Keeping the Home Fires Burning: The Changed Nature of Householding in the Kofyar Homeland

In the early 1960s‚ Robert Netting described househ olds in the Kofyar hom eland in Nigeria and explained their size‚ composition ‚ and other characteristics as adju stments to agrarian ecology. Household changes attending movement to a frontier were analyzed in the same framework. By the 1980s‚ the econom ic ration ale for hom eland farming had all but disappeared ‚ and some villages seemed on the verge of abandon ment. Yet deliberate strategies for preserving homeland settlements had prevented abandon ment. The demographic characteristics and household composition in the hom eland now provide a window into a wholly different set of processes than what Netting described 30 years ago. Home settlement is kept viable as a facility to support ethnic identity and to attract government resources. Beneath superficial similarities are profou nd changes in the nature of the household and factors shaping it‚ reflecting the changed ration ale for keeping the home fires burn ing.