The Cultural Topography of Wealth: Commodity Paths and the Structure of Property in Rural Lesotho

Abstract

Discussions of poverty and wealth often assume that wealth is a measurable substance, the possession of which can be indexed on a linear scale, from high to low. This article contests this implicit assumption, arguing that wealth‐holding is always complicated by the fact that exchange is culturally regulated, and guided along approved paths. An analysis of domains of wealth in a rural Lesotho village illustrates the point. Wealth‐holding here is clearly unequal, but cultural, legal, and moral paths governing economic exchanges between different categories of property mean that the holdings of different households are in important ways incomparable, and that their wealth is different in kind, and not only in amount. The attempt to locate households economically in such a setting thus requires mapping a politicocultural “topography” of channels facilitating the flow of commodity exchange, dams obstructing, slowing, or filtering it, and furrows temporarily diverting the flow from one channel or dam into another. A meaningful ranking of wealth‐holding must include a cultural analysis of commodity paths and the structure of property.

Waged Entrepreneurs, Policed Informality: Work, the Regulation of Space and the Economy of the Zimbabwean–south African Border

“…Distinct categories of value may be especially useful for labour migrants facing the perennial problem of earning wealth, sending it home, but not being around to control its use. Ferguson (1985;1992) explores the remittance strategies of male labour migrants from rural Lesotho. They invest in cows, which are purchasable with cash, but can only be sold (re-exchanged for cash) under dire circumstances.…”

The gender of wealth: markets & power in Central Kenya

“…Through the identification of specific social pathways this paper illuminates the multifaceted and dynamic nature of global processes and local identities (see also Guyer, 1987;Ferguson, 1999;Berman & Lonsdale, 1992). In their relationships and actions, individuals position themselves in relation to contemporary developments, not simply through an over-determined linearity or a formless plurality, but through socially embedded orientations, defined by contrasting ideas about 'modernity ' and 'tradition', 'global' and 'local', male and female, youth and age (Ferguson, 1999, Holtzman, 2004.…”

“…In their relationships and actions, individuals position themselves in relation to contemporary developments, not simply through an over-determined linearity or a formless plurality, but through socially embedded orientations, defined by contrasting ideas about 'modernity ' and 'tradition', 'global' and 'local', male and female, youth and age (Ferguson, 1999, Holtzman, 2004. These orientations give collective force and direction to the agency of individuals, even as they are transformed.…”

“Deeper into a Hole?”

“…Pioneered in urban areas by town dwellers seeking respectability (Krige 2011:138, 172), the practice readily spread to rural areas. Where migrants had initially taken a conservative approach to investment in property and the purchase of material goods, often consolidating the wealth of the homestead by buying cattle (Ferguson 1992), those migrating more recently have tended to favor the purchase on credit of household furnishings. A bride's parents often provided an item of furniture as part of her trousseau, later investing in further items, paying each off in turn, with the eventual aim of equipping all rooms in the house.…”