MARGINALIZATION, PAUPERIZATION AND AGRARIAN CHANGE IN TWO VILLAGES OF BANGLADESH
Abstract
In contrast with a widespread notion that a concentration of resources and income is taking place among few people, this thesis attempts to demonstrate that an increase in population, an increase in cost of production, and a decline in productivity, income and real wage tend to impoverish all classes of people irrespective of their social, economic and political positions. The degree of impact of this situation differs among various socio-economic groups but it affects all. The situation is one of marginalization rather than polarization, overall pauperization in contrast it improvement, and complexity instead of simplicity in agrarian relations. Quantitative and qualitative data, including data derived from a broad-based household survey questionnaire, from participant observation, from key informants and from individual biographies, are the basis for this analysis. The primary data were supplemented by those data collected from government-published materials or those based upon previous field research. The analysis is based upon three concepts: marginalization, pauperization and "agricultural involution," the latter a concept used by Geertz in his Indonesian case study. Marginalization refers to individual response to impoverishment and pauperization is a decline in the general economic condition referring to the improverishment of all classes of people. Selling and mortgaging of land, selling of household goods, a decline in real wage, an increase in cost and a decline in productivity and income are seen as specific indicators of the process. The outcome of marginalization and pauperization is the proliferation of agrarian relations that can be designated as "agricultural involution." A result is agrarian change that is reflected most through changes in occupational structure, in income structure, in land ownership and in other socio-economic-political formations. This research is based on a two-village study. It is emphasized that the findings of this research present a trend that can be supported through further research in other rural areas. The emphasis of this reseach is, therefore, on a new trend that may appear as significant in future years in other villages of Bangladesh.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Cultural anthropology
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.