ABSTRACT
The intellectual odyssey of the concept of legal pluralism moves from the discovery of indigenous forms of law among remote African villagers and New Guinea tribesmen to debates concerning the pluralistic qualities of law under advanced capitalism. According to the new legal pluralism, plural normative orders are found in virtually all societies. Customary law in the Casamance, as elsewhere, was a concept and a legal form that originated in specific historical circumstances, namely the period in the transformation of pre-capitalist social relations that saw the consolidation of the colonial state. Legal pluralism not only posits the existence of multiple legal spheres, but develops hypotheses concerning the relationships between them. Another aspect of legal pluralism is the study of law as a system of meanings, a cultural code for interpreting the world. Geertz, a preeminent spokesman for this perspective, has developed an interpretive view of legal pluralism, one richly evocative of cultural diversity.
