Asian Research Journal of Arts & Social Sciences

This paper throws its weight to other writings on mining and livelihood. It assessed illegal small scale mining activities and how it affect cocoa farmers’ livelihood with specific reference to a community in Ghana. A qualitative approach was adopted. The research design was a case study and largely descriptive. Primary data was culled from 35 respondents including affected cocoa farmers, miners and some key stakeholders. It was supported with reports, books and online publications. A purposive sampling technique was used to identify respondents and focus group discussions were held. Key informant interviews and observations were also used for data collection. Afterwards, a content analysis was done on the text and image data generated. Results were presented and discussed under appropriate themes. Results from the findings showed that cocoa farming was the main source of income for people in the community but unfortunately their farms were destroyed and this had had a ripple effect on their livelihood. Again, farmlands were not seized for illegal mining activities; rather it was bought and paid for under compelling circumstances. It was concluded that, both commodities contribute to the nation’s development; hence one should not be substituted for the other, rather, small scale mining should be done in a legal and properly planned manner so not to affect cocoa farmers’ livelihood negatively.

This study looks at the representation of polygamous marriage in selected dramatic texts from Nigeria and juxtaposes it against global discussion on the acceptance of the "otherness" in society. It concludes that monogamy and polygamy (polygyny and polyandry) are systems of marriage practised in different cultures, most especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In the continent, marriage enjoys cultural, religious and constitutional backing. However, the focus of this paper is on polygamy in dramatic texts in relation to the social reality of the environment from which the texts emerged. The paper further narrows its interest down to three levels of contractual marriage in sub-Saharan Africa. It reveals that the traditional and religious marriage systems in sub- Saharan Africa embrace polygamy while state institutions or legal marriage system frowns at it. It is against this backdrop that this work adopts postmodernism as a theoretical framework to examine the place of polygamy in four African dramatic texts. The paper argues that postmodernist worldview has reinvigorated the practice of polygamy beyond the boundaries of Africa, Asia and of the adherents of the Islamic religion.

The present study was conducted to assess the impact of microcredit of women borrowers of ASA credit at Sadar Upazila in the Sylhet district. With these views in mind, data were collected randomly from sixty respondents who were involved in different IGAs. The survey method was followed to collect the required data with a well-developed questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were applied for the analysis of data and sustainable livelihood framework was used for assessing the impact of credit. Results showed that there was a remarkable increase in assets of the respondents towards improved livelihood after joining with the ASA credit program. The findings exposed that ASA loan brought about a positive impact on the livelihood improvement of the borrowers. It was also found to have a significant positive effect on women’s social empowerment indicators namely attitude towards their children education, mobility to outside home, participation and decision-making ability etc. Finally, the present study suggests conducting further study of similar types in other parts of the country to make the findings representative one.

The history of ancient Harappan and Egyptian civilizations was and still an area of interest attracting researchers and scholars all over the world, to investigate the constituents and the hidden secrets of such great civilizations. Undoubtedly, archaeology is standing as the main science concerned with studying the cultural products of ancient societies, especially the material culture represented by all physical remains whether organic or inorganic ones. However, there are certain drawbacks associated with the extensive use of archaeological methods only. Consequently, this project seeks to use additional tools, methods, and approaches that would open new dimensions of investigation and analysis. This could be attained by adopting the anthropological perspective as the main entrance for revisiting the ancient Harappan and Egyptian civilizations differently. This does not mean that anthropology is an alternative to archaeology, but both are complementary to each other. Owing to various approaches used under the umbrella of anthropology like; ethno-archaeology, bio-archaeology, bio-culture, ethnography approaches etc. Anthropological perspectives have the ability to study cultural, social and biological dimensions of different societies like Harappan and Egyptian, whether recent or ancient. Consequently, the present study objective is to utilize the anthropological methods to help filling these gaps, which are persisted in the knowledge of ancient Harappan and Egyptian civilizations. Especially those issues related to; kingship, administration, kinship, political and socio-cultural life, environment, religion, dress, gender, human body in funerary and medical treatments, funerary populations, grave gods, fertility, birth, child-care, health, hygiene, studies on human skeletons, and everyday life. That is to mean that all human- mediated processes and events would be included within the scope of this project regarding anthropology.

The law, in a general way, has the role of regulating life in society. From this same Law, several rights with branches facilitate their explanation and use in our social life to establish order. This being life in society could be seen as a kind of contract to the extent that it would be difficult for the individual to live without maintaining relationships with others. So, from the moment that there is this exchange between individuals there is what we could call contract. As we know, the contract is defined in law as an agreement by which one or more persons agree to one or more other persons to give, do or not to do something. It should also be specified that there are several kinds of contracts, but the one that will be the main focus of our development is the international contract. An international contract is understood to mean this contract, which, unlike the internal contract, presents an element of extraneity, in other words an international character. For example, a contract between two individuals of different nationality.

The contract thus concluded, the contracting parties may indeed encounter difficulties that may arise at any time, most often due to non-compliance with the terms of the contract. These problems or disputes are often very difficult to resolve because the parties are from different origins, residing in different countries, or bound by commitments made in a country other than their country of residence, hence the existence of different laws. and the birth of what is called a conflict of laws.

This being so, by conflict of laws is meant to be one of the main problems with private international law (the branch of law which deals with the settlement of disputes of private rights having at least an extraneous character). Thus, the question arises as to which law would be applicable in the event of a conflict of laws in the matter of contract, that is, how to choose or determine the applicable law in the course of a dispute with a foreign element? Thus, once the French judge is seized of the dispute, it will be necessary to find the law applicable to the questions of law asked. Assuming that the French judge can apply a foreign law, and that the various foreign laws with links to the litigation have a theoretical vocation to apply, were developed what are called conflict of laws rules which is an abstract rule, indirect (it does not solve the substantive question asked, but only to determine the law competent to resolve this substantive legal issue), and neutral (the substantive solution is not taken into account in the determination of the applicable law).

In order to give answers to our questioning, we will focus on how to choose the law applicable to conflict of laws in matters of contract and this, in the light of French law, the Rome Convention of 19 June 1980 and the Rome 1 Regulation on the law applicable to international contractual obligations.