Definittion and Features of Peasants

From the very beginning of the world, men were quite depended on the natural resources to meet up their basic needs. The word peasant comes from 15th century French paisant meaning one from the pays, the countryside or region. Peasant exists in a world before the modern division of labour.

Definition of Peasants:

Peasant is such a group who lead their life through agricultural production which is related with natural resources. They know the only means of production how to cultivate their land to meet up their basic needs. Some definition of peasant are given below

Shanin, (1998) “ Small agricultural producers, who, with the help of simple equipment and the labor of their families, produce mostly for their own consumption, directly or indirectly, and for the fulfillment of obligations to holders of political and economic power”

Eric Wolf (1966) “Peasants are farmers who grow crops and raise livestock in rural areas, but who unlike commercial American farmers are more concern with satisfying the needs of the households than with obtaining a profit”

Features / Characteristics of Peasants:

According to Shanin there are four basic characteristics of peasant. They are 

1. Family firm is the major economic unit around which production, labour and consumption are organized.
2. Land husbandry is the main activity combined with minimum specialization and family training for tasks.
3. There is particular peasant way of life based on the local village community which covers most areas of social life and culture and which from those of other social grouping.
4. Peasants are politically, economically and socially subordinated to non peasant groups against whom they have devised various methods of resistance rebellion or revolt.

There are two further subsidiary facets: 

• A specific social dynamic involving a cyclical change over generations which irons out inequalities over time via land division and the rise and fall of the availability of family labor through the domestic cycle.

• Especially In the contemporary world, a common pattern of structural change, during peasants into market relationship, often through the influence of outside bodies and incorporation of politics.

According to Foster, the main characteristics of the peasants are given below

• The peasants themselves are the communities.
• Their relationship with the more complex components of their greater societies are symbiotic and spatial temporal.
• They are in subordinate economic position to urban clusters.

So, from the above discussion peasants are those who live in village and small scale production for their own consumption.