Shea Butter Republic
State Power, Global Markets, and the Making of an Indigenous Commodity

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Language: English

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Shea butter republic (paper)
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· 15.2x22.9 cm · Paperback

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Shea butter republic
Publication date:
· 15.2x22.9 cm · Hardback

Shea butter (butyrospermin parkii) has been produced and sold by rural West African women and circulated on the world market as a raw material for more than a century. Shea butter has been used for cooking, making soap and candles, leatherworking, dying, as a medical and beauty aid, and most significantly, as a substitute for cocoa butter in chocolate production. Now sold in exclusive shops as a high-priced cosmetic and medicinal product, it caters to the desire of cosmopolitan customers worldwide for luxury and exotic self-indulgence. This ethnographic study traces shea from a pre- to post-industrial commodity to provide a deeper understanding of emerging trends in tropical commoditization, consumption, global economic restructuring and rural livelihoods. Also inlcludes seven maps.

Introduction--West African Shea: From Indigenous Commodity to Postindustrial Luxury The Setting 1. Making Butter: Indigenous Patterns of Commoditization in Northern Ghana 2. Shea and the Colonial State: Commodity Rule in Northern Ghana 3. Market Reform and Economic Citizenship in Northern Ghana: Promoting and Politicizing Shea in the Wake of Liberalization 4. Chocolate Wars and Cosmetic Contests: Shea as a New Global Commodity 5. Remaking Markets and Shape-Shifting States: Privatizing Shea in Northern Ghana 6. Capital and Cooperation: Rural Women and Market Restructuring Conclusion--Reconstructing Tropical Commodity Regimes: Cosmopolitan Consumption, Postcolonial States, Multinational Capital, and Rural Livelihoods at the Turn of the Millennium
Brenda Chalfin
lEM>New Media, Old Media l/EM>is a foundational text for general readers, students, and scholars of new media across the disciplines. This provocative collection is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the cultural impact of new media.