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land tenure and elite formation in the neotraditional monarchies of Tonga and Buganda
Author(s) -
MARCUS GEORGE E.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1978.5.3.02a00060
Subject(s) - monarchy , elite , parallels , modernization theory , politics , colonialism , socioeconomic status , land tenure , political science , economic history , economy , political economy , sociology , agriculture , geography , history , law , economics , archaeology , demography , population , operations management
This paper compares the historic socioeconomic development of the Polynesian Kingdom of Tonga with that of the African Kingdom of Buganda. New social orders arose in these monarchies from the specific responses of traditional elites, in each case, to land reform and the commercialization of agriculture. This analysis adopts a focus similar to that of Barrington Moore, Jr. in his comparative analysis of the transformation of European old orders. It is suggested that, although models of historic modernization in the West have been found to be of limited use in understanding the political economies of contemporary third‐world nations, perspectives such as Moore's have useful, specific parallels in certain non‐Western kingships that underwent social transformations as ruling monarchies under the protection of colonial powers.