The Economic-Organizational Balances of the Domestic Unit in a Traditional Peasant Society

The article shows the results of field work carried out in Northern Nigeria. First, the article presents data on the economic production of the local communities collected by the author. Then, these data are analyzed in terms of the economic and social balances of the local society. What emerges from the analysis is that trade - as a model of exchange - is here superimposed by other models, involving both factors of production and utilization of produce. In particular, the author emphasizes the importance of two other models: a model of social exchange of contributory-reinforcing type; and a model of social exchange of redistributive type. The article shows that these models seem to be perfectly rational, in their aiming at a social optimization of the limited economic resources available to the local population.