University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

'The complexity of an enduring relationship': gender, generation and the moral economy of the Gambian Mandinka household

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 12:02 authored by Pamela KeaPamela Kea
This article examines the moral economy of the Gambian Mandinka household, focusing on girls’ labour contributions in the time of neo-liberalism. Scholarship on the moral economy of the household within rural production systems reduces the term to altruism and harmony within the domestic unit. This article provides a more theoretically nuanced understanding of the moral economy of the household, with a focus on the cultural codes that underpin intra-household relations, the intergenerational contract, as well as the generational and gendered hierarchies that inform processes of negotiation in relation to labour contributions. Changes to the moral economy of the household can be captured in the changing nature of girls’ labour contributions and in their changing attitudes towards these contributions. Interpretations of work obligations are increasingly framed in terms of exchanges and incentives. Further, girls aspire to get an education and a good job, or marry well in order to move out of farming. Such novel interpretations and practices recast the moral economy of the household as dynamic and subject to change. These ethnographic insights have relevance for the anthropological study of children’s labour, intra-household relations and the moral economy of the household.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

ISSN

1467-9655

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Issue

1

Volume

19

Page range

102-119

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-02-28

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC