Summary
The family form Muhawi and Kanaana define as “extended, patrilineal, patrilateral, polygynous, endogamous, and patrilocal”, whose structural patterns, they argue, generate the types of behaviour encountered in the Palestinian folktales (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 215-312).
Details
- Traditionally three or more generations live in close proximity as one economic unit, sharing all income and expenses, with ultimate authority in the patriarch; descent is traced through the father, only the father’s side count as relatives in the formal system, and the wife leaves her family to live with her husband’s (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 215-312).
- Social identity is masculine by definition: married men are “Father of So-and-So” (Abu Flan) and women “Mother of So-and-So” (Im Flan), so the female becomes the Other, the outsider, for whom conflict is inherent in the system (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 304-312) — yet, the authors argue, the power of the Other is at least equal to that of “self”, expressed in sexuality, food distribution, and the telling of tales (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 313-390).
- Authority devolves by sex, age, and position in the family; a patriarch’s wife has authority over all the family’s females, and the wife of the eldest brother over the wives of younger brothers (salafat) (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 313-390).
- Food, like all material goods, is the patriarch’s property, and its distribution is his wife’s responsibility and authority; favouritism in distribution beyond the recognised occasions — invalids, newlyweds, a pregnant woman’s craving, a new mother — is treated as theft from the collective (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 475-564).
- The authors state that although the majority of Palestinians no longer live in extended families, the standards of behaviour characteristic of the institution are still current in their social milieu (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 215-312).
Related pages
Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, Palestinian folktale, Polygyny, Hamula