Agency and contingency in land access and peasant social reproduction in the Mearim River Valley, Maranhão

Abstract In this article, we examine the family trajectories of three rural leaders in the Mearim Valley, which illustrate the main forms of land access by Maranhão’s peasantry over the past 150 years. An analysis of these trajectories, captured as allegories, shows how the contingencies experienced by this peasantry, despite unfavorable interactions in the social structure and under the legal apparatus of the Brazilian State, manage different levels of agency to ensure their social reproduction while remaining on the land. In the three cases studied, the collective action processes and political articulation performed by the interviewees in response to these contingencies represent discontinuities between generations, with different consequences for family trajectories. In only one case, the practices and discourses that expanded the family group's agrarian base were maintained, in contrast to apparent stagnation and contraction observed in the other cases. The analysis indicates that the range of possibilities for contemporary rural peasants takes into account relevant interactions of the family unit with the formal land market, as well as socio-political relations established beyond kinship.

摘要 本文考察了梅亚里姆谷（Mearim Valley）三位乡村领袖的家庭发展轨迹，这些轨迹展现了过去150年间马拉尼昂州（Maranhão）农民获取土地的主要途径。将这些轨迹作为寓言式案例开展分析后可以发现，尽管该农民群体在社会结构中处于不利地位，且受制于巴西国家的法律框架，但他们仍能通过不同程度的行动能动性，在坚守土地的同时保障自身的社会再生产。在本次研究的三个案例中，受访对象为应对各类偶发状况所开展的集体行动与政治联结行为，呈现出明显的代际断裂特征，并对家庭发展轨迹造成了各异的影响。仅在其中一个案例中，维系并拓展家族土地基础的实践与话语得以延续；而其余两个案例则呈现出明显的停滞与萎缩态势。本分析表明，当代乡村农民可选择的发展路径空间，需兼顾家庭单元与正规土地市场的互动关系，以及超越血缘纽带建立的社会政治联结。