Current Anthropology 1972 Dalton, George. Peasantries in
Anthropology and History. Current Anthropology Jun.-Oct, 1972
Vol. 13(3):385-415. By focusing on peasants of West European
descent, George Dalton wishes to examine more effectively the
peasantries that are the focus of many contemporary
anthropologists working in Third World countries today. In
effect, this article has been written to help himself and others
understand contemporary peasantries and also to distinguish what
truly constitutes a peasant. To further describe the basis for
this comparison, Dalton breaks European peasantry into stages
that do not co-exist, but follow one after another, starting
with feudal, moving to early modern and next into late modern.
Dalton states that there is so far not very much research into
peasantries, especially not in regards to economic anthropology,
which he seems most concerned with throughout the article.
Dalton describes all three stages of European peasant
development, and focuses especially on the transiti