As women are considered the property of men here, this mostly translates to him being able to tell her what to do now that she is his "wife.” Sometimes the older married women will call a newly married woman their "wife" in the family as well, due to the power structure that exists between older and younger generations. The line between joking and how people actually consider other people's relation to them is very blurry.
While the Pulaar language does have specific words for cousins, nieces and nephews, these are hardly ever used. As part of my homework when I was first taking Pulaar classes I was instructed to interview my family to find out who was who in the family tree. I’d insist that someone was a cousin or a nephew after being told where they lined up in relation to my host mom or dad, but then was corrected immediately that everyone is considered a child or a sibling, not a cousin or a nephew.
Closeness and knowing one’s relations are very important values in the Pulaar culture. People don’t tend to have friends; instead they have family members and they introduce them as such, even if they are not related in anyway. It was a confusing time for me with this concept when I first got here, as it seemed that every single person was related to every other person.
Marriage
Marriage may be the most fluid of all concepts here when it comes to family structure. Given that the culture in Senegal was explained to me as being a conservative Muslim culture, where modesty and piety are prized, it has taken very little to break down that image.
Marriage is not always defined by the legal document as we would consider it in America.
