Reconceptualizing the Peasantry   Term Paper ID:38255 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: This paper examines Michael Kearney's book Reconceptualizing the Peasantry Anthropology in Global Perspectives explicating ...... More...

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Paper Abstract: This paper examines Michael Kearney's book Reconceptualizing the Peasantry: Anthropology in Global Perspectives, explicating the main argument of the text, explaining the author's position regarding substantivism and formalism, and giving an example of how a particular group engages in actions that correspond with the self-interested and social models. Paper Introduction: Reconceptualizing the Peasantry In his book Reconceptualizing the Peasantry Anthropology in GlobalPerspectives Michael Kearney explains that the traditional concept of thepeasant is obsolete and that whatever validity it may once have had hasbeen outdistanced by contemporary history His premise is based onthe fact that in the past peasants existed within a dualist framework thatwas predicated on the structure of the nation-state within which they livedbut that this perspective is no longer relevant to the new peasant class which often has a transnational Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Kearney states, in fact, that his reconceptualization"presents an analysis of class as more complexly structured than is thecase with dualist models that posit unitary class strata and identities(6). Using anthropology, sociology, and ethnography as lenses through whichto view the modern peasant, the author establishes a framework forcomparison of the "historically given" and the "anthropologicalapprehension" of peasant communities, emphasizing that peasants can bedescribed as engaging in "self-directed subsistence agriculturalproduction" and that they "exist in relations of political and economicinequality with nonpeasants," with the economic value originating frompeasant production being transferred from the peasants to the nonpeasants(Kearney 18). He profits further by importing corn andother commodities and reselling them to local people, and by chargingresidents for rides and hauling services in his truck (Kearney, 19). "Chapter 1: The Revival of Cultural Explanation." Cultures Merging: A Historical and Economic Critique of Culture. While the fathers work their lands"independently with simple technology to produce food for their ownfamilies," as classic peasants do, Kearney points out that "suchindividuals are members of a family and a community that extends andreproduces in many other distant and diverse settings," and that "each ofthese seemingly ideal peasants is heavily subsidized by remittances fromrelatives working in California" (21). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2 6. "Reconceptualizing the Peasantry: Anthropology in Global Perspective." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 3.4, Dec 1997, 789-79 . Jones, Eric L. As to whether Kearney is a formalist or a substantivist, he seems tobe more a formalist who believes that economic theory has universal scoperather than a substantivist who believes that "a specific type of economyis embedded in each and every culture" (Jones). Arguing that in the modern day, the peasant as defined bythe classic Marxist view is essentially gone, Kearney points out that thejuxtaposition between peasants and proletarians has been superseded andthat the "peasants" of today are a new group that is no longer accuratelydefined within a dualist context (3). Kearney'sreconceptualization avoids classifying subjects into opposing boxes such aspeasant vs. http://find.galegroup.com/ips/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC- Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T 2&prodId=IPS&docId=A2 382487&source=ga le&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=uphoenix&version=1. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. Works CitedCook, Scott. Reconceptualizing the Peasantry: Anthropology in Global Perspective. His premise is based onthe fact that in the past, peasants existed within a dualist framework thatwas predicated on the structure of the nation-state within which they livedbut that this perspective is no longer relevant to the new peasant class,which "often has a transnational identity" due to the "transnationalmigration of rural poor people" (Kearney 8). Kearney also describes the family ties of Lencho, Rufina, Lucrecia,Eliseo, and their relatives-a network of relationships that constitutes asocial model of peasantry. The social model evident in thisfamily is far different from those of peasants in the past. For example, Kearney looks at the globalconditions that shape postpeasant identities in general across the broad-brush disciplines of anthropology and sociology (Kearney 6). http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s8158.htmlKearney, Michael. He sees inpeasantry a much more complex concept than can be categorized simply as onefaction or another. Kearney is not so muchconcerned with the uniqueness of every culture as he is with the universalapplication of the dynamics of peasantry across cultures. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=8992679 Reconceptualizing the Peasantry In his book Reconceptualizing the Peasantry: Anthropology in GlobalPerspectives, Michael Kearney explains that the traditional concept of thepeasant is obsolete and that "whatever validity it may once have had, hasbeen outdistanced by contemporary history" (1). proletarian, focusing instead upon "the process in which theseoppositions unite" (Cook). He considers the case of Lencho, who occasionally needs toborrow money and obtains it from a moneylender, Macario Calderуn, who-Kearney says- "like other local moneylenders, serves in effect as a bankerfor the community, but he makes loans at usurious rates of interest," apractice that makes him an example of the self-interested model (18).Macario takes his profits and uses them to buy merchandise in a nearby cityto resell in his own town "at greatly marked-up prices to a more or lesscaptive clientele" (Kearney 19). Questia web site. Academic OneFile, Thomson Gale. Kearney's study of a small group in the ethnography, the Mixtecs andZapotecs of Oaxaca, shows that this group does not conform to the classcategories of rural society; he finds them to be "neither peasant norproletarian, neither farmer nor petty merchant, and neither rural norurban" (9). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.