Purchasing Culture: The Dissemination of Associations in the Cross River Region of Cameroon and Nigeria

Purchasing Culture: the Dissemination of Associations in the Cross River Region of Cameroon and Nigeria, by Ute Röschenthaler, is a valuable and enriching contribution to the fields of African art and aesthetics, and cultural anthropology. Scholars of Nigerian traditional cultural associations and objects, especially those who focus on the rich history of the Cross River region, will find great use in Röschenthaler's balanced navigation between the nuances of men's and women's associations and the market exchangeability of material cultures, aesthetic objects, and intangible properties. Purchasing Culture seeks to reveal the pivotal roles of cultural associations—such as the Ejagham women's group Njom-Ekpa and the men's group Ekpe—within their respective regions, by discussing the ties between regional migration and trade histories of these associations. This is truly a rich volume of work that exhaustively demonstrates the innumerable layers and textures of Ejagham associations and networks, and how they gain movement from...