Abstract
This paper sets out to examine the paradox of matrilineal aspects among patrilineal societies in Africa, which was famously pointed out in the Nuer ethnography by E. E. Evans-Pritchard, and focuses on gender and sexual aspects of the indigenous theory of kinship among the Banna of southern Ethiopia. For this purpose, I describe some local strategies for securing descendants and children's legitimacy. It follows that the concept of paternity must be analyzed by investigating the rules of marriage, sexuality, and the role of the baski, a term which could be translated 'lover' or'levir' and denotes a man who lives with a widow in a relationship similar to marriage but not recognized as such. Paternity has ideological aspects which prescribe the legitimacy of children: in the case of the baski, he cannot give legitimacy to his lover's children even though he is their biological father. Therefore we must distinguish paternity from two perspectives: (1) whether the father is a pater or genitor for the children, and (2) whether he is a legal or illegal marital partner for the children's mother. This is a sort of local knowledge of reproduction technology: the Banna vary their interpretation of sperm and ovum, acquiring their descendants through a process of social manipulation.
