Had it been published in France in the late 1970s, most probably this book on work amongst the Senufo of northern Ivory Coast would have been cast in a neo-Marxist mould, complete with productive forces, social relations of production and colonial exploitation. Reading Marianne Lemaire, one becomes aware of the layers of methodological and theoretical accretions that have occurred in anthropology in the meantime and that draw on the resources offered by colonial history, ethno-linguistics, gender studies and symbolic analysis. However, the author keeps Marx, Arendt or Vernant constantly at the back of her mind.

The Senufo speak a Voltaic language. They encompass fifty-odd named sub-groups numbering about one million people altogether, spread over northern Ivory Coast, southern Mali and Burkino Faso. Marianne Lemaire studied the Tyebara sub-group. Her book opens with the portrait of the Senufo as a worker and the ambiguities of the colonial stereotype of this hard-working yet passive, quiet and conservative subject. This stereotype raises a number of issues relating to the history of the late nineteenth century, centred around the conquests made by Samori and his defeat at the hands of the French. In the second chapter, it appears that, under Mande pressure, the Tyebara founded a chiefdom strong enough to build up a sizable military power and to negotiate a modicum of autonomy. The colonial stereotype reflects a change in strategy when, after the defeat of Samori, the Tyebara submitted to the French army in 1898, devoted their energies to agricultural work, and shifted the practice and representations of competition, warfare and victory into an ethos of agricultural work.

The category of faliwi, meaning ‘travail’ or ‘work’, provides the focus of the last four chapters of the book. They establish a strong link between work and suffering. Chapter 3 is devoted to the intimate relation between agricultural work, music and competition between men engaged in exacting ploughing contests. Chapter 4 tracks the notion of faliwi through the life cycle of men and women – from the labour of delivering a child to the agony of death and bereavement. Chapter 5 is devoted to the various prohibitions on agricultural work depending on time, place and persons. The sixth and last chapter compares the two mutually exclusive practices of agriculture and divination. A short epilogue on the notion of work unfolds a stratification of historical layers among the Senufo and, likewise, in our Western societies.

The subtitle of the book is slightly misleading. Indeed, the book deals with the representations of work. It does so by taking full advantage of vernacular expressions, the lyrics of the songs and the interviews conducted by the author. But the practice of work is given equal attention. Ploughing contests, initiation rituals and divination as work are the object of a detailed ethnography illustrated by a few telling photographs. The book is compact, well written and printed, complemented by a useful glossary of vernacular terms.

I will conclude with more personal remarks. First, the demise of neo-Marxist studies has dealt a severe blow to economic anthropology, which has more or less disappeared from most curricula. Marianne Lemaire contributes to its revival with a renewed approach. Second, amidst the current neo-liberal obsession with the competitive market and with the introduction of competition between individual workers within private companies, I was quite interested by the discussion of contest, competition, victory and restraint that runs through the book, especially pp. 48 to 97. Agricultural competition appears as a translation of warfare that comes along with restrained rivalry between individual fighters in the ploughing contests. However, the winner is rejected because he puts an end to the rivalry. Too much competition is said to spoil the field and the village. Individual competition is put under restraint by the endeavour of the group and the contribution of the musicians. It exemplifies a subtle dialectics between the individual and the group that challenges the Dumontian stereotype concerning ‘traditional’ societies. In her epilogue, the author underscores the fact that the Senufo disconnect the willingness and drive to work from its results, whereas our society establishes a strong link between the two. At a time when the crunch of unlimited competitive labour assessed by its results creates more and more suffering, Marianne Lemaire provides a most telling monograph that could contribute to a useful comparative study of work.