DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2017.v05i09.027

Pages: 1296-1302

This study aimed at establishing the patterns as well as social and psychological motives for swearing by women in a miraa market setting. The study was carried out in Kῖrῖtirῖ open-air miraa market in Mbeere South sub-county within Embu County. Eight negotiations involving both females-only and mixed-sex traders were recorded and subsequently analysed. The analysis indicates that women swear in the miraa market to achieve the goals of socialization, to achieve identity and differentiation, and to converge with the miraa traders’ culture of swearing. It is a means with which women are able to counter male dominance and persist in a setting that is full of competitiveness and aggression. Significantly, women use swearing as a “survival strategy” to score highly valuabe socioeconomic goals in a male-dominated environment.