Things fall apart

The novel gives many wonderful insights into what is probably the oldest approach to social organization found in many variations around the world. Scholars call this a "kinship society." Characteristics of kinship society include the extended family (rather than the individual or the nuclear family) as the meaningful unit of social organization. Moreover, a strongly defined division of labor in terms of sex has been normal in kinship societies. There is also likely to be division in terms of age or other criteria. Can you think of why this might be so under conditions that existed before recent times? Certainly, in many kinship societies, it is common to speak of male dominance. What evidence of this do you find in the book? Is it the whole story? Does life in the kinship society give the individual more freedom of choice or less than we are used to? Would the answer be different for Okonkwo? For his son, Nwoye? Okonkwo's wives? For the priestess?