Book
Onions are my husband: survival and accumulation by West African market women
University of Chicago Press • Chicago • Published In 1994 • Pages:
By: Clark, Gracia.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is an excellent study of Ghana's largest open-air market and its regional trading networks. Asante women constitute the largest block of traders in the market. Clark examines the relationships among retailers, wholesalers, and traders within the different commodity groups. She analyzes the structure and power of the market, including the importance of informal commodity groups with regard to the distribution and pricing of commodities and dispute resolution. Clark shows how market relationships are based on gender, ethnic, and class identities. She also examines how familial and matrilineal ties influence access to labor and capital and determine a trader's level of participation in the market. Clark recounts the economic crisis instigated by the Rawlings socialist government, which bulldozed the market down and confiscated goods in a misguided attempt to control prices and availability of goods. Instead the flow of commodities dried up, creating dangerous food shortages in cities.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Commercial facilities
- Exchange and transfers
- Retail marketing
- Mutual aid
- Gender status
- Family
- Informal in-group justice
- Political movements
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Akan
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Western Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnographer
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ;1999
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1978-1990
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1910-1990
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Ashanti; Kumasi, Ghana
- NotesAdditional notes
- Gracia Clark
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 431-453) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 94001907
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Akan (African people)