This article examines changes in two types of inheritance in Mkuyuni, a farming community in east central Tanzania. The first is the inheritance of farmland, which has undergone a shift from matrilineal to patrilineal patterns. The second is the inheritance of ancestral names, which are increasingly being refused by male heirs. Viewing inheritance as a site of struggle over questions of social reproduction, this article argues that Tanzanian socialism, despite an avowed commitment to gender equality, failed to account for the complexity of social reproduction in its land policies. The article suggests that socialist and collectivist projects must directly grapple with questions of social reproduction and reproductive labor. It also argues for a more robust and broad definition of reproductive labor and for a deeper exploration of the role of ritual and religion in processes of social reproduction.

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