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Abstract
This thesis is an exploration of the effects of the commoditization of land, labor, and symbolic capital--the changes from relations of dependency based on kinship to more rationalized commodity relationships of the marketplace--on the Chiefdom of Nso in the highlands of western Cameroon. As such, it is an analysis of the interaction between the national laws and national bureaucracy of the nation-state of Cameroon, and the indigenous bureaucracy, hierarchy, and legal institutions of the Nso Chiefdom. While the structures of the nation-state define the overall context of change, chieftaincy, men's secret societies and traditional office and title remain powerful institutions in the local and regional political economy, and have been instrumental in shaping the meaning and the form of newly introduced commodity relationships.
The primary argument put forth is that in order to understand "transformation" we must look at change as a dialectical process, and one in which an understanding of the struggles over the meaning of thought and action, of an analysis of the dialectic of change located in the superstructure, is critical.
The following work is thus an attempt to look at the ways in which the meaning of indigenous categories, acts and institutions shape the process of transformation at all levels: from the relationships between men and women in the household economy, to the relationships between the paramount chief or Fon and his sub-chiefs, to the relationship between the national bureaucratic institutions and legal structures and traditional Nso bureaucracy, hierarchy, and structures of decision-making and control.
