Peasantry and Agrarian Capitalism from below: The Peasant Communities of the Bolivian Southern Highlands under the Quinoa-boom

Abstract

The peasantry is often seen as a homogenous and undifferentiated body representing a common ‘other’ to, and within, the expansion of capitalism on the agrarian ground. Despite this widespread vision – frequently supported by a reality in which a modern latifundia system develops at the expense of a peasantry channeled into a course of proletarianization – the peasants themselves can be promoters of a form of capitalism 'from below’. This article, drawing on the Marxist discussion on the origin of capitalism, presents the case of the quinoa producing communities of the Bolivian Southern Highlands. Here, in the wake of the growing international demand for quinoa, peasants give shape to a process of social differentiation. The analysis is conducted by taking into consideration the evolution of the control over two key-elements: land and labour.