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‘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
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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.

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

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References

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