ABSTRACT
As both accounting scholars and practitioners have explored beyond the constraints of their own national contexts, unitary views of the nature and purposes of accounting have come to be set aside. Comparative as well as historical analyses have shown accounting, to be a heterogeneous phenonenon, varying in form content, organization and function across both time and space. As a consequence, accounting. is not seen to include a multitude of different practices, the nature of which has changed quite radically over time.
