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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Household and Community in African Studies
Author:Guyer, Jane I.ISNI
Year:1981
Periodical:African Studies Review
Volume:24
Issue:2-3
Period:June-September
Pages:87-137
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:social structure
kinship
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/523903
Abstract:In Africa advancing capitalism and non-peasant, relatively weakly stratified, highly flexible forms of social organization have been forced into a long-term working relationship with one another over a vast area and under a wide variety of conditions. The author is not only concerned with substantive questions of what has happened as a result of this confrontation, but also with the methodological problems of desribing and explaining it in a comparative framework. This review is primarily devoted to exploring the methodological issues and the empirical findings in the study of African domestic and local organization which have moved towards an area of emerging consensus. Theoretical conflicts beyond this are discussed in the final comment. Part 1 explores two analytical concepts which are commonly used for comparative analysis, namely, household and lineage. Part 2 in a historical perspective explores variations in local social organization affected by trends incorporation into state structures, differentiation, commoditization, and new forms of social organization. Part 3 gives an example of the interrelationship of these processes in the understanding of a classic problem in social analysis, bridewealth and marital stability. The final comment returns to the challenge of comparative dynamics. Notes, ref.
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