The Marginal Peasant in Rural Brazil in American Anthropologist: Volume 67, Number 6 Part 1

1417-1427 pages with cited references. Royal octavo (9 1/2" x 6 1/4") bound in original publisher's wrappers. Volume 67, number 6, part 1. First edition.

This study focuses on mass peasant movements capable of realizing social goals and attempts to ascertain the conditions under which peasant grievances are channeled into a mass political movement. This paper thus moves beyond our earlier cases of generally restricted rebellions against local grievances which often lacked unity and effective organization. A basic hypothesis concerns the potential political radicalization of a peasantry through economic advances in urbanization, industrialization, and the subsequent commercialization of agriculture that result in improved transportation and communication and make mass recruitment of peasants possible. In the light of this hypothesis, particular con-temporary peasant movements are examined. Special attention is given to the peasant leagues of Francisco Juliao, which were organized into rural societies rather than unions to avoid bureaucratic law and were to be highly centralized with an urban base; also to the rural unions dominated by the Catholic Church. The Church unions spread quickly throughout Northeast Brazil, filling the vacuum left by the suppression of the peasant leagues and other organizations in 1964. As discontent increases in the countryside, the potential for mass unity and challenge to the oppressive conditions also increases.

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