What are some of the characteristics of contemporary peasants in Asia, Africa and Latin America?
If we are going to understand the lives of peasants, we must clearly understand what makes them unique.
Historically, peasants have lived in communities with unique mechanisms of redistribution. These mechanisms have broken down as peasants have become exposed to modern economic processes.
If we want to understand the role played by peasants in the emergence of modern economies, we have to understand what might be meant by economic development.
The key differences between the economic characteristics of developing countries and the economic characteristics of developed countries are discussed.
Farming is unique because it has the capacity to produce a surplus. The use of the surplus gave rise to modern society.
Practically speaking, what is the agricultural surplus?
The basis by which peasants live, work and care is the household. Within peasant households divisions of labour between women and men and girls and boys are clearly seen.
The first investigations of how peasant households allocated their resources within themselves was by the Russian A.V. Chaynov, who remains influential to this day.
As a general rule of thumb, women allocate their time differently than men. So what do women and men do differently?
