Contesting the Household Estate: Southern Brazilian Peasants and Modern Agriculture Book

The internal dynamics of peasant households are an important factor in the adoption of modern agricultural techniques and hence in the survival and productive power of the peasantry. This anthropological study of a Brazilian peasant community shows that the "household estate," the commonly held property of a family, is contested between parents and children. While parents depend on the "estate" for their old-age subsistence, children hope to draw from it their traditional wedding gift of land which will provide them their livelihood. In many peasant households a silent struggle is waged over the "estate's" division. This leads to various types of production relations between parents and married children. Moreover, conflicting interests between generations are a point of "commoditization" of social relations, with important implications for peasant agriculture. Further, the position of the peasant movement is discussed, as well as its policy proposals for fostering peasant agriculture. Peasant agriculture could certainly expand into modern sectors of agriculture. But if these proposals are to be effective they must allow for the peasantry's system of inheritance and old-age care.