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The husband and his wife’s mother, as well as all women whom she calls mother, call one another muko. The rules of behaviour between persons who stand in this relationship are all such as to prevent their coming into close contact, and thus to guard against the friction which seems inevitably to result where a married couple are expected to maintain intimate relations with one another’s parents. They may not take one another by the hand, pass one another in a doorway, look one another straight in the face (the woman should cover her head or fix her eyes upon the ground, and if they meet in the road would turn aside), or be left alone in speech together. They may not eat together, nor may one eat food which the other has left. A muko may not touch the corpse of a muko nor throw earth into his grave.

  • Source: Mair, Lucy Philip. An African people in the twentieth century. London: Routledge & Sons, 1934.
  • Culture: Ganda
  • Location: Africa