Abstract
The umbrella term ‘peasant’ is much used and abused to describe the many rural societies which, until recently, comprised about half the population of the world. It has become common in recent years to argue about what ‘peasantry’ actually means, but in general the term has come to denote an underclass of small rural cultivators from whom a surplus has been extracted (rent in the form of free or cheap labour or product) to underwrite the living standards of a more powerful upper class and the needs of the state.1
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© 1994 R. F. Watters
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Watters, R.F. (1994). Approaches to the Peasantry. In: Poverty and Peasantry in Peru’s Southern Andes, 1963–90. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12319-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12319-3_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-12321-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-12319-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)