Crisis and Adaptation in a Ghanaian Forest Community

This article examines the allocation, procurement, and use of economic resources and other productive means in a Ghanaian rural community to solve problems resulting from socioenvironmental stress and economic deprivation. There is a general beliefthat during times of economic crisis in Third World societies, village adaptation tends to be negatively affected and that conditions in rural areas will even be worse than in the urban centres of the affected countries. This article argues that this has not been the case among the rural peoples of Ayirebi, nearAkyem Oda, in southeastern Ghana. Itpoints out how power, moral authority, and social responsibility were used for the well-being of the village population. [crisis, adaptation, West Africa, Ghana, subsistence]