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Wealth production, ritual consumption, and center/periphery relations in a West African regional system
Author(s) -
PIOT CHARLES D.
Publication year - 1992
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.1992.19.1.02a00030
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , center (category theory) , politics , production (economics) , geography , cultural center , economic geography , economy , sociology , political science , social science , economics , archaeology , chemistry , law , macroeconomics , crystallography
This article analyzes the political economy of a regional system of rural communities among the Kabre of northern Togo (West Africa). Noting that other models used to analyze West African regional systems fail to capture the cultural logic of the Kabre system, the article argues that only through a cultural‐symbolic analysis which recognizes the holistic underpinnings of Kabre society may one comprehend the complex hierarchies that constitute this regional system. [regional systems, West Africa, markets, ritual, Togo]