Traditional thinking: the impact of international aid on social structures and cultural traditions in agrifood chains in Tonga and Solomon Islands

Aid agencies provide significant funding for the development of modern market systems in subsistence societies. Despite the advantages generated by aid partnerships, aid agencies are often unsuccessful in producing the market changes they aim to realise. This project investigates barriers to the development of demand-driven agrifood market systems at the local level in Solomon Islands and Tonga. We demonstrate that performances that imply a readiness to expand into a capitalist market economy elide the everyday social relations and cultural traditions of local village actors. These villagers would need to move away from their own traditional thinking about food production, and deny their customary subsistence and market narratives, to meet the requirements of externally imposed, modern market systems that drive the modern market development thinking of aid donors. The reality is that village-based socio-cultural, economic and religious obligations obstruct the basic demand-driven market practices required for a successful formal market environment. We conclude that a critical anthropological understanding of local market systems is essential to the generation of modern market opportunities at village levels.