Flexible Families: Capitalist Development and Crisis in Rural Peru

Abstract

In the Peruvian peasant community of Mata Chico, participation in the national economy over the twentieth century has transformed family relations. As people first adapted to an emerging capitalist economy, and then to a crisis in that economy, a family “community of interest” in farming gave way to “complementary interests” among parents and children, women and men. In pursuing complementary interests, younger family members undertake economic activities that lead them away from the farm but family ties, though significantly changed, remain strong.