Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]In societies in which marriage is seen as a “once-in-a-lifetime event”
for women, remarriage is forbidden or strongly discouraged. A widow
may be expected to remain single as a sign of respect toward her de-
ceased husband; she may even be considered her husband’s wife after
his death.^22 In such societies, a levirate union may be a woman’s only
opportunity to have a sexual relationship or economic support after her
husband’s death.
When women have no property rights through their natal family
and do not inherit from their husbands, the status of a childless widow
can be especially precarious. A widow with adult children can usually
depend on them for support. In societies in which types of work are
gender-specific, an adult son might see his mother as a valuable worker.
A widow with young children might be the de jure or de facto guard-
ian of those children and, as their guardian, would be supported by her
husband’s estate. A man’s family might encourage his widow to remain
in the family enclave if she is caring for children who are part of the
family’s lineage. A childless widow, however, has fewer options. Her
husband’s property would revert to his father, brothers, or other male
kinsmen. In some cases, she might not be welcome to return to her
family of origin. In some cultures, a woman becomes a full member of
her husband’s family only after she bears children (or sons). Her failure
to provide children to her husband’s lineage would leave her in limbo
when he died; she would be, in a sense, without a family, a disaster in
societies where one’s economic rights were based on kinship ties. In
such situations, a levirate union might represent a woman’s only oppor-
tunity to retain her place in her husband’s kinship group and thus have
a home and economic security. As a result, even when the decision to
enter or refuse a levirate union is theoretically the woman’s, a levirate
union may be chosen not for its desirability but in the absence of viable
alternatives.
Betty Potash found widespread practice of levirate among the Luo
of Kenya; close to percent of the widows she spoke with had been
involved in a levirate relationship at some time after the death of their
husbands.^23 The Luo are a patrilineal and patrilocal group; men’s prop-
erty is inherited by their sons, and adult men live on their fathers’ land.
Most villages are populated by men who are agnates. Marriage among
the Luo is exogamous and polygynous. A woman leaves her natal group