Stone:Net Labor

Net Labor

There is first the fundamental question of whether labor exchange has an economic basis at all: where is the advantage in putting in n days on neighbors' farms so that n neighbors will put in a day on mine? In fact, the Kofyar would seem to suffer a net loss in field labor because of the time women have to spend on brewing beer for the group.

Part of the Kofyars' answer is that people work harder in work groups, especially in the festive atmosphere of the mar muos. There are ample inducements for hard work at the mar muos. The work may be preceded by the spectacle of a few young men making their way across the field, each hoeing a line of yam heaps at a frantic pace and occasionally stopping to shout energetically; this provides a model of industrious field work and also divides the field into sections for the other workers, who compete in teams.
Sponsors sometimes hire drummers to encourage the workers to keep a fast pace.
The least subtle technique that I saw for boosting labor productivity was the masquerade character who attended a chief's mar muos for millet storing; the character carried a sorghum stalk, and part of his role was to whip anyone whose work pace was too slow.

The demands of a production system include both quantity and quality of labor. Some researchers have reported farmer complaints about the quality of work done by festive groups; the festivity that helps attract workers may also promote carelessness.. However, a hallmark of intensive smallholder agriculturalists is a high skill level in agricultural tasks, and Kofyar work groups conform to this pattern. Kofyar show a strong preference for festive or exchange labor over hired labor, which is expensive and requires constant monitoring. This is especially true of complex intercropping operations (such as making yam heaps in the sorghum field) that require particular skill and judgement, or the langmaar millet storing operation, which would never be done with hired labor.

	Part of the Kofyars' answer is that people work harder in work groups, especially in the festive atmosphere of the mar muos. There are ample inducements for hard work at the mar muos. The work may be preceded by the spectacle of a few young men making their way across the field, each hoeing a line of yam heaps at a frantic pace and occasionally stopping to shout energetically; this provides a model of industrious field work and also divides the field into sections for the other workers, who compete in teams.
	Sponsors sometimes hire drummers to encourage the workers to keep a fast pace.
	The least subtle technique that I saw for boosting labor productivity was the masquerade character who attended a chief's mar muos for millet storing; the character carried a sorghum stalk, and part of his role was to whip anyone whose work pace was too slow.