Modern Houses, Conspicuous Consumption, and Elite–Villager Interfaces in the Mandara Highlands

Abstract

This paper argues that changes in architectural practices related to the emergence of modern elites in the Mandara Mountains blur the relationship between them and the village’s permanent residents. Probably because they spend much of their time in urban cities, modern elites prefer building their main houses in those locations. Villagers interpret their behavior as a message of rejection. In turn, this interpretation significantly affects the reciprocal relationships between modern elites and the villagers. Although the former would built houses in the village also, this practice does not remove the suspicion they attract from the latter. On the contrary, the massive character of the houses combined with their emptiness contribute to reinforce the villagers’ belief that they are the fruit of occult practices. Relying on these observations, I argue that elites’ houses are not only the sites of production of social relations, as Claude Lévi-Strauss theorized, but they are also the site of tensions.