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| Title: | The Work of the Ancestors and the Profit of the Living: Some Nzema Economic Ideas |
| Author: | Pavanello, Mariano |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
| Volume: | 65 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 36-57 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Ghana |
| Subjects: | Nzima subsistence economy Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Economics and Trade |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1160906 |
| Abstract: | This article, which is based on field research carried out between March and October 1989 in a number of Nzema villages, notably Ngelekazo, explores the main economic categories of the Nzema, matrilineal farmers of southwest Ghana, with the aim of reconstructing a local economic theory. The author's starting point is that any economic theory reflects a system of thought based on logic and having internal consistency. He compares Nzema and English economic conceptions, notably those concerning work and the products or wealth derived from it, making use of theories such as neoclassical marginalism, Marx's theory of value, and Chayanov's utility theory. The work of the ancestors appears as a founding idea in Nzema economic theory. First of all seen as the ideological and juridical basis for the rights of the descendants over cultivable land, the work of the ancestors can also turn into a profit producer to the advantage of the living under the condition that it is materialized as a means of production like, for example, coconut trees which were planted by the ancestors and now produce a profit for their descendants. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. |
