Anthropologist Thomas Greaves’ 1972 article, “The Andean Rural Proletarians” examined the critical role played by labor syndicates in the organization of regional peasant movements in the Ecuadorian highlands during the twentieth century. Greaves applies Sidney Mintz’s concept of the “rural proletarian” to the Andes to narrow what was then thought to constitute the so-called peasant… Read More Andean Rural Proletarians: Thomas Greaves

Anthropologist Muriel Crespi’s 1971 article, “Changing Power Relations: The Rise of Peasant Unions on Traditional Ecuadorian Haciendas,” explored the disruptive consequences of agrarian capitalism on rural authority structures in the mid-twentieth century. Focusing on the expropriation of Church-owned haciendas and the rise of Marxist-inspired peasant unions in the Ecuadorian highlands near Cayambe, Crespi argued that… Read More The Rise of Peasant Unions on Traditional Ecuadorian Haciendas: Muriel Crespi