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Paper short abstract:

Malo farmers in Ethiopia identify three kinds of cooperative labour. Whereas largely non-reciprocal two are already abandoned or rarely practised, most reciprocal and egalitarian one is still commonly practised. However, the latter is now being diminished by recently introduced wage labour.

Paper long abstract:

As practised in most agricultural societies around the world, cooperative labour can be considered prosocial. It is organised primarily during peak labour seasons to complete agricultural tasks such as weeding. Although cooperative labour has often been discussed from an economic perspective, it also has sociocultural significance, in that it provides an opportunity for neighbours to develop a sense of solidarity through working together. Cooperative labour is generally classified into two categories: 'festive labour' and 'exchange labour'. The former, in which a well-off host provides participants with lavish hospitality as a reward for their labour, does not have a strong element of reciprocity. On the other hand, the latter, in which a smaller group of farmers of approximately equal status work together with obligations to reciprocate, may be more egalitarian. Malo farmers in Ethiopia among whom I have conducted fieldwork identify three kinds of cooperative labour. Whereas festive labour, allo, has been abandoned for decades and its intermediate version, dago, is rarely practised, exchange labour, zafe, is still commonly practised by neighbours. The shift in cooperative labour from non-reciprocal and reciprocal arrangements to largely reciprocal ones may suggest that the society is becoming fairer. However, wage labour, kray, was recently introduced into the farming sector following the Ethiopian state's adoption of a neoliberal economic policy. Wage labour, a feature of capitalism, did not simply replace cooperative labour; instead, it seems to have undermined it, diminishing its prevalence as well as the frequency with which it is practised.