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 本文以巴西梅亚里姆谷（Mearim Valley）三位乡村领袖的家族发展轨迹为研究样本，阐释了过去150年间马拉尼昂州（Maranhão）农民阶层获取土地的主要路径。对这些以喻象形式呈现的轨迹展开分析后可见，尽管该农民阶层在社会结构中处于不利地位，且受制于巴西国家的法律体系，但他们仍能凭借不同程度的能动性（agency），在固守土地的同时实现自身的社会再生产。在本次研究的三个案例中，受访对象为应对各类偶发变故所实施的集体行动与政治联结行为，呈现出代际断裂的特征，并对家族发展轨迹产生了迥异的影响。仅在其中一个案例中，用以拓展家族农业根基的实践与话语得以延续；而另外两个案例则呈现出明显的停滞与收缩态势。本分析表明，当代乡村农民可选择的发展空间，需兼顾家庭单元与正规土地市场的互动，以及超越血缘纽带构建的社会政治关系。