Changing family strategies as a response to colonial challenge

Microanalytic observations on Siin/Senegal 1890–1960

Bibliographic Data

ID12447604
AuthorsBrigitte Reinwald (0000-0001-5410-2430, Universität Hamburg, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume2
Issue2
Pages183-195
Publication date1997-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe History of the Family (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1081-602X • E-ISSN: 1873-5398
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1016/s1081-602x(97)90005-1
OpenAlexW2007694496
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited12

The economic and social impacts of colonization on African societies are reflected, at the microlevel, by changing family structures and patterns of behavior. In order to assess the symptoms and the extent of the change, unilinear models of “modernization” have to be abandoned in favor of a concept that takes into consideration the relationship between modes of production and family strategies, on the one hand, and the position of the actors involved in the colonial process, on the other. As the example of the Siin-Siin, an agrarian Senegalese society, shows, the family as a social and economic unit has adapted to externally determined market processes and monetarized relations of distribution in the colonial context, by entering a transitional stage. This stage is characterized by individual concepts of property and rights, overlapping with collectively determined, age- and gender-ranked structures and norms of behavior

Agrarian society · Agriculture · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Development economics · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economic system · Economics · Geography · Modernization theory · Order (exchange · Political economy · Political science · Position (finance · Sociology · African Studies and Ethnography · Aging, Elder Care, and Social Issues · Agriculture and Rural Development Research

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