In defence of the "peasant"

Journal of Contemporary Asia

Volumn 35, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 368-385

  Owen, John R ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND   (Australia)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 33645281736     PISSN: 00472336     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00472330580000211     Document Type: Article

References (82)

1. Firth, R "Capital, Savings and Credit in Peasant Societies: A Viewpoint from Economic Anthropology," p17 in Capital, Savings and Credit in Peasant Societies: Studies from Asia, Oceania, The Caribbean and Middle America, eds Firth, R and Yamey, B. George Allen and Unwin Ltd, London,.
2. This discussion focuses primarily on the literature of the mid-to-late 1990's where the above mentioned effects have become most pronounced.
3. For example see Thorner, D. (1971) Peasant Economy as a Category in Economic History in Shanin, T. ed, Peasants and Peasant Societies, Penguin Books Ltd, London.
4. Scott, J. (1976) The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. Yale University Press, New Haven.
5. Meillassoux, C. (1973) The Social Organisation of the Peasantry: The Economic Basis of Kinship. Journal of Peasant Studies. 1 (1).
6. Paige, J. (1975) Agrarian Revolution: Social Movements and Export Agriculture in the Underdeveloped World. The Free Press, New York
7. See for example Tanabe, S. (1984) Ideological Practice in Peasant Rebellions: Siam at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, in Tanabe, S. and Turton, A. eds, History and Peasant Consciousness in Southeast Asia. National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka.
8. Stocking, G. (1987). Victorian Anthropology. New York, Free Press.
9. See for example, Malinowski, B (1921). The Primitive Economics of the Trobriand Islanders. Economic Journal. 31: 1-16,
10. Sáhlins, M. (1968). Tribesmen. New Jersey, Prentice - Hall Inc.
11. Sahlins, M. (1974). Stone Age Economics. London, Tavistock Publications,
12. Levi-Strauss, C. (1963). Structural Anthropology. New York, Basic Books Inc,
13. Radcliffe-Brown, A. and Forde, D, (eds). (1950). African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. London, Oxford University Press,
14. Evans-Pritchard, E. (1940). The Nuer: A description of the modes of livelihood and political institutions of a Nilotic people. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
15. See Parsons, T. (1951). The Social System. Glencoe, IL. Free Press;
16. Parsons, T. and Shils, E. (1951). Toward a General Theory of Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press;
17. Rostow, W. (1960) The Stages of Growth: A Non-communist Manifesto. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
18. Belshaw suggests that a shift from earlier forms such as "folk" and "primitive" often transmit into studies that consider the term "peasant" in relation to these earlier forms is adamant that the "classifications are not equivalents," and hence warns against such formulations. See Belshaw (1965) Traditional Exchange and Modern Markets. Prentice-Hall. New Jersey, p54.
19. For an unsympathetic view see Weitz, R. (1971) From Peasant to Farmer: A Revolutionary Strategy for Development. Columbia University Press. New York.
20. A primary example is Hindess, B. and Hirst, P. (1975) Pre-Capitalist Modes of Production. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
21. For a response see E.P. Thompson's blistering rebuke of Althussarian Marxism in Thompson, E. (1978) Poverty of Theory & Other Essays. Merlin Press, London.
22. Also see Corrigan, P. and Sayer, D. (1978) Hindess and Hirst: A Critical Review. The Socialist Register, pp194-215
23. Elson, R. (1997). The End of the Peasantry in Southeast Asia: A Social and Economic History of Peasant Livelihood, 1800-1990s. Great Britian, The Macmillan Press Ltd., pp 35-78, 238
24. Siriprachai, S. (1996). Population Growth, Fertility Decline, Poverty and Deforestation in Thailand, 1850-1990., in Gunnarsson, C. and Hoadley, M. eds, The Village Concept in the Transformation of Rural Southeast Asia. Curzon Press Ltd, Surrey, pp107-108
25. It should be noted that there are different degrees of totalisation in Elson and Siriprachai's account of peasants under globalisation. The main points of differentiation are that Siriprachai distinguishes the level of penetration of globalisation into the peasantry, while Elson argues that globalisation has entered into every facet of peasant life and social exchange, thus the theoretical category "peasant" is no longer applicable to this group.
26. Undertaking a quantitative analysis of data on foreign direct investment, exports, international finance, and international production across historical periods, Sutcliffe and Glyn argue that the main indices of globalisation - global production and profit - were exaggerated; confirming their assumption that economic trends are and have often been overstated see Sutcliffe, B. and Glyn, A. (1999). "Still Underwhelmed: Indicators of Globalization and Their Misinterpretation." The Review of Radical Political Economics, pp 113-118.
27. See also Petras, J. (1999) Globalization: A Critical Analysis. Journal of Contemporary Asia. 29(1) 3-37
28. Schumpeter J. (1947) Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd. pp63-72
29. Heilbroner (1976) The Economic Laws of Motion of Capitalist Society. Readings in Political Economy. F. Stilwell & Wheelwright, E. Sydney, Australia and New Zealand Book Company. Volume 1
30. On the dependant relationship between capitalist and non-capitalist modes Roberts, B. (1978) Cities of Peasants: The Political Economy of Urbanisation in the Third World. Edward Arnold Ltd, London, pp16-17.
31. See also Frank, A. (1971) Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America: Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil, Penguin, Harmonsworth.
32. For a response see Laclau, E. (1977) Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory, Capitalism, Fascism, Populism. New Left Books. London.
33. Indeed there is not a single commentator that has conceded that the process of "globalisation" is complete.
34. Woods, E.M. (1996) Modernity, postmodernity, or capitalism? Monthly Review. Jul/Aug Vol. 48, Issue 3, pp21-40.
35. See also, Sivanandan, A, and Wood, E.M. (1997) Capitalism, Globalisations, and Epochal Shifts: An Exchange. Monthly Review. Feb Vol 48 Issue 9, p19-33
36. He is inserting yet another binary in that he is distinguishing between a post-modern peasant and a modern one.
37. Cook, S. (1997) Reconceptualising the Peasantry: Anthropology in Globalist Perspective. (Book Review). Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, December, Vol 3, No. 4, pp789-91.
38. Kearney, M. (1996). Reconceptualizing the Peasantry: Anthropology in Global Perspective. Colorado, Westview Press, p63
39. Kearney, M. (1996). Reconceptualizing the Peasantry, p115.
40. Ibid, pp61-63.
41. Kearny M. (1984) World View. Chandler & Sharp Publishers, Inc. California, p188.
42. Ibid.
43. Kearney, M. (1996), Reconceptualizing the Peasantry, p139.
44. Ibid, pp64-69.
45. For example see Conell, R. (1987). Gender and Power. Sydney, Allen & Unwin,
46. Gatens, M. (1983). A Critique of the Sex/gender Distinction. Beyond Marxism. Allen, J and Patton, P. Sydney, Intervention Publishers,
47. Game, A. (1991). Undoing the Social: Towards a Deconstructive Sociology. Toronto, University of Toronto Press,
48. Martin, S. (1993). "White Coffee: Colonial Discourse in Postcolonial Australian Advertising." Meanjin 52: 509-17.
49. Kearney (1996) Reconceptualizing the Peasantry, p118.
50. Ibid, pp 124-125.
51. Kearney (1996) Reconceptualizing the Peasantry, p164.
52. Harvey (1989) cited in Edelman (2000) Peasants Against Globalization: Rural Social Movements in Costa Rica. Stanford University Press. California, p18
53. Edelman, M. (1998) Transnational Peasant Politics in Central America. Latin American Research Review. Vol 33, Issue 3, pp49-87.
54. Shanin, T. (1990) Defining Peasants: Essays Concerning Rural Societies, Exploring Economies, and Learning from them in the Contemporary World. London, Basil Blackwell, pp69
55. cited in Edleman, M. (1998) Transnational Peasant Politics in Central America. Latin American Research Review. Vol 33, Iss 3.
56. Brass, T. (2000). Peasants, Populism and Postmodernism: The Return of the Agrarian Myth. London, Frank Cass Publishers, p203.
57. Djurfeldt, G. (1999). "Essentially Non-Peasant? Some Critical Comments on Post-Modernist Discourse on the Peasantry." Sociologia Ruralis, p207-208.
58. Otero, G. (2000) Neoliberal Reform in Rural Mexico: Social Structural and Political Dimensions. Latin American Research Review, Vol 35, Issue 1.
59. Ibid
60. and de Janvry, A., Gordillo, G., Sadoulet, E. (1997) Mexico's second agrarian reform: Household and Community Responses. Centre for U.S - Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego.
61. Kearney, M. (1996). Reconceptualizing the Peasantry, p30.
62. Ibid, p29.
63. Brass, T. (2000). Peasants, Populism and Postmodernism, p6.
64. Djurfeldt, G. (1999). "Essentially Non-Peasant? Some Critical Comments on Post-Modernist Discourse on the Peasantry." Sociologia Ruralis, p206.
65. Brass, T. (2000). Peasants, Populism and Postmodernism, pp203-211.
66. Lindholm, C. (1997) Logical and moral dilemmas of postmodernism. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 3 (4), pp749-752.
67. Ibid, p752.
68. Eagleton, T. (1996), The Illusions of Postmodernism. Blackwell Publishers Ltd, UK, p31.
69. Ibid.
70. See also Negrin, L. (1991) Post-histoire: A comparative analysis of decandentism and postmodernism. Philosophy & Social Criticism. 17(4).
71. Alavi, H. (1988) "Peasantry and Capitalism: A Marxist Discourse" in Peasants and Peasant Societies. Shanin, T (ed). Penguin Books. London, p190.
72. For a similar approach see Davidson, A (1989) Mode of Production: Impasse or Passe?, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 19 (3): 243-278.
73. Sick, D. (1999) Farmers of the Golden Bean: Costa Rican Households and the Global Coffee Economy. Northern Illinois University Press. Illinois, p120
74. Kitching, G. (1998) The Revenge of the Peasant? The Collapse of Large-Scale Russian Agriculture and the Role of the Peasant Private Plot in that Collapse, 1991-97. Journal of Peasant Studies. 26(1), pp53-58
75. Ibid, p68.
76. This approach might also be useful if one were interested in examining peasant-socialist contact.
77. Alavi, H. (1988) "Peasantry and Capitalism: A Marxist Discourse" in Peasants and Peasant Societies. Shanin, T. (ed). Penguin Books. London., p193
78. and Marx, K. (1976). Capital, Vol 1., Pelican Marx Library. London, p1023.
79. Shanin, T.(ed) (1988) "Peasantry as a Concept" in Peasants and Peasant Societies. Penguin Books. London, pp5-6.
80. Firth, R. "Capital, Savings and Credit in Peasant Societies: A Viewpoint from Economic Anthropology," p18.
81. Shanin, T.(ed) (1988) "Peasantry as a Concept" in Peasants and Peasant Societies. Penguin Books. London, pp5-6.
82. Long, N. (1986). The Social Reproduction of Petty Commodity Enterprise in Central Peru. The Commodization Debate; Labour Process, Strategy and Social Network. N. Long, Van Der Ploeg, J, Curtin, C and Box, L. Wegeningan, Agricultural University Press.