Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-sjtt6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-30T05:45:52.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The work of the ancestors and the profit of the living: some Nzema economic ideas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Mariano Pavanello
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article, based on fieldwork, explores the main economic categories of the Nzema, matrilineal farmers of South West Ghana, with the aim of reconstructing a local economic theory. The starting point is that any economic theory is logically founded in its own principles and that the internal coherence of a theory depends on its ability to represent the interests of the society to which it is applied. The work of ancestors appears as a founding idea in relation to other ideas like that of profit engendered by the work of the living.

The author, however, analyses these categories, particularly emphasising the use of terminology in various contexts of daily life and in the economic lexicon as a whole, in order to trace an unitary space in which the logic of a system of thought could be considered. In order to verify the coherence of this system the author conducts a comparative analysis between the Nzema categories and the corresponding western categories organised as different theories such as neo-classical marginalism, Marx's value of work and, finally, Chayanov's theory founded on an utility concept.

The central core of the Nzema's theory concerning work and profit is that the work of ancestors, first conceived as the ideological and juridical basis for the rights of their descendants over cultivable land, turns as well into a profit producer to the advantage of the living under the condition that it should be materialised as a means of production like, for example, the coconut trees, which were planted by the ancestors, and now produce a profit for their descendants.

Résumé

Cet essai, fruit d'une recherche sur le terrain, explore les principales catégories économiques des Nzema, cultivatéurs matrilinéaires du sud-ouest Ghana, dans le but de reconstruire une théorie économique locale. Le point de départ est que toute théorie économique est logiquement fondée sur des principes qui lui sont propres, et que la cohérence interne d'une théorie dépend de sa capacité de representation des intérêts de la société qui l'exprime. Le travail (gyima) des ancêtres apparaît immédiatement une idée fondante en relation avec d'autres idées comme celle de profit (navasoe) engendré par le travail des vivants. L'auteur pourtant analyse ces catégories surtout en soulignant les usages des termes dans les divers contextes de l a vie quotidienne et dans l'ensemble du lexique économique, dans la perspective de tracer un cadre unitaire dans lequel on puisse envisager la logique d'un système de pensée. Au but de vérifier la cohérence de ce système l'auteur mène une analyse comparative entre les catégories nzema et les catégories occidentales organisées en différentes théories telles que celle du marginalisme néoclassique, celle de la valeur du travail de Marx et, enfin, celle de Chayanov fondée sur le concept d'utilité. Le noeud central de la théorie nzema concernant travail et profit est que le travail des ancêtres, conçu tout d'abord comme fondement idèologique et juridique du droit que les groupes de descendence maintiennent sur la terre cultivable, se transforme lui aussi en producteur de profit à l'avantage des vivants à condition qu'il soit matérialisé en moyen de production comme, par example, les cocotiers qui, plantés par les ancêtres, produisent maintenant un profit pour leurs descendants.

Type
Finding workers, calculating profit
Information
Africa , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 36 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1995

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

Aboagye, K. 1992. Nzema-English, English-Nzema Dictionary. Accra: Bureau of Ghana Languages.Google Scholar
Angioni, G. 1976. Sa laurera: il lavoro contadino in Sardegna. Cagliari: Democratica Sarda.Google Scholar
Angioni, G.(ed). 1984. Il lavoro e le sue rappresentazioni. Special issue of La ricerca folk-lorica 9.Google Scholar
Bates, R. H. 1981. Markets and States in Tropical Africa. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bohannan, P. 1967, ‘Africa's land’, in Dalton, G. (ed.), Tribal and Peasant Economies, pp. 51–60. Austin, Tx, and London: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bruce, J. W. 1988. ‘A perspective on indigenous land tenure systems and land concentration’, in Downs, R. E. and Reyna, S. P. (eds.), Land and Society in Contemporary Africa, pp. 23–52. Hanover, N.H., and London: University Press of New England.Google Scholar
Cardona, G. R. 1977. ‘Profilo della lingua nzema’, in Grottanelli, V. L. (ed.), Una società guineana: gli Nzema 1, pp. 95–142. Turin: Boringhieri.Google Scholar
Cartier, M. 1984. Le Travail et ses representations.Paris: Editions des Archives Contemporains.Google Scholar
Chayanov, A. V. 1986. The Theory of Peasant Economy. Thorner, D., Kerblay, B. and Smith, R. E. F. (eds). Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Cirese, A. M. 1984. Fabrilita segnicita procreazione.Rome: Cisu.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, A. K. 1985. Epochs of Economic Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dolphyne, F. H. 1988, ‘The Volta-Camoe languages’, in Dakabu, M. E. Kropp (ed.), The Languages of Ghana, pp. 50–76. London: Kegan Paul International for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Dove, M. R. 1984. ‘The Chayanov slope in a swidden society: household demography and extensive agriculture in western Kalimantan’, in Durrenberger, E. P. (ed.), Chayanov, Peasants and Economic Anthropology, pp. 97–132. Orlando, Fla.: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Dumett, R. E. 1979. ‘Precolonial gold mining and the state in the Akan region, with a critique of the Terray hypothesis’, Research in Economic Anthropology 2, 37–68.Google Scholar
Durrenberger, E. P. 1984. ‘Operationalizing Chayanov’, in Durrenberger, E. P. (ed.), Chayanov, Peasants and Economic Anthropology, pp. 39–50. Orlando, Fla.: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Firth, R. 1979. ‘Work and value: reflections on ideas of Karl Marx’, in Wallmann, S. (ed.), Social Anthropology of Work, pp. 177–206. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1948. ‘The Ashanti social survey: a preliminary report’, Rhodes-Living-stone Journal 6, 1–36.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1950. ‘Kinship and marriage among the Ashanti’, in Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. and Forde, D. (eds), African Systems of Kinship and Marriage, pp. 252–84. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1969. Kinship and the Social Order. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Fortes, M., Steel, R. W., and Ady, P., 1948. ‘Ashanti survey, 1945-46: an experiment in social research’, Geographical Journal 110, 149–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godelier, M. 1978. ‘Lavoro’, in Enciclopedia 8, Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Godelier, M. 1984. L'Idéel et le matériel. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Grottanelli, V. L. 1961. ‘Pre-existence and survival in Nzema beliefs’, Man LXI (1), 1–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grottanelli, V. L.(ed.) 1977. Una società guineana: gli Nzema 1, I fondamenti della cultura. Turin: Boringhieri.Google Scholar
Grottanelli, V. L. 1978. Una societa guineana: gli Nzema 2, Ordine morale e salvezza terrena. Turin: Boringhieri.Google Scholar
Grottanelli, V. L. 1989. The Python Killer: stories of Nzema life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gudeman, S. 1986. Economics as Culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hart, K. 1982. The Political Economy of West African Agriculture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, P. 1963. The Migrant Cocoa Farmers of Southern Ghana. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ingold, T. 1986. The Appropriation of Nature. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Kronenfeld, D. B. 1991. ‘Fanti kinship: language, inheritance and kin groups’, Anthropos 86, 19–31.Google Scholar
Lanternari, V. 1974. ‘L'acculturazione tra gli Nzema del Ghana: aspetti economici ed etico-sociali’, in Lanternari, V., Antropologia e imperialismo, pp. 94–118. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Lanternari, V. 1977. ‘L'agricoltura’, in Grottanelli, V. L. (ed.), Una società guineana: gli Nzema 1, pp. 213–90. Turin: Boringhieri.Google Scholar
Lanternari, V. 1988. Dei, profeti, contadini: incontri nel Ghana. Naples: Liguori.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1983. ‘Accumulation, wealth and belief in Asante history I, To the close of the nineteenth century’, Africa 53 (1), 23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1986, ‘Accumulation, wealth and belief in Asante history II, The twentieth century’, Africa 56 (1), 3–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marx, K. 1972. La Legge del valore, Besnier, B. (ed.), Milan: Summa Uno.Google Scholar
Marx, K. 1973. Per la critica dell'economia politico.Rome: Newton Compton.Google Scholar
Marx, K. 1975. Il capitale. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Meek, R. L. 1962. The Economics of Physiocracy. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Meek, R. L. 1973. Studi sulla teoria del valore-lavoro. Milan: Feltrinelli.Google Scholar
Mizzau, G. 1988. La terra degli antenati: regime fondiario tradizionale dei coltivatori africani. Milan: Angeli.Google Scholar
Napoleoni, C. 1970. Smith, Ricardo, Marx. Turin: Boringhieri.Google Scholar
Niangoran-Bouah, G. 1978. ‘Idéologie de l'or chez les Akan de Côte d'lvoire et du Ghana’, Journal des Africanistes 48 (1), 127–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ollennu, N. A. 1962. Principles of Customary Law in Ghana. London: Sweet &Maxwell.Google Scholar
Ortiz, S. 1979. ‘The estimation of work: labour and value among Paez farmers’, in Wallmann, S. (ed.), Social Anthropology of Work, pp. 207–28. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Palumbo, B. 1991. ‘Le noci della discordia’. Doctoral thesis, Rome: Università La Sapienza.Google Scholar
Palumbo, B. 1992. ‘Marriage, land and kinship in a Nzema village’, Ethnology 31 (3), 233–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, H. W. 1978. ‘L'economia non ha surplus’, in Polanyi, K., Arensberg, C. M. and Pearson, H. W. (eds), Traffici e mercati negli antichi imperi, pp. 393–418. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Perrot, C. H. 1982. Les Anyi-Ndenye et le pouvoir aux dix-huitième et dix-neuvième siècles. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1923. Ashanti. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1927. Religion and Art in Ashanti. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1929. Ashanti Law and Constitutions. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Robertson, A. F. 1982. ‘Abusa: the structural history of an economic contract’, Journal of Development Studies XVIII, 447–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sewall, H. R. 1901. The Theory of Value before Adam Smith. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Signorini, I. 1977. ‘II modello di residenza’, in Grottanelli, V. L. (ed.), Una società guineana: gli Nzema 1, pp. 291–320. Turin: Boringhieri.Google Scholar
Signorini, I. 1978. ‘Nzema kinship terminology’, Paideuma 24, 111–19.Google Scholar
Tannenbaum, N. 1984. ‘Chayanov and economic anthropology’, in Durren-berger, E. P. (ed.), Chayanov, Peasants and Economic Anthropology, pp. 27–38. Orlando, Fla.: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Thatcher, V. S. and McQueen, A. 1969. The new Webster Encylopedic Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Grolier.Google Scholar
Valsecchi, P. 1986. ‘Lo Nzema fra egemonia Asante ed espansione europea nella prima metà del XIX Secolo’, Africa (Rome), XLI (4), 507–44.Google Scholar
Veca, S. 1973. Marx e la critica dell'economia politica. Milan: Saggiatore.Google Scholar
Verdaux, F. 1979. ‘La tradition n'est plus ce qu'elle était: deux cas d'héritage chez les Nzima Aduvle, Côte d'lvoire’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines XIX (1-4), 69–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallmann, S. (ed). 1979. Social Anthropology of Work.ASA Monographs 19, London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1979. ‘The golden stool and the elephant tail: an essay on wealth in Asante’, Research in Economic Anthropology 2, 1–36.Google Scholar
Woolfson, C. 1982. The Labour Theory of Culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar