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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
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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

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