Social and cultural anthropology, examines different societies and cultures which therefore, presents similarities and differences within and among societies. When studying the main features of peasant and tribal societies, one notices their differences and similarities, in this case, focusing mainly on the economy and exchange of surplus, including their kinship and how their social relationships differ. The tribal society is one where the mode of production is for common use for the society while a peasant society’s mode of production is more isolated and surplus is transferred to a group of a higher status.
In a tribal society such as the Trobriands which were studied by Malinowski, production has both a physical side and a social side. …show more content…
Eric Wolf describes peasants as ‘’rural cultivators whose surpluses are transferred to a dominant group of rulers that uses the surpluses both to underwrite its own standard of living and to the remainder to groups’’. There are different types of peasants: the feudal sector, independent smallholders and capitalist farmers. In the case of the feudal sector, land is owned by landlords who do not engage in cultivation but instead it is cultivated by others. Independent smallholders are peasants who own no more land than they can cultivate themselves and enough of it to make them self-sufficient. Lastly, capitalist farmers own substantial amounts of land and their farming is primarily based on the exploitation of wage labour. Patrilineages which are ‘’descent groups related through a common male lineage’’(Keesing), play significant roles in peasant social …show more content…
Due to their limited resources, there are chances of crop failure and they are forced to comply with demands from groups with a higher status. The peasants’ participation in the outside economy is restricted and directed, their economic activities are pressured and production is limited leading them to be isolated. The households act as separate corporations, as units of production and as competitors for income and scarce resources. Between families, there is competition and hostile distrust which is described as ‘atomism’. Opposed to tribal societies with strong kinship ties, the peasant society involves fictive kinship, this means that the social ties are neither through blood or marriage. An example of this is compadrazgo in Mexico. Foster describes ‘dyadic contracts’ in peasant societies, which is ‘’pairs of individuals are in many different spheres of life bound into relationships almost similar to contracts''. These ties vary; they can be between persons of equal status, some with patrons of a higher status who exploit each other for common advantage. The ties between superior status patrons outside the community aid in creating links into wider social
In a tribal society such as the Trobriands which were studied by Malinowski, production has both a physical side and a social side. …show more content…
Eric Wolf describes peasants as ‘’rural cultivators whose surpluses are transferred to a dominant group of rulers that uses the surpluses both to underwrite its own standard of living and to the remainder to groups’’. There are different types of peasants: the feudal sector, independent smallholders and capitalist farmers. In the case of the feudal sector, land is owned by landlords who do not engage in cultivation but instead it is cultivated by others. Independent smallholders are peasants who own no more land than they can cultivate themselves and enough of it to make them self-sufficient. Lastly, capitalist farmers own substantial amounts of land and their farming is primarily based on the exploitation of wage labour. Patrilineages which are ‘’descent groups related through a common male lineage’’(Keesing), play significant roles in peasant social …show more content…
Due to their limited resources, there are chances of crop failure and they are forced to comply with demands from groups with a higher status. The peasants’ participation in the outside economy is restricted and directed, their economic activities are pressured and production is limited leading them to be isolated. The households act as separate corporations, as units of production and as competitors for income and scarce resources. Between families, there is competition and hostile distrust which is described as ‘atomism’. Opposed to tribal societies with strong kinship ties, the peasant society involves fictive kinship, this means that the social ties are neither through blood or marriage. An example of this is compadrazgo in Mexico. Foster describes ‘dyadic contracts’ in peasant societies, which is ‘’pairs of individuals are in many different spheres of life bound into relationships almost similar to contracts''. These ties vary; they can be between persons of equal status, some with patrons of a higher status who exploit each other for common advantage. The ties between superior status patrons outside the community aid in creating links into wider social