Styles of making a living and ecological change on the Fon and Adja plateaux in South Bénin, ca. 1600-1990.
This study is a comparative analysis of the joint development of the Fon and Adja styles of making a living as well as the ecological changes between the two adjacent plateaux in South Bénin on which they live. The period of analysis is between ca. 1600 and 1990. The South Béninese plateaux are usually described as a homogeneous category. However, popular opinion also holds that the Fon plateau is ecologically more degraded than the other plateaux, and that the Fon are socially more organised, technologically more advanced, and socio-economically more successful than the Adja. This thesis challenges the popular images about the Fon and Adja, and analyses how and why ecological processes on their plateaux differed between ca. 1600 and 1990. The two plateaux form part of a chain of plateaux in South Bénin and Togo. They have similar soils (Nitisols) with the same bimodal rainfall pattern and precipitation. The Nitisols are regarded as the best tropical soils for arable farming, but their fertility depends strongly on organic matter and clay content. This led in South Bénin, as in many other places, to high population densities on Nitisols. The Fon and Adja plateaux both had about 110 inhabitants per km2 in 1960 and about 300 inhabitants per km2 in 1990 respectively (the Fon plateau 20-30% less if the urban population is excluded). In 2002 the population density was 409 inhabitants per km2 on the Adja plateau and 377 inhabitants per km2 on the Fon plateau. Today, the Fon form the largest ethnic group, while the Adja are the second largest group in Bénin, accounting for 19.9 % and 8.6% of the total population, respectively. Ethno-linguistically they are closely related and their cultures have much in common. The two plateaux have the same distance to the coastal urban markets and since 1900, have been subject to fairly homogeneous government policies. Researchers and development interventionists alike tend to assume that any ecological, agronomic and socio-economic data from one plateau can be extrapolated to the rest. Popular belief, on the other hand, holds that the Fon and Adja differ. For example, sinc.
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| Format: | Texto biblioteca |
| Language: | ng |
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[Place of publication not identified] : Wageningen University,
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| Subjects: | Aceite de palma, Estudio comparativo, Etnografía, Historia., Innovaciones agrícolas indígenas, Medio ambiente., Vida silvestre., |
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