Contenu du sommaire

The Precapitalistic « Hacienda » in Latin America : the Case of Ecuador. The very large land properties, i.e. the haciendas, of the high plateaux of the Andes of Ecuador were the dominant elements of the agrarian social structure. This study discusses the economic, political and ideological conditions of the existence and the reproduction of the hacienda as a form of production within the global capitalist structure of the country. The hacienda was based on the appropriation of a ground rent in the form of labour. This rent was extorted from a specific form of extended family — the huasipungo family — which lived within the hacienda, where it possessed, for the family's reproduction, a given amount of land and the rights to pasture its animals. At the same time, this family provided salaried workers for the landowner, thanks to specific mechanisms of relative overpopulation inherent to this form of production. These workers constituted the manpower for the cultivation of the crops that were under the direct control and supervision of the administration of the large landholding. This production was sold directly on the national market. The ground rent thus realized was accumulated in other sectors of the economy and only a small part returned to the hacienda in the form of modern means of production, which served to modernize certain aspects of the work process though conserving the precapitalistic nature of this production. The form of insertion, of the hacienda and of the landowners as a social class, into the structures of the national capitalist mode of production, lead to a blockage of all possibilities of their transition. cultivation of the crops that were under the direct control and supervision of the administration of the large landholding. This production was sold directly on the national market. The ground rent thus realized was accumulated in other sectors of the economy and only a small part returned to the hacienda in the form of modern means of production, which served to modernize certain aspects of the work process though conserving the precapitalistic nature of this production. The form of insertion, of the hacienda and of the landowners as a social class, into the structures of the national capitalist mode of production, lead to a blockage of all possibilities of their transition.

Society and Hydraulic System in a Tunisian Oasis. This article is devoted to the study of the social and political organization of four villages whose separate communal territories form one continuous palm oasis. A single spring irrigates the oasis. The water supply is divided in halves, each half being shared by two villages belonging to the same çoff. Aspects of the hydraulic system as such are here considered to be indicative of a type of social organization. Insofar as there is no higher authority to control the use of water, the ways in which it is allotted directly reveal the nature of the social equilibrium and the relationships between the groups. A permanent bi-partition of the water flow has replaced the former system of rotation in time, and the author here considers the effects of this mutation on the oasis society. Within each community, the modalities (the diversity of which is emphasized) of measure, distribution and appropriation of the water supply may be considered as socially pertinent features. Thus the analysis of one village's water allotment system reveals the progressive decline of the lineage order. The article concludes with an analysis of power : the control of water is both its expression and its stake.

Extended family and « long house » in Brittany. This article attempts to raise, on a limited scale, the question of the relation between the structure of habitat and communitary social forms ; it is based on the study of a particular type of dwelling — the linear shaped out-farms of the Vannes region — as well as on oral data and archival material. The progressive formation of the family community and its subsequent désintegration can be clearly seen. This process of fission is inherent to this type of organization, at least in the area under consideration, but it has been speeded up by social, demographic and economic changes in the whole society which tend to render definitively obsolete all community-oriented forms of association.

Agricultural Social and Structural Reforms in Finistère. The FASASA Achievements from 1962 to 1973. A growing awareness of social and structural problems in French agriculture resulted in the introduction of new reforms under the laws of 1960 and 1962. The farm retirement scheme has been particularly important and its impact on farm amalgamations and the age structure of farmers is illustrated in the case of the Finistère department. In spite of demonstrable improvements resulting from the policy a number of problems have arisen. There are basic conflicts between the social and economic objectives of the scheme and between the public and private costs and benefits arising from farm enlargement. Some areas of older farmers have proved resistant to adoption of the retirement pension creating even wider disparities in farm structure and age distribution. There is need for a better integration of agricultural policy within the framework of regional development planning and for a wider appreciation of the spatial implications of agricultural intervention.