Of human bondage: Campesinos, coffee and capitalism on the peruvian frontier
Robin Shoemaker, The Peasants of El Dorado: Conflict and Contradiction in a Peruvian Frontier Settlement, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1981. Pp. 265; £13.75. This review article considers the way a recent study analyses a colonisation settlement in a coffee growing area located on the Eastern sub‐tropical forest area of Peru during the post‐reform era. It is argued that the study ignores both the presence within this ‘community ‘ of class division and antagonism together with their determinants, the process of capital accumulation. By misunderstanding the nature of debt bondage, it fails to recognise the crucial contribution of this relation to the process of indigenous capital accumulation in a context where labour is scarce.
Class formation and class struggle in la convention, Peru
This paper has as its object the analysis of class formation, class struggle and its effects in the province of La Convention, Peru. The first section of the paper examines this process at the level of the province as a whole during the 1940–68 pre‐agrarian reform period, while the second and third sections focus on the same process in more detail as it relates to one particular rural estate during the period between 1973 and 1975 following the agrarian reform. The fourth section examines the question of political practice arising from the analysis elaborated in the two previous sections.
The structure of electricity demand in the Brazilian household sector
Abstract The present structure of residential electricity demand is analysed by electricity consumption classes and end-uses. Nearly 70% of households consume less than 150 kWh/month and are responsible for 35% of total residential demand. Other determinants of electricity-use, such as income and place of residence, are also discussed. It is found that electricity demand is increasing faster than income as the country reaches appliances saturation in upper consumption levels. Water heating and refrigeration account for the major part of residential consumption. Residential conservation efforts have started introducing more efficient lighting equipment and refrigerators, but further work will have to be done to speed up the diffusion of efficient technology at costs that can be paid by consumers.