French Perspectives in African Studies by Pierre Alexandre

Author:Pierre Alexandre [Alexandre, Pierre]
Language: deu
Format: epub
Google: 5GdzNQEACAAJ
Publisher: Verlag nicht ermittelbar
Published: 1973-01-15T03:39:52+00:00

2

Traditional Social Structure and Economic Change

* * *

GEORGES BALANDIER1

In studies dealing with any aspect of the economic development of a ‘backward’ country it has become almost the rule to make some reference to traditional social structures. Nevertheless, by calling on the sociologist in this way, an equivocal step has been taken; it conceals a transfer of responsibility behind a recognition of the difficulties inherent in the diversity and relative inertia of social systems; it allows us to ignore for a while the boundaries of classical economics at a time when this discipline is attempting to make its field of application a more universal one. In this way the political challenge of so-called under-developed countries in their claims for equality is paralleled by a scientific challenge.

The proof of this is of such importance that it requires a revival of initiative. We should at once ask ourselves what are the intellectual tools of the sociologist and the anthropologist who refuse to despise those ‘subverted’ societies? Our balance sheet is a poor one: scant material results of studies aimed at examining the forces behind social change and the form it takes, a few concepts and some fragmentary theoretical constructs; the latter are very vulnerable, the former are lacking in diversity.

Nevertheless, these assets, despite their imperfections, should not be neglected. We have here the initial elements of a dynamic approach which can take into account those changes affecting traditional societies today. The incidence of the ‘modern economy’ is often studied in terms of rudimentary capitalism which first began under the impetus of the coastal trade and later developed through mining and other specialized industries. This theme occupies a central position in most recent published works. Monica Hunter, describing the contact situation in South Africa where colonialization was a ‘blow which was primarily economic in nature’, remarks: ‘A society with a poorly developed economy, one which stresses group solidarity rather than individual strength, finds itself up against a highly developed society which is industrialized and has an economy based on individualism.’1a Max Gluckman, also dealing with South African examples (the Zulu), points out that modern social systems, which have come about as the result of a development over a period of a hundred years or so, have acquired a relative stability which is explained ‘by the social cohesion imposed by new economic relationships’.2 These two quotations have the advantage of portraying in a clear fashion the dual incidence of external economic forces which affect traditional societies: those destructive effects which lead to a breaking down of old structures, and positive effects which result in new structures and new modes of social integration.

The contribution would indeed be mediocre if a demonstration and affirmation of the role played by economic factors as a factor in social change were all we had to go on. However, before studying some examples in greater detail we should make some introductory remarks of more general signficance. Studies, which aim at examining and explaining social changes which bring about the modification of

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