Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0118/01185.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 34KB | 555 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01185}
$Pretitle{252}
$Title{Ecuador
Chapter 5B.   Family and Kinship}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Thomas E. Weil}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{church
family
social
women
religious
indian
society
indians
class
values}
$Date{1973}
$Log{}
Country:     Ecuador
Book:        Ecuador, A Country Study
Author:      Thomas E. Weil
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 5B.   Family and Kinship

     Of all the institutions that make up the social fabric, the most stable
and enduring in Ecuador is the family, with its concomitant-the broader kin
grouping. The family varies less either between classes or between regions
than does the class structure; even where there is variation in its
composition, there is none in the high esteem in which the family is held. For
the landed gentry of the Sierra upper class a distinguished family name plays
a major role in the assignment of a status; and, although kin cohesion loses
some of its force at each step downward in the socio-economic scale, at all
levels trust and responsibility are channeled primarily along the lines of
kinship. The emphasis on the family has its roots in both the Hispanic and the
Indian traditions, and the continuing strength of its hold upon modern members
of this society owes something, no doubt, to the absence of strong alternative
institutions.

     The typical household unit is the nuclear family-a father and mother
living in a stable union with their minor and other unmarried children. The
presence of one or more members of the larger family circle, to whom for one
reason or another shelter has been extended, is common at all levels, and in
upper class and many middle class families one or more servants form a part of
the household.

     In the upper and middle classes, marriage is formalized before both the
civil and religious authorities, and among the lower classes of the
Sierra-whether urban or rural and whether mestizo or Indian-a majority have
been joined in legal marriage. In the Costa, where there is a smaller number
of religious institutions, the frequency of consensual unions increases
steeply; estimates of the incidence of unions of this type in such provinces
as Guayas, Los Rios, Manabi, and Esmeraldas range from one-half to two-thirds
(see Religious Life, this ch.). In the coastal provinces a lower class
household will thus often consist of a mother and her children and a
succession of "fathers," rather than of a father-mother-children group.

     The role of the man in an Ecuadorian family is that of the unquestioned
head of the household, the fount of final authority, and the model of manhood
for his sons. He may also be a kindly and affectionate parent, but he is
unlikely to take an active part in the day-to-day functioning of the family.
Hispanic social tradition grants men the right of independence in their
leisure time, and many men take full advantage of their freedom of action,
spending much time in clubs, coffeehouses, and bars or simply on the street,
depending upon the social stratum to which they belong.

     A woman's range of activity, by tradition, lies within the home. She is
responsible for the management of the household and for the welfare of its
members. Provided that she runs the house in a way generally satisfactory to
her husband, she can usually expect him to allow her considerable autonomy;
but it is an autonomy that is his to give or to withhold. Foreigners from
different traditions describe her status as that of a high-ranking servant
rather than a partner in the marriage enterprise, but the comment does not do
full justice to the importance of her role. Her most fulfilling relationship
is typically that with her children.

     Those men and women in the lower classes whose family life is based on a
series of consensual unions fill roles not unlike those of spouses joined in
legal wedlock, except for the frequent lack of continuing financial
responsibility on the part of the father. The mother, however, overwhelming
the odds, generally carries on the struggle to keep her family afloat.

     The Sierra Indian pattern, like that of white and mestizo society,
stresses male dominance, but among the Indians there is less preoccupation
with the contrasting roles of the sexes. The active role of the Indian wife in
the household economies is reflected in a higher expectation of effectiveness
and initiative on the part of the wives; and the double standard for marital
fidelity, tacitly accepted in Hispanic culture, is replaced by a code of
fidelity that applies with almost equal rigor to both sexes.

     In recent years widening educational opportunities for women and their
entry into the professions and white-collar occupations have given a degree of
independence to a growing number of Ecuadorian women, especially to those of
the middle class in the larger cities. Customs in this society change slowly,
however; even in the cosmopolitan social sectors of the principal cities the
traditional role of the wife and mother has remained almost unaffected, and
even the young woman who has made her way in a profession is rarely free, if
married, from subordination to her husband.

     The social custom of male dominance is supported by the legal code, which
in most instances holds a woman legally incompetent to enter into contracts,
engage in business, or appear in court without her husband's permission, and
which defines the wife's property as part of a conjugal partnership
administered by the husband. The husband's prerogatives can, however, be
limited by a premarital agreement exempting a specific portion of the wife's
property from his control. Ecuador recognizes civil divorce, and a property
settlement, on a number of grounds; but the incidence of divorce is low.

     The upbringing of children presents wide contrasts. In almost every
family, whatever its circumstances, a welcome awaits each newborn member, and
during the period of helplessness infants receive the gentlest treatment. In
later years, however, their destinies have differed sharply as between social
classes. Children of the poorer families are expected to undertake their share
of domestic chores when they have barely emerged from the toddler stage; small
boys in the cities may add to the family income by shining shoes, watching
parked cars, or begging, while tiny girls may carry the family baby on their
backs and attend to its wants like little mothers. In the upper and middle
classes, on the other hand, children are typically petted and indulged by
mothers, female relatives, and servants, and this unexacting policy may
continue in force (especially in the case of boys) during adolescence as well
as childhood.

     A second contrast in childhood experience, which often occurs within a
single family in the upper and middle classes, lies in the different treatment
of boys, who are early allowed considerable social freedom, and that of girls,
who remain under close supervision and are schooled in ladylike, submissive
behavior. As the world of the boys widens, that of the girls tends to grow
more narrow.

     Parentesco (the kinship circle extending beyond the nuclear family) is a
valued social institution in this relatively static, non-affluent society,
providing to each of its member families a source of help in time of crises
and one of the few instruments for achieving social mobility. The range of
recognized kinship circles varies from those of the great landowning families
of the Sierra, whose status and power derive in part from their wide and
intensely cultivated community of kin, to lesser families-whether middle
class, lower class mestizo, or Indian-which by custom maintain a more limited
circle of kinship contacts, more or less in proportion to their social and
economic positions. At the bottom of the ladder in the larger cities are those
defenseless individuals who lack kindred support.

     Kinship obligations for hospitality and other favors are morally binding,
and they