THE POWER OF KYAN IN TAROK LAND

 The kyen’ship structures of the Tarok of Plateau State in Northern Nigeria (also known as the Yergam ) must be understood in the context of fundamental issues of filiation and descent. This holds particularly with respect to such issues as to their 'kyan'ship, as in the relations and positions of maternal mother's brother and mother's brother. First, the discussion on Tarok's skeletal structure regarding their kyan'ship terminology and the kyan's participation in the processes and rituals of marriage institutions is then followed by discussion of the institution of kyanship and, its key features namely the extent of kyans’ legal powers in behalf of seeking spouses for them, their rights or authority over women sometimes widowed or divorced whose kyan is them, their responsibilities in the observance of rituals in case of sickness, the kyanship inheritance, and the attempts made by the Christian missionaries to bring about changes in kyanship. In the end, it would be the expectation of people the way the system evolved and its consequences would be attractive area. It is submitted in connection with this that even if the boys’ patrifiliation is indeterminate and therefore subject to multiple determinants, anything else concerning the girls’ patriline and the relations with father and daughter remains painlessly one-dimensional; which is obstruction of marriages and incest. However, these circumstances do not, as it was believed, explain the necessity of tarok for patrifiliation of girls.

It looks like Tarok institutions create and define both patrilineal and matrilineal structures.

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