Harold K. Schneider

A Model of African Indigenous Economy and Society

certain elements of African life which have bearing on an economic approach. These include in particular the matters of the role of livestock, the relation between people and livestock, the nature of rights in people, the nature of so-called corporate groups, and the nature of food production and exchange. In making this reassessment, I am drawing heavily upon the results of my study of the Wanyaturu or Turu of central Tanganyika in 1959 and 1960 and on an extension of the conclusions to other pastoral societies, based upon the feeling that there is sufficient evidence from ethnographic sources to warrant such an hypothetical extension, even though it is oversimplified. One of the most distressing barriers to the development of a comparative economics with the sophistication of Western economics is often said to be the lack of precise pricing of values in non-Western societies. Prices represent values and by means of them values can be accurately compared. But I do not believe that such a barrier exists in studying the economics of pastoral Africa simply because it is now apparent that livestock fill the role of money. Livestock in pastoral Africa have various uses of which the most important are those of food, production of young and repositories of value whereby they are utilizable as money. As money, livestock are graded in value and precise ratios of value are established between the types so that various combinations of animals can be equated with each other, just as various denominations of money can be. Few single societies possess the full range of types of livestock, which over the whole of pastoral Africa includes horses, camels, cattle, goats and sheep as well as some less important ones, like chickens. However it seems clear that taken all together the values of these animals are in the rank just listed, i.e., horses are the most valuable and goats and sheep least valuable. Otherwise, female animals are more valuable than males (except in some societies, like Turu, where the sex of goats and sheep is ignored), and mature animals are more valuable than immature ones. A heifer is less valuable than a cow, or at least than a young cow, because the chief value of a female animal is her reproductive capacity and a cow has proven her ability to re-

Turu Ecology: Habitat, Mode of Production, and Society

The purpose of this paper is to describe the production and settlement system of the Bantu-speaking Turu of central Tanzania and to discuss its effects on the social system. Save for certain other peoples of this area who are historically close to the Turu, the practice of manuring of land and strictly sedentary settlement without slash-and-burn horticultural techniques or bush fallowing (except as ancillary to the main production processes) are an unusual combination in Africa.

Standardization and Measurement in Cultural Anthropology: A Neglected Area [and Comments and Reply]

One of the major problems facing anthropology as it continues to develop as a scientific discipline is the development of standardized research approaches. This article reviews the issues involved in the creation of standardized research procedures in the discipline. The relationship between cross-cultural comparison and the collection of field data is explored. The process of standardization, incliding the operationalization of concepts, the creation of data collection techniques, and the development of mathematical measures to represent the data, is discussed. Standardizations is viewed as an endless endeavor in which the specifications and techniques used in research are points of departure, not points of arrival. Scientific description and the understanding of cultural and social phenomena are seen to advance with advances in observational specifications, data collecting procedures, and measurement techniques. Questions are raised concerning the need for minimal data requirements in ethnographic investigation. It is pointed out that if anthropology is to continue to develop it is important that all field investigators share a common data base. Finally, the problems relating to validity and reliability in ethnographic investigation are explored. The concepts used in the discipline are abstract and only inferentially related to he behavior we observe; therefore, it becomes important to attempt to determine the validity of these concepts. Furthermore, if standardization is to increase research procedures must become reliable and applicable to a wide range of conditions. Several suggestions concerning the improvement of the validity and reliability of research procedures are presented.

Bridewealth, dowry, property, and economics

Jack Goody and S. J. Tambiah. Bridewealth and Dowry. Cambridge Papers in Social Anthropology 7. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1973. ix + 169 pp. Tables, figures, notes, and bibliography.

The subsistence role of cattle among the Pakot and in East Africa

11.50.