Lloyd A. Fallers

Some Determinants of Marriage Stability in Busoga: A Reformulation of Gluckman's Hypothesis

Since the main features of Soga society have been described elsewhere I shall give only a summary outline of the wider social structure and concentrate attention upon those features relevant to marriage and to Gluckmans hypothesis. Traditionally sedentary agriculturists the Soga who number about one-half million are today cultivators of cotton coffee and groundnuts for sale as well as the indigenous plantains millet and sweet potatoes for subsistence. Soga agriculture was and is sedentary in the true sense; holdings are permanent the land being fertile enough to allow permanent occupation of a plot of some 6-12 acres under a system of fallowing and crop rotation. The plantain garden which provides the staple food over most of the area may remain productive over a period of several decades. Furthermore much of Busoga is densely populated densities over much of the area ranging above 300 to the square mile of cultivable land. For Busoga as a whole the average density is nearly 150 to the square mile. All this means that so far as ecological determinants are concerned Soga communities are spatially stable and close together. (excerpt)