The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

Living Edition
| Editors: Palgrave Macmillan

Peasants

  • R. Forster
Living reference work entry

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1521-1
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Abstract

Few terms have caused so much difficulty for rural sociologists, anthropologists and economists. What is a) ‘peasant’? Even by restricting our geographic focus to Europe west of the Elbe River and Adriatic Sea and our temporal focus to the last millenium, the problem of definition remains. To be sure, the peasant is one who works the land and has a certain access to the soil, whether or not he has absolute ownership of his plot. He may be an independent owner-occupier, a tenant farmer, a sharecropper, or even a serf. However, as long as he has access or some guarantee of tenure to the land he works, he is a ‘peasant’.

Keywords

Income Ratio Rural Sociologist Tenant Farmer Peasant Household Peasant Family 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 1987

Authors and Affiliations

  • R. Forster
    • 1
  1. 1.