Figure 70
Lovedu Marriage Exchanges

Lobola Payments and Cross Cousin Marriage

• A and B are cattle linked siblings.
• When B gets married, her brother (A) receives lobola cattle from her husband (C).
• He then uses this payment to marry F.
• In return, he must marry off his daughter (D) according to his sister's demands, normally to her son (E) or to her husband (C).
• Other sets of cattle linked siblings will follow the same rule.
• This arrangement is a variant of a matrilateral cross cousin marriage system, where a group of lineages are bound together in a circle through the exchange of women, but in this case there is a counter flow of cattle.