Class differentiation in a Philippine village

Abstract

The dissertation discusses class differentiation within a rice farming village in central Nueva Ecija province on the central Luzon Plain, Philippines. I argue that the class structure of the village has changed significantly in the last twenty years as a result of larger changes in farm technology, land reform and the increasingly commercialised nature of the provincial economy. A small group of more prosperous villagers have been able to cope with these changes and have diversified their sources of income using capital rather than land to increase their share of wealth. Small farmers and landless labourers, however, have been disadvantaged by the changes; caught between the needs of an increasingly monetised economy and a monoculture where the price of grain is held down by the government. Polarisation in the barrio is paralleled by an increasing dependence of village society on rural service towns, urban areas, and the international economy, especially through the strengthened cash nexus. The first chapter examines the historical influences which gave rise to the settlement of Nueva Ecija province and the type of rural society it produced. In particular, the farming systems, tenure patterns, settlement patterns and cultural factors are examined. Also analysed is the way in which the historically sequential traditions - Malay, Spanish, American, and post-independence - have conditioned contemporary Nueva Ecija village life. Chapter two profiles the social and agricultural life of the village to set the scene for the following analytical chapters. Chapter three provides a classification system to examine class differentiation by dividing villagers up into five classes: capitalist farmers, full-time farmers, part-time farmers, landless workers and non-farmers. The chapter profiles the family and economic characteristics of all five classes. Chapter four looks at a number of important factors influencing the maintenance of the class structure within the village and between the village and the provincial/national economy. Issues examined are the effect of new rice farming techniques, the significance of the sangla institution and its effect on control of land. In addition land reform and tenure change, irrigation, systems of labour mobilisation, access to capital and its application, and cultural and political factors are dealt with.