Resistência e adaptabilidade dos Aymaras aos processos de modernização: um estudo de caso nos Yungas da Bolívia

Abstract

The present work is about the relationship between peasant economy and modernity, trying to understand the logics that guide both analytic categories. Thus, the theoretical frame work chosen to guide the research activity is synthesized ina sociological problem which asks about the validity of the modernization process in production systems in a certain social reality, in face of the peasants1 rationality. The approaching process ofthat social reality assumed a circular and interactive sequence. It was opted for the qualitative research and thecase study was used as a category ofthatqualitative analysis. In that sense, the conduction of the work implied an ethnographical analysis, with permanence in the field for specifíc periods. The place that configures the empiric reference ofthe research corresponds to the sub-area oiEx-haciedas of Yungas, in Bolivia, in which the aymaras inhabit and whose systems of agricultural production present specifíc characteristics. The study begins with a theoretical reflection concerning thebasic aspects of the pesantry, its production systems and the especifíc aspects of technical progress in agriculture; besides considering the man's relationship withthe natureas a result ofa certain cultural model. From that conceptual mark, the historical configuration of theaymaras is analyzed since the pre Columbus time, pointing outthe fect of the imposition of the state authority along its development. Established the historical context, the peasants' production systems are analyzed, being privileged the agricultural space, the organization ofthe work, the labor readiness and the articulation with the externai enviroment. The proposed process and its limited effects are analyzed in detail and reflected in fiinction of the confrontation with the reality of the current systems ofproduction and the rationality ofthe producers, both in the individual and collective sense. Under that confrontation they are considered the possibilities ofadditional progresses in modernization programs. The study points out that the preference for systems of production of low incomes, but httle variance, besides the shortage ofphysical resources to face new investments, dont allow the peasants to accomplish the technological changes inthe scale proposed by modernity. On the contrary, theyadapt certain technological recommendations to theneeds oftheirproductive systems.