Economic Relations within Pre-Liberian Societies

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Periodical article

Title:	Economic Relations within Pre-Liberian Societies
Author:	Burrowes, Carl P.
Year:	1988
Periodical:	Liberian Studies Journal
Volume:	13
Issue:	1
Pages:	76-103
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Liberia
Subjects:	subsistence economy Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Abstract:	Analysis of the economic activities and economic roles in pre-Liberian societies. The study is based on the reports of early explorers, dating from the mid-1400s through the 1800s, oral traditions of various ethnic groups, and recent field investigations by anthropologists. Attention is paid to horticulture (a system of farming dependent on the use of the hoe, mainly by women), landowners and 'strangers', the division of labour by age and by sex, the ownership of tools, free and servile people, and specialists and the transmission of privileges within their lineages. The consolidation of these privileges within certain lineages eventually led to the dissolution of the system of production based on the equality of lineages. Notes, ref.