Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/284121 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
CREDIT Research Paper No. 23/04
Publisher: 
The University of Nottingham, Centre for Research in Economic Development and International Trade (CREDIT), Nottingham
Abstract: 
This paper explores the role of social status in relationships between richer and poorer households in non-lineage-based, agrarian communities by analysing who goes to whose funerals in six resettled Zimbabwean villages. Funerals allow social status to be observed because non-attendance is a sign of disrespect. We find that the richer a household hosting a funeral, the less likely heads of neighbouring households were to attend. This is consistent with the existence of an egalitarian norm that was being violated, to some degree, by the richer households. This norm is stronger among kin but also holds for non-kin. An analysis of assistance provision offers no evidence that some richer households complied with the norm and eschewed punishment. While the egalitarian norm appears weak (punishment for norm violation was exerted but compliance did not follow), patron-client relationships appear not to have emerged in its place.
Subjects: 
Social status
Egalitarian norms
Patronage
Sub-Saharan Africa
Funeral attendance
JEL: 
O15
O17
Z19
I39
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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