Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]be permitted to marry his father’s wives, except for his own mother.^37
In the event that a man died without sons, or in those societies where a
man’s heirs were his brothers and not his sons, a brother might inherit
and marry any or all of the deceased’s wives.
Widow-inheritance may reflect a number of assumptions or values.
On one hand, it reflects the investment a man’s family may have made
in his marriage. In societies that require that bride-price be paid by the
groom or his family to the bride’s family, a man’s family often provided
the wealth that enabled him to marry. In such societies, there is a sense
that, having paid for the woman’s sexual and reproductive services,
the husband’s family retains control over the woman even after his
death.^38 This allows for the transfer of the woman to her husband’s sur-
viving brother. Insofar as levirate is understood to be a form of widow-
inheritance, it assumes that women are chattel and can “be inherited
like other belongings.”^39 In some societies, a woman can avoid levirate
marriage only if she or her family agrees to return the bride-wealth to
the groom’s family.^40
The definitions of levirate mentioned at the beginning of this chap-
ter underscore the ways in which a levirate union is used to determine
rights of succession to family property. In communities that prefer “ver-
tical” inheritance, the passage of property from one generation to the
next, a man without sons lacks a preferred heir. In such cases, a man
may employ various strategies during his lifetime to secure an heir. He
may t a ke add it iona l w ives or conc ubi nes. He may adopt h i s son-i n-law or
designate his daughter’s sons, his grandsons, as his heirs. He may adopt
a son, choosing as his heir either an agnatic relative or a “stranger.” The
strategy employed will reflect the values and kinship structure of the
soc iet y.
If a ma n dies w it hout chi ldren, lev irate or g host ma r r iage may be em-
ployed to secure an heir for him. Assigning the biological sons of one
man to his brother allows the sons of the former to inherit the latter’s
property. A “successful” levirate union, one that produces children, re-
establishes the “preferred” patterns of vertical inheritance; the man who
died without offspring now has children to inherit his property. Thus
in some societies, particularly those that mandate levirate only when
a man dies without offspring, levirate is a device to preserve a man’s
property by providing him with posthumous sons.