Dyadic Relation and Market Transaction in an Environment of Economic Depression

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Periodical article

Title:	Dyadic Relation and Market Transaction in an Environment of Economic Depression
Author:	Kifleyesus, Abebe
Year:	1997
Periodical:	Cahiers d'études africaines
Volume:	37
Issue:	146
Pages:	429-465
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Eritrea
Subjects:	marketplaces traders Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Economics and Trade
External link:	https://doi.org/10.3406/cea.1997.3522
Abstract:	This essay examines the significance of dyadic relationships between buyers and sellers during both peace and war times, and describes how war events affect the process of peace-time dyadic trade relations. It suggests that dyadic trade relationships prevail in specific social and economic settings. The article is based on fieldwork carried out in the main market of the city of Asmära in Eritrea between July 1990 and January 1991. Looking at how market participants use dyadic relationships to make sense of unstable politicial and economic conditions, the author lays out the material context within which these social relations exist, presents descriptive and analytical data on market participants facing the terror of an ongoing war and its immediate dangers, examines how traders and customers attempt to give meaning to the problems they encounter and investigates how dyadic bonds may ease socioeconomic exchange under war conditions. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French.