Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-8r8nv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-10T12:03:31.098Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Exploitation’ in Peasant Societies: A Nepalese Example

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Peter H. Prindle
Peter H. Prindle
Affiliation:
Pahlavi University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The concept of exploitation as applied to the relationships between peasants and their ruling élite has frequently been utilized by anthropologists to distinguish peasants from other rural cultivators. This essay, based on a single peasant community of East Nepal, illustrates that exploitation occurs at many levels and that a peasantry's relationships with the larger society may not, in fact, be as unequal as the current literature asserts. It is suggested that many characteristics frequently ascribed to the exploitative capacities of the non-peasant élite may be attributed to the system of social stratification found among the peasants themselves and to the effects of a rapidly expanding population.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 1978 , pp. 59 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References Cited

Adams, R. N. 1965 ‘Introduction: Social Organization’, Contemporary Cultures and Societies of Latin America. Heath, D. B. and Adams, R. N. (eds), New York: Random House, Inc. pp. 257–87.Google Scholar
Aryal, K. R. 1970 Education for the Development of Nepal. Patna: Shree Himalaya Press.Google Scholar
Befu, Harumi. 1967 ‘The Political Relation of the Village to the State’, World Politics, 19:601–20.Google Scholar
Bista, Dor B. 1967 People of Nepal. Calcutta: Sree Saraswaty Press Ltd.Google Scholar
Caplan, L. 1970 Land and Social Change in East Nepal. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Dalton, G. 1972 ‘Peasantries in Anthropology and History,’ Current Anthropology, 13:385–415.Google Scholar
Dalton, G. 1974 ‘How Exactly are Peasants “Exploited”?’ American Anthropologist, 76:553–61.Google Scholar
Diaz, M. N. and Potter, J. M.. 1967 ‘The Social Life of Peasants’, Peasant Society: A Reader Potter, J. M., Diaz, M. N., and Foster, G. M. (eds), Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. pp. 154–67.Google Scholar
Foster, G. M. 1967 ‘Introduction: What is a Peasant?’, Peasant Society: A Reader. Potter, J. M., Diaz, M. N., and Foster, G. M. (eds), Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. pp. 2–14.Google Scholar
Friedl, E. 1964 ‘Lagging Emulation in Post-Peasant Society’, American Anthropologist, 66:569–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furer-Haimendorf, C. 1966 ‘Caste Concepts and Status Distinctions in Buddhist Communities of Western Nepal’, Caste and Kin in Nepal, India and Ceylon. Furer-Haimendorf, C. (ed.), Bombay: Asia Publishing House. pp. 140–60.Google Scholar
Gamst, F. C. 1970 ‘Peasantries and Elites without Urbanism: The Civilization of Ethiopia’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 12:373–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joshi, B. L. and Rose, L. E.. 1966 Democratic Innovations in Nepal: A Case Study of Political Acculturation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Keatinge, E. B. 1973 ‘Latin American Peasant Corporate Communities: Potentials for Mobilization and Political Integration’, Journal of Anthropological Research, 29:37–58.Google Scholar
Melford, J. B. 1966 Land Taxation in Nepal. Mimeographed Report for FAO/OPEX. Kathmandu.Google Scholar
Pant, Y. P. and Jain, S. C.. 1969 Agricultural Development in Nepal. Bombay: Vora and Co., Publishers Private Ltd.Google Scholar
Regmi, M. C. 1963 Land Tenure and Taxation in Nepal, Vol. I, The State as Landlord: Raiker Tenure. Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California.Google Scholar
Regmi, M. C. 1964 Land Tenure and Taxation in Nepal, Vol. II, The Land Grant System: Birta Tenure. Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California.Google Scholar
Regmi, M. C. 1968 Land Tenure and Taxation in Nepal, Vol. IV, Religious and Charitable Land Endowments: Guthi Tenure. Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California.Google Scholar
Skinner, W. G. 1971 ‘Chinese Peasants and the Closed Community: An Open and Shut Case’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 13:270–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolf, Eric. 1957 ‘Closed Corporate Peasant Communities in Mesoamerica and Central Java’, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 13:1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolf, Eric. 1966 Peasants. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc.Google Scholar