The Ever-Changing Land
Adaptation and Tenure in Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2139920 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Barry Riddell (Barry Riddell is Professor of Geography at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario., corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 337-341 |
| Publication date | 1992-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0008-3968 • E-ISSN: 1923-3051 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00083968.1992.10804294 |
| OpenAlex | W2265628722 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 1 |
The vast majority of people in Sub-Saharan Africa, estimated at three-quarters of the population, live in a very intimate and close relationship with the local environment. Residing within a cultural system, a holistic framework moderates their interaction with nature. Such an association simultaneously operates at several geographical scales. The local scene is the one upon which the intimate population-environment play is acted out. But this is never direct, for it is moderated by culture - religion, modes of production, exchange, distribution, social norms, and political systems - which influences relations with the environment. Harmonization takes place on the national level and emanates from the elites who incorporate and expropriate resources from individual regions. This interaction and integration takes place within yet another context at the global level in a way that it is never benign; and which is controlled by factors such as international market mechanisms which seldom operate as a friend of the peasants. It is within such a framework that the book by Michael Mortimore and the collection of essays edited by Richard Downs and Steven Reyna should be considered. Both treat the relationship of people and the land. Ever on the horizon, in the temporal and spatial senses, is the external framework. In Mortimore's work, such externality is dominated by dastardly mother nature, especially by variation in rainfall and seasonality in this locale of rain-fed agriculture. In the Downs-Reyna collection, variety is found in land tenure and how such arrangements have differed over time and across space
Agriculture · Context (archaeology) · Distribution (mathematics) · Economic geography · Economics · Externality · Geography · Land tenure · Locale (computer software) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Demography · Land Rights and Reforms · Law
| Citations per year | 0.1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2016 - 2016 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |