Changing Relations of Production and Rural Underdevelopment

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Abstract
Aymara households in southern Peru pursue a diversified production strategy that combines subsistence agriculture with participation in several capitalist economic activities. This is possible because the labor requirements for the respective activities are roughly complementary. However, complementarity at the empirical level of labor allocation is not indicative of structural complementarity between capitalist and household production. The diversified production strategy described reflects local efforts to respond to a situation in which no single activity yields sufficient revenues to cover the costs of household maintenance and reproduction. It also illustrates how surplus value is extracted from rural households to subsidize capitalist expansion. The result is a continuing process of rural underdevelopment and impoverishment. The implications of this case for development programs built around the preservation of household production are explored.

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