POLYGYNY, WOMENS LAND-TENURE, AND THE MOTHER-SON PARTNERSHIP IN SOUTHERN SOMALIA

Women in riverine agricultural villages in Somalia hold extremely limi ted independent access to land. After examining why this is the case, this article explores how older women with grown sons, especially seni or wives in polygynous households, often strive to form collaborative working relationships with landowning sons over which the husband-fath er has no authority or control. Such business relationships are critic al to the women involved: they provide some autonomy from the husband, an envied independent source of income, and greater food security tha n women in polygynous relationships normally are afforded by their hus bands. The article examines the opportunities women have to form these relationships, the conditions tinder which they are formed, and the i mplications of these partnerships for family and village.