Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Nonfarm rural households shared many of the characteristics of households engaged in
agricultural production. Nonfarm work roles, though a bit less embedded in household struc-
tures, were nevertheless well integrated into the local community. A set of distinct occupa-
tional titles that reflected a rigid and formalized division of labor was of little use in most
rural areas. In fact, the U.S. Census acknowledged the ambiguity in attempting to classify
rural nonfarm workers into existing occupational schemes in the 1870 Census.
As communities advance in industrial character, functions become separated, and distinct occupa-
tions become recognized… . [However, in] many of the communities of the land it is difficult to
draw distinctions much finer than those between the agricultural, the mining, the mechanical, and
the commercial pursuit of professions. Indeed, even this is not practicable, since it is a matter of
notoriety that … the occupations of carpenter and farmer, or blacksmith and farmer, or farmer and
fisherman, are frequently united in one person. In large and more prosperous communities a clear
separation between such incongruous occupations takes place; yet still, the carpenter, for instance,
in nine out of ten counties in the United States, performs a half a dozen functions which, in cities,
are recognized as belonging to distinct trades. 5
The idea of “economic embeddedness” is clearly important for understanding how agricul-
ture and food production were organized in the 1800s, and it has considerable value in help-
ing understand the relocalization of agriculture that is taking place in America today as well.
We know from a small, but growing, body of research in rural sociology and allied disciplines
that there are many different ways rural people “make a living” and provide for their material
needs today. Working for wages in a job and buying goods and services in the marketplace
are the ways most Americans typically think about the contemporary economy. Indeed, from
the perspective of neoclassical economics, the modern economy is one in which families and
workers engage almost entirely in formal market transactions bereft of any social or cultural
meaning. Beyond the marketplace of the economists, however, lies an economic terrain rich
in substance and meaning. Households and communities provide the context in which eco-
nomic transactions transpire. The “market,” in neoclassical terms, is but one of many venues
for “economic” activity. 6
The Emergence of Modern Economic Forms
In the early 1800s, economy and society were woven of the same cloth in rural America.
Agricultural production and manufacturing were organized along very similar social lines.
This was the era of protoindustrialization and small-scale family farming. Labor in both man-
ufacturing and agriculture was relatively undifferentiated, and there were few specialized
work roles. The broad range of labor skills held by one individual and the relative smallness
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