A Hausa Man Makes a Decision: A Contribution to the Anthropological Perspective on Decision-Making

In anthropology, decision-making has mainly been studied from two perspectives: rationalist and ethnographic. These approaches lack a theoretical basis which would integrate their findings in a coherent manner. Taking inspiration from Tugendhat and Berthoz, this article argues that a way out of this...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anthropological forum 2018-07, Vol.28 (3), p.236-254
Main Author: Heiss, Jan Patrick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Concept formation
Decision making
economic anthropology
Emotions
Hausa
Niger
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Summary:In anthropology, decision-making has mainly been studied from two perspectives: rationalist and ethnographic. These approaches lack a theoretical basis which would integrate their findings in a coherent manner. Taking inspiration from Tugendhat and Berthoz, this article argues that a way out of this impasse is to conceptualise decision-making as an action. At the same time, this conceptualisation allows us to establish a continuum of decision-making processes from simple through complex to fundamental, and to understand these processes as malleable across milieux, societies and cultures. This article also goes beyond this by discussing the decision-making process that led a Hausa villager from Niger to decide not to migrate. This discussion shows that the anthropological literature has largely overlooked a type of decision that could be called a 'maturing decision'. It also sheds light on the role of emotions in decision-making and on the constitutive role of emic ideas about decision-making in these processes.
ISSN:0066-4677
1469-2902
DOI:10.1080/00664677.2018.1482737