Power Representation and feminist Critique nteractions"(1980, 400). That women mother in a variety of societies is not as significant as the value attached to mothering in these societies The distinction between the act of mothering and the status attached to it is a very important one-one that needs to be stated and analyzed contextually Married Women as victims of the Colonial process In Levi-Strauss's theory of kinship structure as a system of the change of women, what is significant is that exchange itself is not con stitutive of the subordination of women; women are not subordinate be- cause of the fact of exchange, but because of the modes of exchange instituted, and the values attached to these modes. However, in discussing the marriage ritual of the Bemba, a Zambian matrilocal, matrilineal people, Cutrufelli in Women of africa focuses on the fact of the marital exchange of women before and after Western colonization rather than the value attached to this exchange in this particular context. This leads to her definition of Bemba women as a coherent group affected in a particular way by colonization. Here again, Bemba women are constituted rather unilaterally as victims of the effects of Western colonization. Cutrufelli cites the marriage ritual of the Bemba as a multistage event whereby a young man becomes incorporated into his wife's family group as he takes up residence with them and gives his services in return for food and maintenance"(43). This ritual extends over many years, and the sexual relationship varies according to the degree of the girls physical maturity. It is only after she undergoes an initiation ceremony at puberty that intercourse is sanctioned, and the man acquires legal rights over her This initiation ceremony is the more important act of the consecration of women's reproductive power, so that the abduction of an uninitiated girl is of no consequence, while heavy penalty is levied for the seduction of an initiated girl. Cutrufelli asserts that the effect of european colonization has changed the whole marriage system. Now the young man is entitled to take his wife away from her people in return for money the implication is that Bemba women have now lost the protection of tribal laws. How ever, while it is possible to see how the structure of the traditional mar riage contract(versus the postcolonial marriage contract)offered women a certain amount of control over their marital relations, only an analysis of the political significance of the actual practice which privileges an initiated girl over an uninitiated one, indicating a shift in female power relations as a result of this ceremony, can provide an accurate account of whether Bemba women were indeed protected by tribal laws at all times However, it is not possible to talk about Bemba women as a homo geneous group within the traditional marriage structure. Bemba women