Household Formation, Private Property and the State.
1996. Sojourn 11(2): 259-87.
Abstract
Assuming that households are not "natural" units, it is important to explore the processes through which the exterior boundaries and internal dynamics of households are formed and transformed in particular agrarian contexts. This paper examines the impact of two such processes: the privatization of agricultural land, which encloses individuals within households and restricts the range of relationships through which they can access resources; and interventions by the state, both ideological and administrative in nature, which aim to reform households as units of ownership and control. These processes are explored through a review of literature from Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia, then examined in detail in a case-study from the Tinombo hills of Central Sulawesi. Rejecting the notion that there is a pre-determined trajectory of household development or agrarian change, emphasis is given to the creative, generative dimension of cultural practice which produces particular (partial) resolutions.