Women's work in the economy of the Cocoa belt: a comparison
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Citation
Abstract
This paper is an empirical study of the cultural context and
historical development of the division of labor by sex in two
farming systems of the West African cocoa belt: the Yoruba of
Western Nigeria and the Beti of South-Central Cameroun. Both
societies are patrilineal. Both peoples inhabited the forest zone
before the period of colonial rule, so that their hoe-farming
systems had already adjusted to the forest environment before the
cocoa era. The two societies differ, however, in overall political
structure. The Yoruba had a centralised form of city-state government,
while the Beti were organised in small village communities
under autonomous headmen. The major difference which forms the
theme of this paper is the different division of labor by sex in
the indigenous economy. In a rough categorization of African farming
systems, according to which sex does most of the work, the
Yoruba would be classified as a male farming system, the Beti as
a female farming system. [TRUNCATED]
Description
African Studies Center Working Paper No. 7
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Copyright © 1978, by the author.