Kikuyu Bridewealth and Polygyny Today.

This article is on bridewealth and polygyny among the Kikuyu of Kenya and is based on data collected in 1990. It seeks to take account of recent changes, and to respond to calls for new data. In the area of family studies there is a vast wealth of anthropological materials with varying biates, a small group of studies of national elites and very little information on the everyday lives of more commonplace individuals living within the modem sector or on its fringes. One of the costs of marriage is bridewealth, the money and goods paid from the groom's family to that of the bride. This is a widespread phenomenon in the patrilineal societies. It is important that neither urban residence nor education on the part of the respondents or their fathers seemed to reduce either the likelihood or amount of bridewealth. In fact, all those who lived in Nairobi as children noted that bridewealth had been paid at their marriage. This is important because parents and kin are central to such negotiations.