Résumés
Résumé
Cet essai porte sur les mécanismes qui permettent les échanges équitables entre différents ordres de valeur, dans la production de la société et de l’histoire. Alors que les équivalences entre monnaies, la normalisation et la conversion sont présentes dans la plupart des théories sur l’argent et la marchandisation, leur nature en tant que processus social n’a pas été suffisamment étudiée, surtout dans la construction du caractère universalisant des idéologies et des régimes politiques et économiques modernes. Notre analyse examine la confrontation des différents régimes de valeur à l’occasion de la rencontre entre les Tswana d’Afrique du Sud et les colonisateurs européens, ainsi que les conflits et la médiation complexe auxquels ce processus a donné lieu. Le bétail, les pièces de monnaie et les contrats, qui avaient la possibilité à la fois de renforcer et de nier les différences, ont rapidement été investis de qualités magiques. Mais les peuples colonisés étaient également sensibles à la faculté de ces monnaies de faciliter ou d’empêcher la convertibilité, et connaissaient les formes d’abstraction et d’incorporation qu’ils impliquaient. C’est pourquoi, en Afrique du Sud et ailleurs, ces monnaies ont souvent servi de moyen de contestation de la valeur autour de laquelle les luttes coloniales se sont jouées.
Mots clés:
- Jean Comaroff,
- John L. Comaroff,
- colonialisme,
- marchandisation,
- équivalence,
- monnaies,
- argent,
- Afrique du Sud
Abstract
This essay explores the mechanisms that render equitable and negotiable different orders of value – in the production of society and history. While equilibration, standardization and conversion are implicated in most theories of money and commodi?cation, their nature as social processes has not been adequately speci?ed, above all in the construction of universalizing ideologies and modernist political and economic regimes. We examine the ways in which different regimes of value, brought up against one another in the encounter between the southern Tswana peoples and European colonizers, became the subject of both con?ict and complex mediation. Cows, coin and contracts – which had the capacity to construct and negate difference – soon were invested here with magical qualities. But colonized peoples were also sensitive to the capacity of such currencies to enable or impede convertibility and to the forms of abstraction and incorporation they permit. Which is why, in South Africa and elsewhere, those currencies often became metonymic of the contestations of value on which colonial struggles, tout court, were played out.
Keywords:
- Jean Comaroff,
- John L. Comaroff,
- Colonialism,
- Commodi?cation,
- Commensuration,
- Currencies,
- Money,
- South Africa
Resumen
Este ensayo aborda los mecanismos que posibilitan los intercambios justos entre diferentes órdenes de valor, en la producción de la sociedad y de la historia. Aunque las equivalencias entre monedas, la normalización y la conversión están presentes en la mayor parte de las teorías del dinero y de la mercancía, su naturaleza en tanto que procesos sociales no ha sido suficientemente estudiada, sobre todo en la construcción del carácter universalizante de las ideologías y de los regímenes políticos y económicos modernos. Nuestro artículo examina la manera en que diferentes regímenes de valor han estado en oposición en las relaciones entre los Tswana de África del Sur y los colonizadores europeos, así como los conflictos y la mediación compleja que este proceso ha hecho surgir. El ganado, la moneda y los contratos, que tenían la posibilidad tanto de intensificar como de negar las diferencias, han sido rápidamente investidos de cualidades mágicas. Pero los pueblos colonizados también eran sensibles a la capacidad de esas monedas para facilitar o impedir la convertibilidad y conocían las formas de abstracción y de incorporación que posibilitaban. Por eso, en África del Sur como en otras partes, esas monedas han sido con mucha frecuencia los medios para refutar el valor en torno del cual se han realizado las luchas coloniales.
Palabras clave:
- Jean Comaroff,
- John L. Comaroff,
- colonialismo,
- mercancía,
- equivalencia,
- monedas,
- dinero,
- África del Sur
Parties annexes
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