Premium
African apprentice workshops: a case of ethnocentric reductionism
Author(s) -
VERDON MICHEL
Publication year - 1979
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.1979.6.3.02a00070
Subject(s) - apprenticeship , ethnocentrism , reductionism , sociology , ethnography , point (geometry) , epistemology , anthropology , philosophy , mathematics , linguistics , geometry
Some of the best known studies in development economics on African economic institutions have treated apprentice workshops as small‐scale enterprises. This has only been achieved by ignoring the principles that structure groups of production. Taking such principles as my point of departure, I derive a number of properties that apply to enterprises. When the ethnographic evidence on apprentice workshops is reviewed, it is obvious that they cannot be mistaken for enterprises.