Anthropology of Development: Santiago, Cape Verde, a case study

Abstract

This article analyses the rural societie of Santiago island, Cape Verde, as selfreproducing system where different rationalities and multiple subsistence strategies are combined, and where relations of production range from auto-consumption to the market and from there to paid labour. According to the author, the question posed is not that of the destruction of the domestic mode of production or of the capacity of social reproduction, but that of understanding how the latter fits into the mega-process of globalisation, intermediated by the «modernising» structures of foreign aid and the state, both imbued by a spirit of «assistance», and confronting the rural societies with constant dernands on their adaptation and transformation potential.