May I Use Your Mortar?

Micro-Politics of the Bemba Women on the Ownership and Usage of Daily Utensils

Abstract

The Bemba, who live in the woodland in the Northeastern Zambia, are known that they have a unique slash-and-burn cultivation called citemene system and a matrilineal society. Also, it is known that they once formed a powerful kingdom under a paramount chief. I have been continuing the human-ecological research of the Bemba since 1983. This paper's aim is to reveal the structural characteristics of the Bemba villages, which are supported by the matrilineal principal, by analyzing the micro-politics of women on the ownership and usage of daily utensils at the village level with women's point of view.
Daily utensils of the Bemba are very simple, and naturefacts are used efficiently. The research on the ownership of the daily utensils of each household in the village revealed that the utensils are always “wanting”. For example, only elder women have mortar and stone pestle, while the younger women do have neither of those. As a result, the borrowing and lending of these utensils takes place frequently in their daily life. There are no liabilities on the material used, nor does the borrower repay anything to the owner. Practically, the rights to use the utensils are shared by the women in the village. It can be thought that the ownership of these things have symbolical connotations rather than practical ones. The increase in things owned by a woman related to her rise in the life stages and therefore tend to symbolize her social rank in the village. This is the reason why the younger women do not have their own utensils.
Borrowing and lending of the utensils becomes a chance for women to make the time for communication and gathering. At the same time, the gathering is a opportunity to exchange information. The house of an elder woman who owns the utensils becomes a place where all the women in the village get together with various information. Consequently elder women are able to grasp the information brought by the women in the village. With this background, together with the traditional authority accompanied in the matrilineal society, the elder women can exercise the political power over the social relationship of all the members in the village including men.
The action of individual women in the “borrow and lend” relations reflects her social rank and social relationship. At the same time, it becomes a way to recognize the relationship with each other. Under such a socio-cultural setting, the whole body of the micro-politics performed by individual women becomes a significant factor to support and move the social and political structure of the village.