The Woman, Ancestor Stones.

Ancestor Stones, by Aminatta Forna was a wonderful novel that shed light the lives of women in a new way. In the novels that we read before this women where not a topic subject rather the warfare and colonization by the Europeans was. I learned that women provided many things for their husbands, children and community.

Since men in the areas we have studied seemed to be the heads of the house, the spouse to numerous, and father to many I just figured they we in charge of everything. Truth is they aren't. Women seem to take the lead in many roles such as provider of food and in a sense the head of the household. In this novel, (Ancestor Stones) women are the ones who do all the fishing and cooking. I think the procedures of fishing are done very beautifully for you don't just run down to the banks and cast your nets. You must wait for the wife that is the favorite and follow her lead. "The women slipped and scrambled down the bank into the water like buffalo on a collapsing cliff. They were jostled for the prize spots close to the bank or else midstream." (pg. 60) This passage produces great imagery for the reader for I can see all these women run down the sands.

Also, I found it very interesting that the women are given a name by their husbands upon their marriage. When I compare that to present day U.S. beliefs I see the similarities but it seems odd that we are comparable. In the U.S. as we all now the wife normally (not in all cases) takes the mans last night as her own. In both cases the women typically have no say, it is a newer belief here in the states that the woman keeps her own or the man will take hers. There are still a lot of disputes over this process.