynuclear family, : 1 + at least one family nucleus
of collateral relatives,
5. expanded polynuclear family, : 3 + 4.
It is observed that the emigrants come from comparatively large
families, e.g. collateral polynuclear family or expanded polynuclear family,
and that in such large families there is a tendency for the average age
of the head to be high, and further, that those families often belong to a
lower social class.
The members of a large family live in the village and the place where
they emigrate, and their relations are formed as strong ties among the
family members. However, this kind of family is not the traditional and
typical one seen in Soninke society in the past. Rather, it must be said
that it has been newly formed by contemporary socio-economic conditions.
In addition to this, with respect to changes in family structures in
the future, the most interesting thing to observe will be changes in the
economic and social power of men in the family. It is, in short, to be
determined by the power relations between the head of a family and the
emigrants.
ソニンケ社会における家族の連帯と規模 : 出稼ぎをめぐって
KH_021_1_002.pdf
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