Status e prestígio: lobolo como mecanismo de organização social, bairro de Maxaquene, cidade de Maputo, Moçambique

Abstract

This work analyzes the process of social organization from the lobolo ritual in the city of Maputo. Anthropological studies on lobolo have been developed since the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, having been supported, over time, by different approaches. Among others, lobolo or lovolo is a traditional form of matrimonial alliance of the tsonga that consists in the offer of compensation by the groom's group to another group, the bride, so that the latter reestablishes the balance between the families that make up the clan, through the acquisition of a new member, a woman, who becomes the property of the group. Over time, there were changes in the configurations or forms of compensation in lobolo.

These changes are related to the increase and forms of material values ​​that over time were introduced in the practice of this ritual. This new configuration influenced the monetization of the lobolo practice, calling into question the traditional way in which it was practiced. That is, while before the migratory work, the groom's family acquired the bride through the offer of cattle and hoes, with the introduction of wage labor, the groom acquired the bride through the delivery of money and/or material goods, which some authors called of lobolo monitoring. While the families of the brides had the role of taking care of their daughters and waiting for a man to lobolar them, the men were responsible for participating in salaried work in order to earn money and consummate lobolo. This is how the payment in monetary and material values ​​becomes the crucial element in the acquisition of the bride during lobolo.

We are also currently witnessing an increasing participation of women in family income, where some of them begin to perform tasks and occupations that were previously exclusive to men. In this context, and according to the interpretation of the data, the present study understood that, in a context where the traditional practice of lobolo has been gaining transformations, this ritual is a mechanism for claiming status and prestige, to the point that men and women convert the traditional roles of this practice. That is, the status and prestige acquired from the performance of the lobolo ritual, allows the individuals studied organize their social world according to the meanings attributed to this ritual (TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)