Women and Property in Morocco: Their Changing Relation to the Process of Social Stratification in the Middle Atlas (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Series Number 10)

This Is A Study Of The Effects Of Modernization On The Social And Economic World Of Women In Morocco. Vanessa Maher Suggests That Three Systems Of Social Stratification Modify One Another: A System Of Classes Based On Relation To The Means Of Production; A System Of Estates, Differentiated By Inherited Status; And A System Of Segmentary Tribal Groups, Based On Territorial Rights. Although All Moroccans Use All These Systems On Different Occasions It Is The Women Who, Faced With Their Own Exclusion From Wage-earning, Along With The Instability Of Marriage And The Inadequacy Of Most Family Incomes, Respond By Perpetually Reconstituting The Groups On Which They Must Depend, Those Based On Territorial Rights And Putative Kinship. By Observing These Social Networks, Maher Has Been Able To Identify Part Of What Inhibits The Development Of Class Consciousness, And What Favours A Clientistic Political Structure. Introduction ---- 1. The Background --- 2. Estates, Tribal Groups And The Market Today --- 3. Patron-client Relations --- 4. How It Looks On The Ground --- 5. The Cultural Corollary: Education And Social Stratification --- 6. Religion And Social Stratification --- 7. Conjugal Roles, Kinship Roles And The Division Of Labour --- 8. Relationships Among Women --- 9. Fostering --- 10. Marriage --- 11. Marriage And The Market --- 12. The Position Of The Bride After Marriage --- 13. Divorce And Property ---- Conclusions. Vanessa Maher. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 229-233.

This is a study of the effects of 'modernization' on the social and economic world of women in Morocco. Vanessa Maher suggests that three systems of social stratification modify one another: a system of classes based on relation to the means of production; a system of estates, differentiated by inherited status; and a system of segmentary tribal groups, based on territorial rights. Although all Moroccans use all these systems on different occasions it is the women who, faced with their own exclusion from wage-earning, along with the instability of marriage and the inadequacy of most family incomes, respond by perpetually reconstituting the groups on which they must depend, those based on territorial rights and putative kinship. By observing these social networks, Maher has been able to identify part of what inhibits the development of class consciousness, and what favours a clientistic political structure.