Hunger for Money

Abstract

The haphazard process of maize market liberalization produces conditions for maize to assume a money function in the Tonga-speaking region of Mayindi, Zambia. Drawing on ethnographic data, this article analyzes the ways in which members of polygynous households in Mayindi attempt to navigate the intra-household tensions provoked by the use of a staple food as a form of money. In an effort to reconcile these tensions, co-wives in many polygynous households now distribute maize equally among themselves, regardless of how many people each individual woman is responsible for feeding. I argue that while this form of maize distribution leaves some members of the household food-insecure, it also serves to maintain critical aspects of women's social identities as mothers to their children and members of their matrilineage.

Keywords:

• commodity currency
• polygamy
• intra-household
• maize
• Zambia

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicholas J. Sitko

Nicholas J. Sitko obtained his PhD from the geography department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His research explores the relationships between political economic transformations in Zambia and agrarian people's ability to produce and access their staple food and primary cultivar, maize. He is currently working as a research fellow in Zambia with the Food Security Group, which is part of Michigan State University's Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics. PostNet Box 99, P/Bag E 835, Lusaka, Zambia ([email protected]).