inheritance and social organization among family farmers

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Abstract
Comparative analysis of two French farming communities and two communities of Illinois grain farmers indicates that a similar range of variation in social organization is to be found at different levels of economic development. This is explained by the proposition that agriculturalists in all four communities share, as family farmers, a common set of fundamental concerns and a limited range of responses to them. Two contrasting French/American pairs may be distinguished according to preferred inheritance strategies and are shown to be distinguishable according to demographic traits as well. A second set of opposing French!American pairs, defined according to degree of conformity to ideal inheritance systems, are found to be associated with contrasting patterns of social relations.[farmers, inheritance, family relationships, agricultural development, North America, western Europe]