Capitalism and Social Differentiation

Abstract

In recent years numerous studies have been conducted in Ecuador with the objective of analyzing changes that have occurred, especially in the last two decades, in the rural social structure. These studies have given rise to a considerable mass of primary empirical material on a diversity of rural situations, and have resulted in the development of interpretive discussions of those changes surrounding the process of the transformation of the hacienda. We shall attempt to relate these results to the theme of rural social differentiation. We shall establish the relationship beginning, first, with a presentation and discussion of the ideas of Lenin and of Chayanov, exponents of opposing theoretical conceptions with respect to the evolution of social relationships in the countryside, and then we briefly review the dominant Ecuadorian interpretations of the processes of social differentiation. Finally, we examine statistical materials from the parish of San Gabriel in the province of Carchi, which we use to outline the processes that have affected peasant holdings, suggesting interpretations that lend specificity to our general notions of rural differentiation. With these notes we hope to call attention to certain important themes (such as the evolution of the peasant family) for the analysis of the processes of peasant social mobility, often underestimated in studies of capitalist rural development that emphasize strictly economic aspects of the process.