In fact, one of the ancestors of descent theory, Evans-Pritchard (1940), reveals that the Nuer do not conceive of their social world in terms of a lineage model. The house, in contrast, seems to represent the way that many people conceive of and model their own economies. The corporate model upon which lineage theory is based is a specifically Western model that has been imposed on others at the expense of their folk models. He also contends that the notion of a house economy has widespread applicability and relevance and thus asks whether, in rethinking the corporation as a model for local forms of organization, we might modify the use of that model in African studies as well. Gudeman holds that the house economy is an institution of such long standing that it preceded historically the development of the market and its corporate organization (1990:9). He argues that Colombian peasants use a model of the house to organize their social and economic lives, and he defines the house primarily in opposition to the model of the corporation, which he believes coexists in dialectical tension with the house. In a creative study of the local Colombian economy, Stephen Gudeman (1990) suggests the house as an alternative to the model of the corporation. Colin Turnbull, Wayward Servants, on the Mbuti-Bila partnerships "The most that one can say about the economic aspect of the relationship is that it appears to be one of mutual convenience."
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