Human responsibility, global knowledge and local perspectives : desertification and environmental protection in Northern Ghana

Both Karl Wittfogel’s hydraulic hypothesis and Robert Carneiro’s theory of the origin of the state have to do with a notion of state as an ensemble of emergent properties whose development or growth can be studied as related to difference in terms of capabilities, competences, prerogatives and points of view. Expanding on Eduardo Viveiros de Castro’s notion of perspectivism, what emerges along with a growing complexity of political institutions could be defined as “perspectival difference” between élites and commoners. In this sense, difference is a structural and emerging attribute of the state in both Wittfogel’s and Carneiro’s approaches. While perspectival difference is an emerging property of the state, environment is one of the grounds on which this process can take place. The purpose of this chapter is to reflect on perspectival differences between central institutions and marginal people in Northern Ghana with reference to the relationship between the interpretation of environmental conditions and the interpretation of human responsibility.