Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good

Author(s): George M. Foster

Source: American Anthropologist , Apr., 1965, New Series, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Apr., 1965),
pp. 293-315
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/668247

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Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good*
GEORGE M. FOSTER

University of California, Berkeley

"Human behavior is always motivated by certain purposes, and these purpo

of sets of assumptions which are not usually recognized by those who hold
premises of a particular culture are unconsciously accepted by the individu
constant and exclusive participation in that culture. It is these assumptions
all the culturally conditioned purposes, motives, and principles-which dete
havior of a people, underlie all the institutions of a community, and give them
Tung Fei and Chi-I Chang 1945:81-82).
"Human beings in whatever culture are provided with cognitive orientation
there is 'order' and 'reason' rather than chaos. There are basic premises and
plied, even if these do not happen to be consciously formulated and articulated
themselves. We are confronted with the philosophical implications of thei
nature of the world of being as they conceive it. If we pursue the problem dee
soon come face to face with a relatively unexplored territory-ethno-metaph
penetrate this realm in other cultures? What kind of evidence is at our di
problem is a complex and difficult one, but this should not preclude its explora
1960:21).

1. Cognitive orientation.
2. The "Image of Limited Good."
2.1. Economic behavior. ?
2.2. Friendship.
2.3. Health.
2.4. Manliness and honor.
3. Peasant behavior as a function of the "Image of Limited Good."
3.1. Individual and family action..
3.2. Informal, unorganized group action. ?
3.3. Institutionalized action. ?
4. The "open" aspects of peasant society.
5. Peasant cognitive orientation and economic growth.

1. The members of every society share a common cognitive orientation

which is, in effect, an unverbalized, implicit expression of their understanding
of the "rules of the game" of living imposed upon them by their social, natural,
and supernatural universes. A cognitive orientation provides the members of
the society it characterizes with basic premises and sets of assumptions nor
mally neither recognized nor questioned which structure and guide behavio
in much the same way grammatical rules unrecognized by most people struc
ture and guide their linguistic forms. All normative behavior of the member
* The Tzintzuntzan field work 1958-1963 which played an important part in the development
of the ideas in this paper was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant No. G7064,
and by annual grants from the Research Committee of the University of California (Berkeley). In
the preparation of this paper I am indebted for critical comments from Mary L. Foster and
Richard Currier. This article appears under the title "El caracter del campesino" in La Revist
Mexicana de Psicoandlisis, Psiquiatria, y Psicologia, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1965.

293

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294 American Anthropologist [67, 1965
of a group is a function of their particular way of
vironment, their unconscious acceptance of the "rules o
their cognitive orientation.
A particular cognitive orientation cannot be thou
a Redfieldian sense, i.e., as something existing large
the minds of the members of the group.' The aver
cannot describe the underlying premises of which his b
tion any more than he can outline a phonemic statem
patterned regularities in his speech. As Kluckhohn h
orientations (he speaks of "configurations") are reco
of a society only in the sense that they make choices "
as unconscious but determinative backgrounds" (194
In speaking of a cognitive orientation-the te
"world view," "world view perspective," "basic a
premises," and perhaps "ethos" may be used as
anthropologist concerned with two levels of problem
cognitive orientation itself which I see as somethin
and the ways in which and the degree to which it c
economical representation of this cognitive orientati
integrating principles which account for observed be
prediction of behavior yet unnoted or unperformed. Su
is, as Kluckhohn has often pointed out, an inferentia
abstraction derived from observed behavior.
A model or integrating principle is not the cognitive orientation itself, but
for purposes of analysis the two cannot be separated. A well-constructed model
is, of course, not really descriptive of behavior at all (as is, for example, t
term "ethos" as used by Gillin [1955] to describe contemporary Latin Amer
can culture). A good model is heuristic and explanatory, not descriptive, an
it has predictive value. It encourages an analyst to search for behavior pa
terns, and relationships between patterns, which he may not yet have reco
nized, simply because logically-if the model is sound-it is reasonable t
expect to find them. By the same token, a sound model should make it pos
sible to predict how people are going to behave when faced with certa
alternatives. A model therefore has at least two important functions: it i
conducive to better field work, and it has practical utility as a guide to poli
and action in developmental programs.
A perfect model or integrating principle of a particular world view shou
subsume all behavior of the members of a group. In practice it is unreasonab
to expect this. But the best model is the one that subsumes the greate
amount of behavior in such fashion that there are no mutually incompatib
parts in the model, i.e., forms of behavior cast together in what is obviousl
a logically inconsistent relationship. Kluckhohn speculated about the possib
ity of a single model, a dominant "master configuration" characterizing a
entire society, for which he suggested the terms "integration" (1941:128) an
"ethos" (1943:221), but I believe he never attempted the task of describin

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FOSTER] Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good 295
a complete ethos. Opler, on the other hand, has described Lipan Apache cul-
ture in terms of twenty "themes" which are, however, to a considerable ex
tent descriptive, and which in no way approximate a master model (1946).
How does an anthropologist fathom the cognitive orientation of the group
he studies, to find patterns that will permit building a model or stating an
integrating principle? Componential analysis and other formal semant
methods have recently been much in vogue, and these techniques unquestion
ably can tell us a great deal. But the degree of dissention among anthropolo
gists who use these methods suggests that they are not a single royal road t
"God's truth" (cf. Burling 1964). I suspect there will always remain a consider
able element of ethnological art in the processes whereby we come to have some
understanding of a cognitive orientation. However we organize our thought
processes, we are engaging in an exercise in structural analysis in which over
behavior (and the simpler patterns into which this behavior is readily seen t
fall) is viewed somewhat as a reflection or representation of a wider reality
which our sensory apparatus can never directly perceive. Or, we can view th
search for a cognitive view as an exercise in triangulation. Of each trait and
pattern the question is asked, "Of what implicit assumption might this be
havior be a logical function?" When enough questions have been asked, the
answers will be found to point in a common direction. The model emerges
from the point where the lines of answers intersect. Obviously, an anthropolo-
gist well acquainted with a particular culture cannot merely apply simple
rules of analysis and automatically produce a model for, or even a descriptio
of, a world view. In effect, we are dealing with a pyramidal structure: low-
level regularities and coherences relating overt behavior forms are fitted int
higher-level patterns which in turn may be found to fall into place at a sti
higher level of integration. Thus, a model of a social structure, sound in it-
self, will be found to be simply one expression of a structural regularity which
will have analogues in religion and economic activities.
Since all normative behavior of the members of a group is a function of its
particular cognitive orientation, both in an abstract philosophical sense an
in the view of an individual himself, all behavior is "rational" and sense-mak
ing. "Irrational" behavior can be spoken of only in the context of a cognitiv
view which did not give rise to that behavior. Thus, in a rapidly changing world
in which peasant and primitive peoples are pulled into the social and economi
context of whole nations, some of their behavior may appear irrational to others
because the social, economic, and natural universe that in fact controls th
conditions of their life is other than that revealed to them-however sub-
consciously-by a traditional world view. That is, a peasant's cognitive v
provides moral and other precepts that are guides to-in fact, may be sai
produce-behavior that may not be appropriate to the changing conditio
of life he has not yet grasped. For this reason when the cognitive orient
of large numbers of a nation's people is out of tune with reality, these p
will behave in a way that will appear irrational to those who are more ne
attuned to reality. Such peoples will be seen as constituting a drag (as i

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296 American Anthropologist [67, 1965
deed they may be) on a nation's development, and
selves off from the opportunity to participate in
progress can bring.
In this paper I am concerned with the nature of
of peasants, and with interpreting and relating p
by anthropologists to this orientation. I am also c
tions of this orientation and related behavior to t
participation in the economic growth of the count
Specifically, I will outline what I believe to be th
cognitive orientation of classic peasant societies,
peasant behavior seems to flow from this orienta
that this behavior-however incompatible with n
not only highly rational in the context of the co
but that for the maintenance of peasant society in it
pensable.4 The kinds of behavior that have been
fluencing economic growth are, among many, the
tic" outlook, inter- and intra-familial quarrels, d
extraordinary ritual expenses by poor people and
pose for capital accumulation, and the apparent la
McClelland (1961) has called "need for Achieve
peasant participation in national development can
lating a psychological process, the need for achi
economic and other opportunities that will encou
his traditional and increasingly unrealistic cogni
one that reflects the realities of the modern world.
2. The model of cognitive orientation that seems to me best to account for
peasant behavior is the "Image of Limited Good." By "Image of Limited
Good" I mean that broad areas of peasant behavior are patterned in such
fashion as to suggest that peasants view their social, economic, and natural
universes-their total environment-as one in which all of the desired things
in life such as land, wealth, health, friendship and love, manliness and honor,
respect and status, power and influence, security and safety, exist in finite
quantity and are always in short supply, as far as the peasant is concerned. Not
only do these and all other "good things" exist in finite and limited quantities,
but in addition there is no way directly within peasant power to increase the
available quantities. It is as if the obvious fact of land shortage in a densely
populated area applied to all other desired things: not enough to go around.
"Good," like land, is seen as inherent in nature, there to be divided and re-
divided, if necessary, but not to be augmented.5
For purposes of analysis, and at this stage of the argument, I am considering
a peasant community to be a closed system. Except in a special-but extremely
important-way, a peasant sees his existence as determined and limited by the
natural and social resources of his village and his immediate area. Conse-
quently, there is a primary corollary to The Image of Limited Good: if "Good"
exists in limited amounts which cannot be expanded, and if the system is

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FOSTER] Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good 297
closed, it follows that an individual or a family can improve a position only at
the expense of others. Hence an apparent relative improvement in someone's
position with respect to any "Good" is viewed as a threat to the entire com-
munity. Someone is being despoiled, whether he sees it or not. And since there
is often uncertainty as to who is losing-obviously it may be ego-any signifi-
cant improvement is perceived, not as a threat to an individual or a family
alone, but as a threat to all individuals and families.
This model was first worked out on the basis of a wide variety of field
data from Tzintzuntzan, Michoacin, Mexico: family behavior, exchange pat-
terns, cooperation, religious activities, court claims, disputes, material culture,
folklore, language, and many other bits and pieces. At no point has an in-
formant even remotely suggested that this is his vision of his universe. Yet
each Tzintzuntzeno organizes his behavior in a fashion entirely rational when
it is viewed as a function of this principle which he cannot enunciate.6
The model of Limited Good, when "fed back" to behavior in Tzintzuntzan,
proved remarkably productive in revealing hitherto unsuspected structural
regularities linking economic behavior with social relations, friendship, love
and jealousy patterns, health beliefs, concepts of honor and masculinity,
egoismo manifestations-even folklore (Foster 1964a). Not only were struc-
tural regularities revealed in Tzintzuntzan, but much peasant behavior known
to me from other field work, and reported in the literature, seemed also to be a
function of this cognitive orientation. This has led me to offer the kinds of
data I have utilized in formulating this model, and to explain the interpreta-
tions that seem to me to follow from it, as characterizing in considerable degree
classic peasant societies, in the hope that the model will be tested against
other extensive bodies of data. I believe, obviously, that if the Image of
Limited Good is examined as a high-level integrating principle characterizing
peasant communities, we will find within our individual societies unsuspected
structural regularities and, on a cross-cultural level, basic patterns that will
be most helpful in constructing the typology of peasant society. The data I
present in support of this thesis are illustrative, and are not based on an
exhaustive survey of peasant literature.
In the following pages I will offer evidence under four headings that
seems to me to conform to the model I have suggested. I will then discuss the
implications of this evidence.
2.1. When the peasant views his economic world as one in which Limited
Good prevails, and he can progress only at the expense of another, he is
usually very near the truth. Peasant economies, as pointed out by many
authors, are not productive. In the average village there is only a finite
amount of wealth produced, and no amount of extra hard work will signifi-
cantly change the figure. In most of the peasant world land has been limited
for a long, long time, and only in a few places have young farmers in a growing
community been able to hive off from the parent village to start on a level of
equality with their parents and grandparents. Customarily land is not only
limited, but it has become increasingly limited, by population expansion and

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298 American Anthropologist [67, 1965
soil deterioration. Peasant productive techniques hav
changed for hundreds, and even thousands, of years; a
means the Mediterranean plow drawn by oxen, supp
powered hand tools. Handicraft techniques in weaving,
working and building likewise have changed little ove
In fact, it seems accurate to say that the average p
relationship between work and production technique
the acquisition of wealth on the other. Rather, wealth
the same light as land: present, circumscribed by abs
no relationship to work. One works to eat, but not to
like land, is someting that is inherent in nature. It
passed around in various ways, but, within the fram
traditional world, it does not grow. Time and traditio
shares each family and individual hold; these shares a
viously they do shift. But the reason for the relative
is known at any given time, and any significant chan
2.2. The evidence that friendship, love, and affecti
limited in peasant society is strong. Every anthropolo
soon realizes the narrow path he must walk to avoid
or friendship toward some families, thereby alienatin
deprived, and hence reluctant to help him in his work
friend from Tzintzuntzan, working as a bracero in
Berkeley home. When safely away from the camp he
also there. Why did he not tell me, so I could have i
replied, in effect, that he was experiencing a coveted
want to risk diluting the satisfaction by sharing it w
Adams reports how a social worker in a Guatemala
prejudiced her work by making more friends in one b
thereby progressively alienating herself from potential f
needed (1955:442). In much of Latin America the insti
particularly among post-adolescents, variously known
the cuello or camaraderia (the latter two described b
[1959]) constitutes both recognition of the fact that true
commodity, and serves as insurance against being left
jealousies and feelings of deprivation felt by one partner
or threatens to leave sometimes lead to violence.
Widespread peasant definitions of sibling rivalry suggest that a mother
ability to love her children is viewed as limited by the amount of love sh
possesses. In Mexico when a mother again becomes pregnant and weans he
nursing child, the child often becomes chipil. It fusses, cries, clings to h
skirt, and is inconsolable. The child is said to be celoso, jealous of its unbor
sibling whose presence it recognizes and whom it perceives as a threat, alrea
depriving him of maternal love and affection. Chipil is known as chip or chipe
in Guatemala, where it is described in a classic article by Paul (1950),
sipe in Honduras, and simply as celos ("jealousy") in Costa Rica. Chucaq

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FOSTER] Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good 299
in southern Colombia, described as the jealousy of a child weaned because of
its mother's pregnancy, appears to be the same thing (communicated by Dr
Virginia Gutierrez de Pineda).
A similar folk etiology is used among the semi-peasant peoples of Bugand
to explain the onset of kwashiorkor in a child recently weaned. If the mothe
is again pregnant, the child is said to have obwosi, and shows symptoms o
pale hair, sweating of hands and feet, fever, diarrhea, and vomiting. "The
importance of pregnancy is such that if a woman takes a sick child to a native
doctor the first question he asks is 'Are you pregnant?' " (Burgess and Dean
1962: 24). The African logic is the reverse of, but complementary to, that of
Latin America: it is the unborn child that is jealous of its older sibling, whom
it tries to poison through the mother's milk, thereby forcing weaning (Burgess
and Dean 1962:25). In both areas, insufficient quantities of love and affectio
are seen as precipitating the crisis. In Buganda, "In the local culture it is
essential that the mother should devote herself to the unborn child or a child
recently born, at the expense of any other children; there does not seem to be
an easy acceptance of the idea that there can be enough love for all" (Burgess and
Dean 1962:26. Emphasis added).
Similarly, in an Egyptian village, sibling rivalry is recognized at this pe-
riod in a child's development. As in Latin America, jealousy is one way; it is
always the older who is jealous of the younger. "It is also acknowledged that
the youngest child becomes jealous immediately his mother's abdomen be-
comes enlarged on pregnancy and he is usually told of the forthcoming event."
This jealousy, in excess, may have ill effects on the child, causing diarrhea,
swellings, lack of appetite, temper tantrums, and sleeplessness (Ammar 1954:
107-109).
In parts of Guatemala chipe is a term used to express a husband's jealousy
of his pregnant wife, for temporary loss of sexual services and for the attention
to be given to the baby. Tepoztlin husbands also suffer from chipilez, becoming
sleepy and not wanting to work. Oscar Lewis says a husband can be cured by
wearing a strip of his wife's skirt around his neck (1951:378). In Tonali
Jalisco, Mexico, husbands often are jealous of their adolescent sons and angry
with their wives because of the affection the latter show their offspring. A
wife's love and affection are seen as limited; to the extent the son receives what
appears to be an excessive amount, the husband is deprived (communicated
by Dr. May Diaz). In the Egyptian village described by Ammar a new mother
in-law is very affectionate toward her son-in-law, thereby making her own
unmarried sons and daughters jealous. By showing affection to the outsider,
the woman obviously is seen as depriving her own offspring of something they
wish (Ammar 1954:51, 199).
2.3. It is a truism to peasants that health is a "good" that exists in limited
quantities. Peasant folk medicine does not provide the protection that scientific
medicine gives those who have access to it, and malnutrition frequently ag-
gravates conditions stemming from lack of sanitation, hygiene, and immuniza-
tion. In peasant societies preoccupation with health and illness is general, and

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300 A merican A nthropologist [67, 1965
constitutes a major topic of interest, speculation, an
best objective evidence that health is viewed within the
Good is the widespread attitude toward blood which
sion, seen as "non-regenerative" (Adams 1955:446). F
is equated with life, and good blood, and lots of it
blood-if it is seen as something that cannot be ren
threat to health, a permanent loss resulting in we
individual lives. Although best described for Guatem
is non-regenerative is widespread in Latin America
unverbalized, may be one of the reasons it is so di
Americans to give blood transfusions: by giving b
have more, the donor will have less.
Similar beliefs are found in Nigeria (commun
Adeniji Jones) and they are well known in Indian
psychological problem is further compounded by th
semen: one drop of semen to seven (or forty, depe
blood. The exercise of masculine vitality is thus seen
tating act. Only so much sexual pleasure is allotted
do will increase his measure. Sexual moderation and the avoidance of blood-
letting are the course of the prudent man.
In parts of Mexico (e.g., the Michoacin villages of Tzintzuntzan an
Erongaricuaro) the limits on health are reflected in views about long hair.
woman's long hair is much admired, but the price is high: a woman with lo
hair is thought always to be thin and wan, and she cannot expect to hav
vigor and strength. Sources of vitality are insufficient to grow long hair a
still leave an individual with energy and a well-fleshed body.
2.4. Oft-noted peasant sensitiveness to real or imagined insults to person
honor, and violent reactions to challenges which cast doubt on a man's mas
linity, appear to be a function of the belief that honor and manliness exist
limited quantities, and that consequently not everyone can enjoy a full me
ure. In rural Mexico, among braceros who have worked in the United Stat
American ethnologists have often been asked, "In the United States it's t
wife who commands, no?" Masculinity and domestic control appear to be
viewed much like other desirable things: there is only so much, and the person
who has it deprives another. Mexican men find it difficult to believe that
husband and wife can share domestic responsibilities and decision makin
without the husband being deprived of his machismo. Many believe a wi
however good, must be beaten from time to time, simply so she will not l
sight of a God-decreed familial hierarchy. They are astonished and shock
to learn that an American wife-beater can be jailed; this seems an incredib
unwarranted intrusion of the State into God's plans for the family.
The essence of machismo is valor, and un hombre muy valiente, i.e., a mach
is one who is strong and tough, generally fair, not a bully, but who nev
dodges a fight, and who always wins. Above all, a macho inspires respeto
("respect"). One achieves machismo, it is clear, by depriving others of acce
to it.

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FOSTER] Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good 301
In Greece philotimo, a "love of honor," equates closely with Mexican
machismo. A man who is p~hysically sound, lithe, strong, and agile has philo-
timo. If he can converse well, show wit, and act in other ways that facilitate
sociability and establish ascendency, he enhances his philotimo. One attacks
another male through his philotimo, by shaming or ridiculing him, by showing
how he lacks the necessary attributes for a man. Consequently, avoiding ridi-
cule becomes a major concern, a primary defense mechanism among rural
Greek males. In a culture shot through with envy and competitiveness, there
is the ever-present danger of attack, so a man must be prepared to respond to
a jeer or insult with a swift retort, an angry challenge, or a knife thrust.
"Philotimo can be enhanced at the expense of another. It has a see-saw char-
acteristic; one's own goes up as another's declines ... the Greek, in order to
maintain and increase his sense of worth, must be prepared each moment to
assert his superiority over friend and foe alike. It is an interpersonal combat
fraught with anxiety, uncertainty, and aggressive potentials. As one proverb
describes it, 'When one Greek meets another, they immediately despise each
other' " (R. Blum and E. Blum 1962:20-22).
3. If, in fact, peasants see their universe as one in which the good things in
life are in limited and unexpandable quantities, and hence personal gain must
be at the expense of others, we must assume that social institutions, personal
behavior, values, and personality will all display patterns that can be viewed
as functions of this cognitive orientation. Preferred behavior, it may be
argued, will be that which is seen by the peasant as maximizing his security,
by preserving his relative position in the traditional order of things. People
who see themselves in "threatened" circumstances, which the Image of
Limited Good implies, react normally in one of two ways: maximum coopera-
tion and sometimes communism, burying individual differences and placing
sanctions against individualism; or extreme individualism.
Peasant societies seem always to choose the second alternative. The reasons
are not clear, but two factors may bear on the problem. Cooperation requires
leadership. This may be delegated democratically by the members of a group
itself; it may be assumed by a strong man from within the group; or it may
be imposed by forces lying outside the group. Peasant societies-for reasons
that should be clear in the following analysis-are unable by their very nature
to delegate authority, and assumption of authority by a strong man is, at
best, temporary, and not a structural solution to a problem. The truncated
political nature of peasant societies, with real power lying outside the com-
munity, seems effectively to discourage local assumption and exercise of power,
except as an agent of these outside forces. By the very nature of peasant
society, seen as a structural part of a larger society, local development of
leadership which might make possible cooperation is effectively prevented by
the rulers of the political unit of which a particular peasant community is an
element, who see such action as a potential threat to themselves.
Again, economic activities in peasant societies require only limited co-
operation. Peasant families typically can, as family units, produce most of
their food, farm without extra help, build their houses, weave cloth for their

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 302 American Anthropologist [67, 1965
clothes, carry their own produce to market and sel
themselves with a degree of independence impossibl
and difficult in hunting-fishing-gathering societies. Pe
do not live with the degree of independence here s
nearly possible than in any other type of society.
Whatever the reasons, peasants are individualistic,
from the Image of Limited Good that each minima
nuclear family and, in many situations, a single ind
petual, unrelenting struggle with its fellows for pos
what it considers to be its share of scarce values. Th
for extreme caution and reserve, a reluctance to rev
tion. It encourages suspicion and mutual distrust, sin
sarily be what they seem to be, and it also encourag
valiant person, one who commands respect, since he
a target than a weakling. A great deal of peasan
exactly what we would predict from these circumst
(1951), Banfield (1958), Simmons (1959), Carstairs (1
Wisers (1963), and Blackman (1927) (summarized by
many others testify to the "mentality of mutual d
24) that is widespread in peasant societies.
Since an individual or family that makes significa
acquires a disproportionate amount of some other "good
expense of others, such a change is viewed as a thre
community. Peasant culture is provided with two pr
which to maintain the essential stability:
a) an agreed-upon, socially acceptable, preferred n
people, and
b) a "club" and a "carrot," in the form of sanctions and rewards, to ensure
that real behavior approximates this norm.
The agreed-upon norm that promotes maximum community stability is
behavior that tends to maintain the status quo in relationships. The individual
or family that acquires more than its share of a "good," and particularly an
economic "good," is, as we have seen, viewed as a threat to the community at
large. Individuals and families which are seen to or are thought to progress
violate the preferred norm of behavior, thereby stimulating cultural mecha-
nisms that redress the imbalance. Individuals or families that lose something,
that fall behind, are seen as a threat in a different fashion; their envy, jealousy,
or anger may result in overt or hidden aggression toward more fortunate
people.
The self-correcting mechanisms that guard the community balance operate
on three levels, viz:
1) Individual and family behavior. At this level I am concerned with the
steps taken by individuals to maintain their positions in the system, and the
ways in which they try to avoid both sanctions and exploitation by fellow
villagers.

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FOSTER] Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good 303
2) Informal and usually unorganized group behavior. At this level I am
concerned with the steps taken by the community, the sanctions that are i
voked when it is felt someone is violating the agreed-upon norm of behavio
Negative sanctions are the "club."
3) Institutionalized behavior. At this level I am concerned with th
"carrot": major community expressions of cultural forms which neutrali
achieved imbalances. Each of these forms will be examined in turn.
3.1) On the individual-family level, two rules give guidance to preferred
behavior. These can be stated as:
a) Do not reveal evidence of material or other improvement in your r
tive position, lest you invite sanctions; should you display improvement,
action necessary to neutralize the consequences.
b) Do not allow yourself to fall behind your rightful place, lest you a
your family suffer.
A family deals with the problem of real or suspected improvement in
relative position by a combination of two devices. First, it attempts to co
evidence that might lead to this conclusion, and it denies the veracity of
gestions to this effect. Second, it meets the charge head on, admits an
provement in relative position, but shows it has no intention of using
position to the detriment of the village by neutralizing it through ritua
penditures, thereby restoring the status quo.
Accounts of peasant communities stress that in traditional villages pe
do not compete for prestige with material symbols such as dress, housin
food, nor do they compete for authority by seeking leadership roles. In peasa
villages one notes a strong desire to look and act like everyone else, to b
conspicuous in position and behavior. This theme is well summed up in
Wisers' paragraph on the importance of dilapidated walls suggesting pov
as a part of a family's defense (1963:120).
Also much remarked is the peasant's reluctance to accept leadership r
He feels-for good reason-that his motives will be suspect and that he w
be subject to the criticism of neighbors. By seeking, or even accepting
authority position, the ideal man ceases to be ideal. A "good" man theref
usually shuns community responsibilities (other than of a ritual nature)
so doing he protects his reputation. Needless to say, this aspect of soci
approved behavior heavily penalizes a peasant community in the mo
world by depriving it of the leadership which is now essential to its dev
ment.

The mechanism invoked to minimize the danger of loss of relative po

appears to center in the machismo-philotimo complex. A tough, strong
whose fearlessness in the face of danger, and whose skill in protecting
self and his family is recognized, does not invite exploitation. A "vali
individual can command the "respect" so much sought after in many p
societies, and he can strive toward security with the goal in mind (how
illusory) of being able to live-as is said in Tzintzuntzan-sin compro
("without obligations" to, or dependency on, others). A picture of the

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304 A merican A nthropologist [67, 1965
peasant begins to emerge: a man who works to feed an
fulfills his community and ceremonial obligations, who
who does not seek to be outstanding, but who knows h
Since a macho, a strong man, discourages exploitat
personality characteristic has a basic function in p
prisingly, defense of this valuable self-image may,
societies, assume pathological proportions, for it is
the struggle for life.
The ideal man must avoid the appearance of pres
interpreted as trying to take something that belon
the diffusion of new pottery-making techniques in
no one would admit he had learned the technique fr
table reply to my question was Me puse a pensar ("I
self"), accompanied by a knowing look and a tappin
forefinger. Reluctance to give credit to others, com
described as due to egoismo, an egotistical conceited
as exemplified by unwillingness to admit profiting by
knowledge, is seen as a function of an image of Lim
a potter must deny that the idea is other than his
"borrowed" an idea is to confess that he has taken
his, that he is consciously upsetting the community ba
he tries so hard to maintain. Similarly, in trying t
drazgo (godparenthood) ties are initiated, I found no
he had asked a friend to serve; he always was asked
appear to fear that admission of asking may be int
imposing on another, trying to get something to w
titled.
A complementary pattern is manifest in the general
in peasant communities; rarely is a person heard to adm
another, and when admiration is expressed by, say
person admired probably will try to deny there is a
him. Reluctance of villagers to compliment each o
glance, like egoismo. But in the context of the Limi
that such behavior is proper. The person who comp
of aggression; he is telling someone to his face that
level that spells security for all, and he is suggesting t
with sanctions.
Consider this interpretation as applied to an incident reported in southern
Italy: "My attempt, in private, to praise a peasant friend for his large farm
and able system of farming brought a prompt and vigorous denial that he did
anything special. He said, 'There is no system, you just plant.' This attitude
was expressed by others in forced discussions of farming" (Cancian 1961:8).
Dr. Cancian offers this as illustrating the peasant's lack of confidence in his
own ability to change his environment. Speaking specifically of agriculture, he

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FOSTER] Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good 305
writes that "All the examples indicate denial of the hope of progress in agri-
culture and alienation from the land" (Cancian 1961:8). I believe the peasan
viewed Dr. Cancian's praise as threatening, since it reminded him of hi
vulnerability because of his superior farming methods. His denial is not of
hope of progress, but of cause for anyone to envy him.
3.2. The ideal man strives for moderation and equality in his behavior.
Should he attempt to better his comparative standing, thereby threatening
village stability, the informal and usually unorganized sanctions appear. Thi
is the "club," and it takes the form of gossip, slander, backbiting, character
assassination, witchcraft or the threat of witchcraft, and sometimes actual
physical aggression. These negative sanctions usually represent no formal
community decision, but they are at least as effective as if authorized by law
Concern with public opinion is one of the most striking characteristics of
peasant communities.
Negative sanctions, while usually informal, can be institutionalized. In
peasant Spain, especially in the north, the charivari (cencerrada) represent
such an instance. When an older man marries a much younger woman
usually a second marriage for the groom-marriageable youths serenade the
couple with cowbells (cencerros) and other noisemakers, parade straw-stuffed
manikins representing them through the streets, incense the manikins wit
foul-smelling substances, and shout obscenities. It seems clear that thi
symbolizes the resentment of youths, who have not yet had even one wife,
against the inequalities represented by an older man who has already enjoye
marriage, who takes a young bride from the available pool, thereby further
limiting the supply for the youths. By institutionalizing the sanctions th
youths are permitted a degree of freedom and abuse not otherwise possible.
3.3. Attempted changes in the balance of a peasant village are discouraged
by the methods just described; achieved imbalance is neutralized, and the
balance restored, on an institutional level. A person who improves his positio
is encouraged-by use of the carrot-to restore the balance through conspic-
uous consumption in the form of ritual extravagance. In Latin America he i
pressured into sponsoring a costly fiesta by serving as mayordomo. His reward
is prestige, which is viewed as harmless. Prestige cannot be dangerous sinc
it is traded for dangerous wealth; the mayordomo has, in fact, been "dis-
armed," shorn of his weapons, and reduced to a state of impotence. There is
good reason why peasant fiestas consume so much wealth in fireworks, candles,
music, and food; and why, in peasant communities the rites of baptism, mar
riage, and death may involve relatively huge expenditures. These practices
are a redistributive mechanism which permits a person or family that poten
tially threatens community stability gracefully to restore the status quo,
thereby returning itself to a state of acceptability. Wolf, speaking specifically
of the "closed" Indian peasant community of Mexico as it emerged after the
Conquest, puts it this way: "the system takes from those who have, in orde
to make all men have-nots. By liquidating the surpluses, it makes all men

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306 American Anthropologist [67, 1965
rich in sacred experience but poor in earthly good
of wealth, it also inhibits the growth of class dis
In engineering parlance, it acts as a feedback, re
beginning to oscillate to its original course" (195
4. I have said that in a society ruled by the Ima
is no way, save at the expense of others, that an i
is true in a closed system, which peasant commun
a traditional peasant village, in another sense, ha
and an individual can achieve economic success by
that are recognized to exist outside the village sy
envied, is not seen as a direct threat to community s
the community has lost anything. Still, such suc
today's transitional peasant communities, seasonal
is the most available way in which one can tap o
thousands of Mexican peasants have come to the
in recent years and many, through their earning
amounts of capital into their communities. Brace
cized or attacked for acquisition of this wealth; it
tune is not at the direct expense of others within
similar realistic appraisal of the wealth situation
"they [the peasants] realize ... that the only met
comes on a large scale is to absent themselves from t
period of time and to find work in more lucrativ
These examples, however, are but modern varian
in which luck and fate-points of contact with an
the only socially acceptable ways in which an in
"good" than he previously has had. In traditiona
communities an otherwise inexplicable increase in
to the discovery of treasure which may be the resul
action as making a pact with the Devil. Recently
tales in Tzintzuntzan and have found without ex
to named individuals who, within living memor
live beyond their means. The usual evidence is th
stores, in spite of their known previous poverty
recorded this interpretation among Sonora village
it in an Amazon small town (1964: 128), and Friedm
Italy (1958:21). Clearly, the role of treasure tales
is to account for wealth that can be explained in
The common peasant concern with finding wea
who can help them is also pertinent in this contex
are outside the village, they are not part of the c
material help, like bracero earnings or buried tr
from beyond the village. Hence, although the lu
patron may be envied, the advantages he receive
seen as depriving other villagers of something rig

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FOSTER] Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good 307
tzan a villager who obtains a "good" in this fashion makes it a first order of
business to advertise his luck and the source thereof, so there can be no doubt
as to his basic morality; this behavior is just the opposite of usual behavior,
which is to conceal good fortune.
Treasure tales and concern with patrons, in turn, are but one expression
of a wider view: that any kind of success and progress is due to fate, the favor
of deities, to luck, but not to hard work, energy, and thrift. Banfield notes in
a south Italian community, "In the TAT stories, dramatic success came only
as a gift of fortune: a rich gentleman gave a poor boy a violin, a rich gentle-
woman adopted an abandoned child, and so on" (1958:66). Continuing,
"Great success, then, is obtained by the favor of the saints or by luck, cer-
tainly not by thrift, work, and enterprise. These may be important if one is
already lucky, but not otherwise, and few would invest large amounts of
effort-any more than they would invest large amounts of fertilizer-on the
rather remote possibility of good fortune" (Banfield 1958:114). Friedmann
also finds that the south Italian peasant "firmly believes that the few who
have succeeded in making a career were able to do so for some mysterious
reason: one hit upon a hidden treasure; another was lucky enough to win in
the lottery; another was called to America by a successful uncle" (1958:21).
All such illustrations underlie a fundamental truth not always recognized
in comparing value systems: in the traditional peasant society hard work and
thrift are moral qualities of only the slightest functional value. Given the
limitations on land and technology, additional hard work in village productive
enterprises simply does not produce a significant increment in income. It is
pointless to talk of thrift in a subsistence economy in which most producers
are at the economic margin; there is usually nothing to be thrifty about. As
Fei and Chang point out, "In a village where the farms are small and wealth
is accumulated slowly, there are very few ways for a landless man to become
a landowner, or for a petty owner to become a large landowner.... It is not
going too far to say that in agriculture there is no way really to get ahead ....
To become rich one must leave agriculture" (1945:227). And again, "The
basic truth is that enrichment through the exploitation of land, using the
traditional technology, is not a practical method for accumulating wealth"
(Fei and Chang: 1945:302). And, as Ammar says about Egypt, "It would be
very difficult with the fellah's simple tools and the sweat involved in his work,
to convince him that his lot could be improved by more work" (1954:36).
5. It is apparent that a peasant's cognitive orientation, and the forms of
behavior that stem therefrom, are intimately related to the problems of eco-
nomic growth in developing countries. Heavy ritual expenditures, for ex-
ample, are essential to the maintenance of the equilibrium that spells safety
in the minds of traditional villagers. Capital accumulation, which might be
stimulated if costly ritual could be simplified, is just what the villager wants
to prevent, since he sees it as a community threat rather than a precondition
to economic improvement.
In national developmental programs much community-level action in

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308 American Anthropologist [67, 1965
agriculture, health and education is cast in the for
takings. Yet it is abundantly clear that traditional
operative only in the sense of honoring reciprocal o
the sense of understanding total community welfa
picion seriously limits cooperative approaches to vil
of Limited Good model makes clear the peasant log
to participate in joint ventures. If the "good" in life
expandable, and if apart from luck an individual can
pense of others, what does one stand to gain from
best an honorable man lays himself open to the cha
sequences-of utilizing the venture to exploit friend
he risks his own defenses, since someone more skill
may take advantage of the situation.
The Anglo-Saxon virtues of hard work and thrift
nomic success are meaningless in peasant society. H
not praiseworthy, but he emerges as a positive fool
the score labors blindly against hopeless conditions.
more properly laudable, worthy of emulation and adula
way in which success can be obtained, the prudent a
one who seeks ways in which to maximize his luck-
places in which good fortune is most apt to strike, a
I think, explains the interest in lotteries in underd
offer the only way in which the average man can place
tion. The man who goes without lunch, and fails to
in order to buy a weekly ticket, is not a ne'er-do-we
of his society who is doing what he feels is most likely
He is, in modern parlance, buying a "growth stock
him, but it is the only way he knows in which to w
Modern lotteries are very much functional equiva
tales in peasant societies, and at least in Tzintzuntzan
understood. One elderly informant, when asked why
treasure in recent years, remarked that this was in
we Mexicans have the lottery instead." Hence, t
underdeveloped countries is not primarily a deterre
as it is sometimes seen from the vantage point of a
rather it represents a realistic approach to the near-
ing significant individual progress.
David C. McClelland has argued persuasively that
motivation which he calls "the need for Achievem
precursor to economic growth, and that it is probab
it is "a change in the minds of men which produces
than being produced by it" (McClelland 1963:81; 19
finds that in experimental situations children with
gambling situations because should they win there

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FOSTER] Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good 309
sonal achievement, while children with low n Achievement do not perform i
a way suggesting they calculate relative risks and behave accordingly. "They
[low n Achievement children] thus manifest behavior like that of many people
in underdeveloped countries who, while they act very traditionally eco
nomically, at the same time love to indulge in lotteries-risking a little to
make a great deal on a very long shot" (McClelland 1963:86). McClelland
sees this as showing an absence of a sense of realistic risk calculation.
If the arguments advanced in this paper are sound, it is clear that n
Achievement is rare in traditional peasant societies, not because of psycho
logical factors, but because display of n Achievement is met by sanctions tha
a traditional villager does not wish to incur. The villager who feels the need for
Achievement, and who does something about it, is violating the basic, un-
verbalized rules of the society of which he is a member. Parents (or government
school programs) that attempt to instill n Achievement in children are, in
effect, training children to be misfits in their society as long as it remains
relatively static system.
As indicated above, I would argue in opposition to McClelland that the
villager who buys a lottery ticket is not behaving in an inconsistent fashion
that is, rationally in traditional economic matters, irrationally in his pursuit
of luck-but in the most consistent fashion possible. He has calculated the
chances and risks, and in a most realistic manner in the context of the way in
which he sees his traditional environment. The man who buys a lottery ticke
in a peasant society, far from displaying lack of n Achievement, is in fact
showing a maximum degree of it. It simply happens that this is about the only
display of initiative that is permitted him by his society, since it is the only
form not viewed as a threat to the community by his colleagues.
Banfield, and Fei and Chang, appear to see the economic factors in the
presence or absence of initiative in much the same light. The former writes
about the Italian peasant, "The idea that one's welfare depends crucially upon
conditions beyond one's control-upon luck or the caprice of a saint-and that
one can at best only improve upon good fortune, not create it-this idea must
certainly be a check on initiative" (Banfield 1958:114). The latter see, in the
Chinese data, evidence that a particular economic attitude is a function of a
particular view of life. The traditional economic attitude among Chines
peasants is that of "contentment . . an acceptance of a low standard of
material comfort" (Fei and Chang 1945:82), which is contrasted to "ac-
quisitiveness" characteristic of "modern industry and commerce in an expand
ing universe" (Fei and Chang 1945:83). "Both attitudes-contentment and
acquisitiveness-have their own social context. Contentment is adopted in a
closed economy; acquisitiveness in an expanding economy. Without economic
opportunities the striving for material gain is a disturbance to the existing order,
since it means plunder of wealth from others. . ... Therefore, to accept and b
satisfied with the social role and material rewards given by the society is essen-
tial. But when economic opportunity develops through the development of

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310 American Anthropologist [67, 1965
technology and when wealth can be acquired throug
ture instead of through the exploitation of man, the
becomes reactionary because it restricts individual i
1945 84. Emphasis added). In other words, change th
game and change the cognitive orientation of a peas
field for the propagation of n Achievement is created.
For the above reasons, I believe most strongly th
development is not to attempt to create n Achievem
but to try to change the peasants' view of his social
away from an Image of Limited Good toward that o
in an open system, so that he can feel safe in display
on change are less psychological than social. Show th
is profitable, and that it will not be met by negative sa
it in short order.
This is, of course, what is happening in the world today. Those who have
known peasant villages over a period of years have seen how the old sanctions
begin to lose their power. Local entrepreneurs arise in response to the increas-
ing opportunities of expanding national economies, and emulative urges, with
the city as the model, appear among these people. The successful small
entrepreneurs begin to see that the ideal of equality is inimical to their per-
sonal interests, and presently they neither seek to conceal their well being nor
to distribute their wealth through traditional patterns of ritual extravagance.
N Achievement bursts forth in full vitality in a few new leaders, and others
see the rewards and try to follow suit. The problem of the new countries is to
create economic and social conditions in which this latent energy and talent
is not quickly brought up against absolute limits, so that it is nipped in the
bud. This is, of course, the danger of new expectations-released latent n
Achievement-outrunning the creation of opportunities.
Viewed in the light of Limited Good peasant societies are not conservative
and backward, brakes on national economic progress, because of economic ir-
rationality nor because of the absence of psychological characteristics in ade-
quate quantities. They are conservative because individual progress is seen
as-and in the context of the traditional society in fact is-the supreme threat
to community stability, and all cultural forms must conspire to discourage
changes in the status quo. Only by being conservative can peasant societies
continue to exist as peasant societies. But change cognitive orientation through
changing access to opportunity, and the peasant will do very well indeed; and
his n Achievement will take care of itself.

NOTES

SRedfield describes world view as "that outlook upon the universe that is ch
people" (1952:30). Redfield believes that "No man holds all he knows and feels
his conscious mind at once" (1955:91), but at the same time he feels that a reaso
informant can describe his world view so that an anthropologist can understand
an "emphasized meaning" in the phrase it is "in the suggestion it carries of the

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FOSTER] Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good 311
as man is aware of them. It is the way we see ourselves in relation to all else" (1953:86. Emphas
added). Hallowell, on the other hand, tends to see world view in terms of a cognitive orientation of
which the Ojibwa are not consciously aware and which they do not abstractly articulate (1960).
Kenny recently defined "values" in much the same sense in which I understand "cognitive
orientation": "In regard to values, I use the term to denote a series of conceptions from which a
preferred type of conduct is evolved and imposed by the social system; which can be abstracted by
analysis but which may not be consciously recognized or verbalized by every member of the
society" (1962-1963: 280).
2 E.g., Theme 14: "The extended domestic family is the basic social and economic unit and
the one to which first allegiance and duties of revenge are due" (1946:152).
3 By the term "classic" peasant societies I follow Kroeber's statement: "They form a class
segment of a larger population which usually contains also urban centers . . . They constitut
part-societies with part cultures" (1948:284). My definition of peasant is structural and rela-
tional, only incidentally concerned with how people earn a living. Firth writes, "By a peasan
economy one means a system of small-scale producers, with a simple technology and equipment,
often relying primarily for their subsistence on what they themselves produce. The primary mean
of livelihood of the peasants is cultivation of the soil" (1956:87). This, and all other definition
stressing agriculture and purely subsistence economies, seem to me to be deficient. I find "classic
peasant societies rimming the Mediterranean, in the village communities of the Near East, o
India, and of China. Emergent peasant communities probably existed in Middle America befor
the Conquest; today a large proportion of Indian and mestizo villages in Latin America must b
thought of as peasant. Parts of Negro Africa, where there are indigenous cities and well-develope
markets, are at least semi-peasant, although the lack of a Great Tradition perhaps excludes them
from the "classic" label.
As I see it, classic peasant communities have grown up in a symbiotic spatial-temporal rela-
tionship to the more complex component of the society of which they are a part, i.e., the pre-
industrial market and administrative city. Peasant communities "represent the rural expression of
large, class-structured, economically complex, pre-industrial civilizations, in which trade and
commerce, and craft specialization are well developed, in which money is commonly used, and in
which market disposition is the goal for a part of the producer's efforts" (Foster 1960-1961:175).
The reader will realize, I am sure, that the model, drawn up on the basis of an ideal type of
rural community in a pre-industrial world, does not in fact fit any contemporary peasant com-
munity with exactitude. All modern peasant communities have experienced to a greater or lesser
degree inroads from the urban, industrial world, and to that degree they must depart from the
model. I freely confess, too, that I tend to see peasant society in the image of Tzintzuntzan,
Michoackn, Mexico, and that greater familiarity with other peasant communities might well lead
me to different expressions of details in the model.
* I don't advocate maintenance of classic peasant society, nor do I think it has a permanent
place in the world.
6 I do not believe the Image of Limited Good is characteristic only of peasant societies. Quite
the contrary, it is found, in one degree or another, in most or all socio-economic levels in newly
developing countries, and it is, of course, equally characteristic of traditional socialist doctrine. I
am not even sure that it is more characteristic of peasants than of other groups. I examine the
hypothesis in the context of peasant societies simply because they are relatively less complex than
many other groups, because good data are readily available, and because my arguments can easily
be tested in the field by other anthropologists. I suspect, but will leave the ultimate decision to
others, that the Image of Limited Good when applied to peasant society goes further in explaining
behavior than when applied to any other type of society. That is, and by way of illustration, al-
though the Image of Limited Good certainly is characteristic of many urban Mexicans, including
those of the highest social and economic classes, the complexity of that society requires additional
themes beyond those needed in peasant society to produce an equally coherent and satisfying
explanation.
6 I have long speculated that the economic world view of classic peasants, and particularly of

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312 American Anthropologist [67, 1965
people in Tzintzuntzan, the peasant community I know best (Fos
1962, 1963, 1964a, 1964b, 1965) can be described by a princip
Static Economy. Writing in 1948 I suggested that Tzintzuntzeno
in which "the wealth goal is difficult and almost impossible of a
a reasonable chance of success is lacking" (1948:289). Much
frequent poor quality of interpersonal relations in peasant socie
that the "economic pie" is seen (quite realistically) as constant
quently, "If someone is seen to get ahead, logically it can only b
village" (1960-1961:177). Subsequently I spoke of the Image of
village cooperation, particularly in community development p
by Honigmann about a West Pakistan village stimulated me to t
of the Image of the Static Economy, i.e., that this integrating p
a total cognitive view with analogues in a great many other are
dominant element in the character structure (not only here bu
implicit belief that good of all kinds is limited. There is only so
love in the world. If another has some, then somebody is cer
(1960:287).
Other anthropologists also have recognized the Image of Lim
the corollary that good fortune can be obtained only at the expe
world view in the Mexican Zapotec Indian peasant village of M
most part they [the Mitlefios] assumed that one man's gains we
Beals, speaking of a specific incident in an Indian village, write
Gopalpur; what one man farms cannot be farmed by anothe
developing distant lands, has expanded the economy of Gopa
achievement in terms of the creation of wealth. They think rath
to their own failure" (1962:64). Mandelbaum, introducing the
Mud Walls, notes that the villagers fail to understand "that ea
community prosper together. There is rather the idea that the
ever fixed in amount, and each person must manipulate constan
own" (1963:x).
7 Cf. Wolf, "Marginal location and traditional technology toge
of the community, and thus its ability to produce cash crops for
number of goods brought in from the outside which the comm
community is poor" (1955:457).
8 In fact, the child who is chfpil may have good reason to be
and put on an adult diet, he frequently experiences an acute
stimulates his behavior. And, of course, sibling-rivalry exist
significant thing is not the real physiological or psychological ro
the condition is explained by a folk etiology which assumes a m
and affection to her children, so that the older ones are deprived i
the newest makes its appearance.
I Cf. Geertz 1962:244, speaking of Javanese peasants an
mobilization: "What has developed.., .is not so much a gen
Javanese peasants tend, like many peasants, to be rather sus
immediate family-but a set of explicit and concrete practices of
of consumption goods which operate in all aspects of life ....
specific, carefully delineated social mechanisms which can mo
tion resources scattered thinly among the very dense population
at one point in space and time, is the central characteristic o
understood, 'cooperativeness' of the Javanese peasant. Coope
sense of the mutual value to the participants of such coopera
unity of all men or on an organic view of society which takes t
vidual as secondary."

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FOSTER] Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good 313
REFERENCES CITED

ADAMS, RICHARD N.
1955 A nutritional research program in Guatemala. In Health, cultu
(Benjamin D. Paul, ed). New York, Russell Sage Foundation.
AMMAR, HAMED
1954 Growing up in an Egyptian village: Silwa, Province of Aswan. L
Kegan Paul, Ltd.
BANFIELD, EDWARD C.
1958 The moral basis of a backward society. Glencoe, The Free Press.
BLACKMAN, WINIFRED S.
1927 The Fellahin of Upper Egypt. London, George G. Harrap & Co.,
BEALS, ALAN R.
1962 Gopalpur: a south Indian village. Case Studies in Cultural An
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