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Raffia Cloth Distribution in the Lele Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

Mary Douglas
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The distribution of raffia cloth among the Lele raises two questions. One, mainly ethnographic, is that of the various functions served in the course of its circulation from hand to hand. In answering this, the second question arises. In some aspects raffia cloth seems to perform monetary roles. Is it to be classed as a type of primitive money? In the widest sense it seems to be an imperfect type of money, performing in a restricted manner some of the main functions of money: it acts as a store and a standard of value; it is given as payment for services and sometimes used as a medium of exchange. It is not, however, the principal, or usual, means of distribution in the economy. I hope that a discussion of the short-comings of Lele raffia as a form of money may be interesting to others working in societies which are similarly on the verge of a market economy.

Résumé

LA CIRCULATION DU RAPHIA DANS L'ÉCONOMIE LELE

L'économie Lele est simple et restreinte: la plupart des biens sont produits et répartis dans les limites mêmes du village. La part de chacun est déterminée par les liens de parenté et les droits liés aux positions sociales. Le tissu de raphia fait exception car sa circulation est très étendue. Il sert de vêtements et de dons et s'emploie aussi pour les redevances de culte et de classe d'âge, les dots de mariage, les amendes et les dommages et intérêts. Dans la mesure où il y a une tendance pour les jeunes à acheter ce tissu de raphia aux hommes plus âgés, ces derniers se trouvent de ce fait avantagés.

Il est troqué, en exportation, avec d'autres tribus, et même parfois, pour payer les produits des artisans Lele spécialisés qui n'ont aucune parenté avec l'acheteur. A part cela il ne constitue pas une monnaie d'échange, car les biens ordinaires ne font pas objet de commerce entre les Lele.

Il y a un taux officiel pour le raphia, en francs Congo, car on peut l'utiliser pour payer les amendes et les impôts. Mais ce taux officiel le sous-value et il est donc impossible d'acheter du raphia avec des francs. La production du raphia n'est pas suffisante pour satisfaire la demande, car les gens procèdent avec lui à des emprunts ou au retrait d'anciennes dettes, ce qui augmente l'intensité de sa circulation. Autrefois on pouvait contrôler cette tendance à l'inflation en observant le transfert de droits sur les femmes pour libérer des dettes de raphia.

La fonction principale de la circulation du raphia n'est pas le commerce mais l'acquisition d'une certaine position sociale; il ne peut donc être légitimement considéré comme une ‘monnaie’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , April 1958 , pp. 109 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1958

References

page 109 note 1 The Lele inhabit the region between the Loange and the Kasai rivers, in the Kasai District of the Belgian Congo. My fieldwork among them in 1949–50, and in four months in 1953, was made possible by a fellowship of the International African Institute and with help from the Belgian Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique Centrale.

page 109 note 2 ‘The Pattern of Residence among the Lele’, Zaïre, xi. 8, 1957, pp. 819–43.

page 111 note 1 A joint article on ‘Lele Techniques of Production compared with the Bushong’, in which weaving is discussed, is being prepared in collaboration with J. Vansina.

page 112 note 1 See ‘Animals in Lele Religious Symbolism’, Africa, xxvii, no. 1, 1957.

page 113 note 1 I use the word ‘client’ for the status of men and women descended from a woman over whom certain rights have been transferred to settle a blood debt and the word ‘lord’ for the status of the representative of the clan to whom these rights have been transferred. As the institution is complicated, with far-reaching effects on Lele social organization, it must be described in a special article.

page 114 note 1 See chapter on the Lele in African Worlds, 1954, in which their repugnance for the flesh of domestic animals is discussed.

page 116 note 1 Rapport Économique, 1924, Registre Ethnographique, Basongo.

page 116 note 2 Doctoral thesis, now being prepared for publication.

page 116 note 3 Many instances of similar conventions restricting exchanges could be cited, cf. Bohannan, P., ‘Some principles of exchange and investment among the Tiv’, American Anthropologist, lvii, no. 1, 1955Google Scholar; Leach, E. R., ‘Structural implications of cross-cousin marriage’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, lxxxi, 1951.Google Scholar See also many examples cited by Hoyt, E., in Primitive Trade, 1924, pp. 84–85.Google Scholar

page 117 note 1 ‘Village-wife’ is a woman whose marriage dues have been paid by an age-set of the village, and who is for all practical purposes regarded as the communal wife of the men of the village. See ‘A Form of Polyandry among the Lele of the Kasai’, Africa, xxi, no. 1, 1951.

page 121 note 1 Menger, Karl, ‘On the Origin of Money’, Economic Journal, ii, 1892, pp. 239–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 121 note 2 Ibid., p. 250.