Anthropology of Ownership and…

Anthropology of Ownership and Distribution: The Dynamics of Land and Wealth in Rural Ethiopian Society
Keiichirō Matsumura

210 mm x 148 mm
338 pages
JPY 4,600
ISBN 9784790712947
Pub date: February 2008

How do people share wealth and monopolize it as “theirs”?　This work, set in a rural Ethiopian village, presents a detailed portrayal of how the device of “ownership” is created and maintained. This is a spirited and powerful work that challenges the proposition of “private ownership” from an anthropological perspective.

Points of Appeal
1) Fundamental questioning of the meaning of human economic activity
2) A thought-provoking examination of the problems with capitalism
3) Dense and detailed data from the field

Table of Contents
Introduction Fluctuation of “mine”

Introduction

　Chapter 1 Anthropology of ownership and distribution
　Chapter 2 Rural societies becoming multiethnic

Part I. The battle for wealth

　Chapter 3 The course of wealth generated from land
　Chapter 4 The power of fear to move wealth
　Chapter 5 Mutual acts of distribution
　Chapter 6 The dynamics of ownership and distribution

Part II. Ownership as action

　Chapter 7 “Use” of land creates “ownership”
　Chapter 8 Distributional relations of choice
　Chapter 9 Competing possessions and distributions

Part III. The power of place produced by history

　Chapter 10 Confronting state ownership
　Chapter 11 Reconstructing national memory and space
　Chapter 12 The power of history

Conclusion

　Chapter 13 The dynamics underpinning ownership

Endnotes / Afterword / References / Index

Reviews
“A scathing challenge to mainstream economists who overlook the widening gap and attribute everything to self-responsibility, using private property rights as a shield.”― Nobuaki Takahashi, economist

“The contents are highly suggestive in considering the appropriateness of land policies by the state and international development.”―Yuka Kodama, developmental scholar

“Ambitious and boldly challenging field research ... We highly appreciate the author’s strong spirit of challenge.”―The selection committee members’ comments of IDE-JETRO’s Award for the Promotion of Studies on Developing Countries in 2009