Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-7tdvq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-07T09:29:31.128Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Accumulation, wealth and belief in Asante history: I. To the close of the nineteenth century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

T. C. McCaskie
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The present article is intended as the first of two contributions to the economic and social– but above all to the intellectual– history of the West African forest kingdom of Asante or Ashanti (now located in the Republic of Ghana). Both papers will attempt to pull together and to situate in a ‘mentalist’ framework a number of recent and confessedly disparate research findings concerning a cluster of concepts, ideas and beliefs that, merely for the sake of brevity at this point, I will assign simply to the embracing ‘neutral’ rubric of general transformations in the ideology (or ideologies) of wealth. The first article will be concerned with developments in Asante society up to the close of the nineteenth century (defined here interpretatively rather than in strictly chronological terms); its successor will concentrate on a highly detailed examination of a sequence of crucially telling events in the early colonial period, and upon selected developments thereafter in the twentieth century. The articles are designed and intended to be read sequentially; the first, it is hoped, will assist in making sense of the significantly denser context (and more detailed content) of the second.

Résumé

Accumulation, richesse et croyance en histoire Asante I. Vers la fin du dix-neuvième siècle

L'article tend à réconcilier les vues ‘anthropologiques’ et ‘historiques’ du passé des Asante. Il se concentre sur les discrets – mais essentiellement importants – ensembles d'attitudes envers la richesse, l'accumulation et ‘l'argent’ en général. La substance de l'article est une revue générale des attitudes des Asante à l'égard de ces sujets entre la période ‘proto-Asante’ (disons, au seizième siècle), et durant la conquête britannique en 1896. La plupart de l'article est ‘conjectural’, au sens très précis de ‘deviner’ ce qui vraiment eu lieu; tout cela, l'auteur espère, est fondé sur l'appréciation réaliste de la dynamique de l'histoire Asante, et la substance de l'article cherche à contrebalancer le positivisme si prédominant en historiographie tant africaine que plus spécialement Asante. L'auteur ne cherche pas à s'excuser de ses ‘hypotheses’, mais, au contraire, suggère que cette sorte d'approche – sensiblement suggestive, et à la fois bien informée – pourrait être une direction nouvelle à l'égard des études historiques africaines.

Type
Rank and wealth among the Akan
Information
Africa , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 23 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aidoo, A. A. 1972. ‘The Asante succession crisis, 1883–8,’ Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana 13(2), 163–80.Google Scholar
Aidoo, A. A. 1975. ‘Political Crisis and Social Change in the Asante Kingdom 1867–1901,’ Ph.D., U.C.L.A.Google Scholar
Aidoo, A. A. 1977a. ‘Order and conflict in the Asante empire: a study in interest group relations,’ African Studies Review 20(1). 1–36.Google Scholar
Aidoo, A. A. 1977b. ‘Asante queen mothers in government and politics in the nineteenth century,’ Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 9(1). 1–13.Google Scholar
Anquandah, J. 1982. Rediscovering Ghana's Past. London and Accra: Longman and Sedco.Google Scholar
Arhin, K. 1979. West African Traders in Ghana in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. London and New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R. R. 1980. ‘Old Akyem and the origins of Akyems Abuakwa and Kotoku 1675–1775,’ in Swartz, B. K. and Dumett, R. A. (eds.) West African Culture Dynamics. The Hague: Mouton. 371–92.Google Scholar
Baier, S. 1980. An Economic History of Central Niger. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Basel Mission Archives, Basel, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Busia, K. A. 1951. The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Busia, K. A. 1954. ‘The Ashanti of the Gold Coast,’ in D., Forde (ed.) African Worlds: studies in the cosmological ideas and social values of African peoples. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Christaller, J.G. 1879.A Collection of three thousand and six hundred Tshi Proverbs. Basel: Basel Missionary Society.Google Scholar
Christaller, J.G. 1881. A Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tschi. Basel: Basel Missionary Society.Google Scholar
Clastres, P. 1974. La Société contre l'état. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit.Google Scholar
Codere, H. 1968. ‘Money-exchange systems and a theory of money,’ Man (N.S.) 3. 557–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruickshank, B. 1853. Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa. London: Nelson.Google Scholar
Crump, T. 1978. ‘Money and number: the Trojan horse of language,’ Man (N.S.) 13. 503–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtin, P.D. 1975. Economic Change in Precolonial Africa: Senegambia in the Era of the Slave Trade. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Detienne, M. 1972. Les Jardins d'Adonis. Paris: Gallimard.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Detienne, M., and Vernant, J-P. 1974. Les Ruses de l'intelligence: Le métis des Grecs. Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar
Douglas, M. 1966. Purity and Danger: an analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Douglas, M. 1975. Implicit Meanings: essays in anthropology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1969. Kinship and the Social Order: the Legacy of Lewis Henry Morgan. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1970. Time and Social Structure and Other Essays. London: Athlone Press.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. n.d. Manuscripts (deposited in the African Studies Centre, University of Cambridge).Google Scholar
Freeman, T. B. 1843. Journal of Various Visits to the Kingdoms of Ashanti, Aku, and Dahomi in Western Africa. London: Nelson.Google Scholar
Freeman, T. B.c. 1860. Manuscript of an Unpublished Book (typescript deposited in the Methodist Mission Archives, London).Google Scholar
Freund, B. 1981. Capital and Labour in the Nigerian Tin Mines. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Fynn, J. K. 1971. Asante and its Neighbours 1700–1807. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Garrard, T. F. 1980. Akan Weights and the Gold Trade. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. 1973. ‘Thick description: toward an interpretive theory of culture,’ in Geertz, C.The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. 1980. Negara: the Theatre State in Nineteenth-century Bali. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
General State Archives, The Hague, Holland.Google Scholar
Gernet, L. 1968. Anthropologie de la Grèce antique. Paris: Maspero.Google Scholar
Ghana National Archives, Accra, Ghana.Google Scholar
Ginzburg, C. 1976.Il formaggio e i vermi: Il cosmo di un mugnaio del'500. Milan: Giulio Einaudi editore.Google Scholar
Hill, P. 1972. Rural Hausa: a village and a setting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, P. 1977. Population, prosperity and poverty: Rural Kano 1900 and 1970. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hopkins, A. G. 1973. An Economic History of West Africa. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Horton, J. A. B. 1870. Letters on the Political Condition of the Gold Coast. London: Seeley.Google Scholar
Humphreys, S. C. 1978. Anthropology and the Greeks. London: Routledge ‘Firearms and Warfare on the Gold and Slave Coasts from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries,’ Journal of African History 12(2). 185–213.Google Scholar
Kea, R. A. 1974. ‘Trade, State Formation, and Warfare on the Gold Coast, 1600–1826,’ Ph.D., University of London.Google Scholar
Kea, R. A. 1978. ‘Social and Spatial Aspects of Production in Southern Ghana in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,’ unpublished paper, First Workshop on the Akan, Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Kea, R. A. 1979. ‘Land, Overlords and Cultivators in the Seventeenth Century Gold Coast,’ unpublished paper.Google Scholar
Kea, R. A. 1980. ‘Administration and trade in the Akwamu empire, 1681–1730,’ in Swartz, B. K. and Dumett, R. A. (eds.) West African Culture Dynamics. The Hague: Mouton. 371–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, A. N. 1981. ‘The two Asantes: competing interpretations of ‘slavery’ in Akan-Asante culture and society,’ in Lovejoy, P. E. (ed.) The Ideology of Slavery in Africa. Beverly Hills and London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Kyerematen, A. 1966. ‘Ashanti Royal Regalia: their history and functions,’ D.Phil., University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Kyerematen, A. 1969. ‘The royal stools of Ashanti’, Africa 39(1). 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewin, T. 1974. ‘The Structure of Political Conflict in Asante, 1875–1900,’ Ph.D., Northwestern.Google Scholar
Lewin, T. 1978. Asante before the British: the Prempean Years, 1875–1900. Lawrence: Kansas University Press.Google Scholar
Lovejoy, P. E. 1980. Caravans of Kola: the Hausa Kola Trade, 1700–1900. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1972. ‘Innovational eclecticism: the Asante empire and Europe in the nineteenth century,’ Comparative Studies in Society and History 14(1). 30–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1974. ‘The Paramountcy of the Asantehene Kwaku Dua 1834–67: a Study in Asante Political Culture,’ Ph.D., Cambridge.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1980a. ‘Office, land and subjects in the history of the Manwere Fekuo of Kumase: an essay in the political economy of the Asante state,’ Journal of African History 21(2). 189–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1980b. ‘Time and the calendar in nineteenth century Asante: an exploratory essay,’ History in Africa 7. 179–200. McCaskie, T. C. 1981a. ‘State and society, marriage and adultery: some considerations towards a social history of pre-colonial Asante,’ Journal of African History 22(4). 477–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1981b. ‘Anti-witchcraft cults in Asante: an essay in the social history of an African people,’ History in Africa 8. 125–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. forthcoming. ‘R. S. Rattray (1881–1938) and the construction of Asante history: an appraisal,’ in N. Machin (ed.) R. S. Rattray: memorial essays.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C., and Wiafe, J. 1979. ‘A contemporary account in Twi of the Akompi Sa: a document with commentary,’ Asantesen 11. 72–8.Google Scholar
McLeod, M. D. 1976. ‘Verbal elements in West African an,’ Quaderni Poro 1. 85–102.Google Scholar
McLeod, M. D. 1978. ‘Aspects of Asante images,’ in Greenhalgh, M. and Megaw, V. (eds.).Art in Society. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
McLeod, M. D. 1981. The Asante. London: British Museum Publications.Google Scholar
Manhyia Record Office, Kumase, Ghana.Google Scholar
Methodist Missionary Society, London, England.Google Scholar
Ortony, A. 1979. Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. 1979. ‘Kings, titles, and quarters: a conjectural history of Ilesha. I. The traditions reviewed,’ History in Africa 6. 109–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelton, R. D. 1980. The Trickster in West Africa: a Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prempe, I, 1907. See Manhyia Record Office.Google Scholar
Prempe II, n.d. See Manhyia Record.Office.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1916. Ashanti Proverbs: the Primitive Ethics of a Savage People. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1923. Ashanti. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1927. Religion and Art in Ashanti. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1929. Ashanti Law and Constitution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. n.d. Manuscripts (deposited in the Royal Anthropological Institute, London).Google Scholar
Rice, J. 1975. ‘A black market at Elmina,’ Asantesem, 1. 17–18.Google Scholar
VanDyck, C. Dyck, C. 1967. ‘An Analytic Study of the Folktales of selected Peoples of West Africa,’ D.Phil., University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Vernant, J-P. 1965. Mythe et Pensée chez les Grecs: études de psychologie historique. Paris: Maspero.Google Scholar
Vernant, J-P. 1968. Problèmes de la guerre en Grèce ancienne. Paris and The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vernant, J-P. 1974. Mythe et société en Grèce ancienne. Paris: Maspero.Google Scholar
Vernant, J-P., and Vidal-Naquet, P. 1972. Mythe et Tragédie en Grèce ancienne. Paris: Maspero.Google Scholar
Vidal-Naquet, P. 1968. ‘Fonction de la monnaie dans la Grèce archaique,’ Annales: Economies, sociétés, civilisations 23(1). 206–8.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1961. The Northern Factor in Ashanti History. Legon: University College of Ghana.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1966. ‘Aspects of bureaucratization in Ashanti in the nineteenth century,’ Journal of African History 7(2). 215–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilks, I. 1967.‘Ashanti government’, in Forde, D. and Kaberry, P. (eds.) West African Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute. 206–38.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1970. Political Bi-polarity in Nineteenth Century Asante. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1975. Asante in the nineteenth century: the structure and evolution of a political order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1978. ‘Land, labour, capital and the forest kingdom of Asante: a model of early change,’ in Friedman, J. and Rowlands, M. (eds.) The Evolution of Social Systems. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1979. ‘The Golden Stool and the Elephant Tail: an essay on wealth in Asante,’ in Dalton, G. (ed.) Research in Economic Anthropology 2. 1–36.Google Scholar
Wilks, I., and McCaskie, T. C. 1973–1979. Asantesem: the Bulletin of the Asante Collective Biography Project 1–11.Google Scholar
Wills, J. B. 1962. Agriculture and Land Use in Ghana. London, Accra and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yarak, L., and Rice, J. 1977. ‘The State in Pre-capitalist Society: Politics and Class Formation on the periphery of World Capitalism’, unpublished paper, Champaign-Urbana.Google Scholar