Prazak, Miroslava

DR. MIROSLAVA PRAZAK, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, was awarded funding in May 2007 to aid research on 'Kuria Family in the Era of HIV/AIDS.' The study collected quantitative data to examine how HIV/AIDS is reshaping domestic groups and qualitative data to understand how community members are changing their concepts of family. The survey represents the fourth phase of a longitudinal research charting changes and continuities in the structure and size of domestic groups over two decades. It shows an increase of 146% in the number of homesteads, and an increase of 106% in the number of people living in the communities, but a shrinking size of the domestic group (by 1.5 persons, on the average), as well as a steady growth in the number of nuclear family domestic groups. The corresponding decline in the ideal two-married generational homesteads indicates resources usually held collectively in the hand of the patriarch are divided between his sons prematurely. Though patrilineal, patrilocal patterns persist, the growing distance between brothers bodes poorly for orphans being able to activate obligations their paternal uncles have towards them and to prevail in the competition over resources as those become scarcer. So far, norms of inheritance continue to be honored, as evidenced in experiences of orphans in late teens or older. There are a number of areas of conflict in everyday intercourse, and generally, orphans cite assistance from their mother's kin as most significant in meeting everyday needs, whether material, emotional, or guidance. There are no institutional supports available to orphans or caregivers through government or NGO programs or initiatives.