Peasants Investment Patterns

Abstract

One of the major problems in studying peasant societies is identifying peasant investment patterns. We expect the investment patterns to have important consequences in the peasant’s life, like the productivity of their land and labour and their political views and behaviour. Theoretically we expect a strong correlation between the various peasant strata and investment patterns. We would expect different peasant strata to have different investment patterns; however, this is yet an assumption which an attempt will be made to prove by empirical data and reasoning. The investment pattern is also important in determining the mechanism the different strata reproduce themselves or dissolve the other peasant strata or other non-peasant social groups. We can establish three major variables in dealing with the above problems(s). That is social stratum, investment patterns and political activity. The aim of this paper is to establish the relationship between the three variables we would still be left with an important problem(s) because we would still be required to establish why there is no such a relationship by introducing other variables and relationships. In writing this paper I have beside books and journals relied on data from sample surveys conducted among the peasants in Tanzania since 1976. This has been in Kisarawe, Mwanga and Same Districts