law were abolished. “To the peasant the person of the chief signifies power that is total and
absolute, unchecked and unrestrained” (Mamdani, p54). “...the Colonial state really liberated
administrative staff from all institutional constraints” (Mamdani, 43). In French colonies,
summary punishment was authorised for acts which might “undermine respect owing to
French authority or its European representatives, or to injure the exercise of this authority “
(Young, 116).
In Latin America, countries acquired political independence during the nineteenth century,
and were subsequently ruled by ex-patriate settlers in an authoritarian fashion, very similar to
that of Colonialism. The ruling class continued to have strong links with the former Colonial
powers. Like other Colonial territories, Latin American economies were dominated by
primary production for export to the metropolitan economies. Norms were largely P/C with
elements of M and COOP, much the same as in the Colonies elsewhere. The COOP mode of
behaviour of the indigenous Indian economy was forcibly displaced by P/C modes. Indian
land was expropriated and Indian labour forced to work on settler plantations (Thorp, 1998,
Chapter Two and Three).
This era represented one of the purest examples of a macro-environment organised along P/C
lines that one can find, although obviously there were some elements of M and COOP.
Labour was procured for infrastructure and to work on plantations or in the mines mainly
through direct or indirect force (including imposing head or hut taxes which could only be
paid by labouring). Financial incentives, however, played some part in procuring peasant
production. Much of the previous system, which had relied on a combination of P/C and
COOP was undermined by colonial practices - for example, customary law was set aside
where it conflicted with colonial needs or values, and autonomous village structures were
weakened or destroyed (Mamdani, 1996; Furnivall, 1948).
While the Colonial and neo-colonial environment was a P/C one, there remained many
activities outside the influence of colonial policy, where society continued to operate along
pre-colonial indigenous lines. There is a huge anthropological literature on how such
societies operated. From this it is apparent that (i) there are large variations in behaviour;
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