WHO NEEDS YOUR OPINION? CHANGING VALUES OF TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE AMONG THE YORUBA SOUTH-WESTERN NIGERIA.

Adeyinka Wulemat Olarinmoye

Abstract


Some decades ago, it would have seemed absurd to question the significance of traditional marriage among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria, as it was considered central to the organization of adult life. However, social change has far reaching effects on African traditional life. For instance, the increased social acceptance of pre-marital cohabitation, pre-marital sex and pregnancies and divorce is wide spread among the Yoruba people of today. Which have appeared to have replaced the norms of traditional marriage; where marriage is now between two individuals and not families. This research is premised to uncover what marriage values of the Yoruba were and how these values had been influenced overtime. Through the use of qualitative method of data collection, information was collected and analyzed utilizing the content analysis and ethnographic summary techniques; simple percentage of the frequency of data was collected through systematic coding method. The study revealed that civilization, education, mixture of culture and language, inter-marriage and electronic media has brought about changes in traditional marriage, along with consequences such as; loose family standard, marriage instability, weak patriarchy system, and lost of values and customs. Despite the social changes, marriage remains significant value of individuals, families and societies as a whole.

Keywords


Social change, Ethnography, Values, Traditional marriage, Yoruba,

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