Between mobilities and immobilities

The spatial frontiers of kinship in jàana villages (Burkina Faso)

Abstract

Grounded on fieldwork research on death in Jàana villages in South West Burkina Faso, this article considers the frontiers of kinship in “spatial terms”. It shows that these frontiers result from feminine and masculine mobilities and immobilities that can be observed inside and from the house. These mobilities and immobilities define the house as a crossroad: it is a place of contacts and movements where the stabilityof matrimonial alliance and the reproductive capacity of kinship in time and space are questioned. They connect the inside of the house to several external places, by situating kinship in a fragmented space. However, the nature of these places explains the contingent localization of the frontier of kinship outside the house, but also the uncertain future of the house.