| | Two of the main articles in this issue, those by Clough and Vaughan, present material from case studies in northern Nigeria and southern Malawi. Case studies such as these are able to explore the complex ramifications of rural social and economic relations and to question the abstract generalisations regarding middlemen, households and gender relations advanced by studies with a more macro-societal focus. 'Peasant' studies have tended to base their analyses on the 'household' , conceived as a unit of production and consumption. Clough and Vaughan show the importance of situating the study of agricultural production in the context of exchange relations and of examining the changing relations of household members, female and male, to others within and without the households (natal and marital) to which they are affiliated. |
