Land redistribution policy in South Africa emphasises commercial farming as the legitimate use of land. This production-oriented framework fails to take into account the intertwined but unstable relationship between the production of market value and social reproduction, and how this shapes social differentiation. Drawing on a case study of the Besters Land Reform Project in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, the paper shows that land and cattle are not simply moments in the production of beef but material and discursive resources in (re)making the social conditions of the household. Cattle are used in drawn-out ceremonies that occur in specific spaces and stitch together families and communities pulled apart by rising inequality, making land constitutive of identity and belonging as well as of capitalist value production. Until land reform policy recognises the multi-functionality of land and cattle, and the contradictory relationship between functions, agricultural production will be a limited indicator of “success” or “failure.”

南非的土地再分配政策强调商业性耕作是对土地的合法使用。这种以生产为导向的框架没有考虑到市场价值的生产与社会再生产之间相互交织但不稳定的关系，以及这种关系如何影响社会分化。通过对夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省Besters土地改革项目的案例研究，该论文显示土地和牛不仅是牛肉生产中的重要时刻，而且是（再）改变当地社会条件的物质和话语资源。家庭。牛用于在特定空间举行的引人入胜的仪式中，并将因不平等加剧而分裂的家庭和社区缝合在一起，使土地成为身份和归属以及资本主义价值生产的主体。