ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a basis for a contextualized presentation of the specific case study. An explanation of the specific characteristics of agrarian capitalism in Costa Rica requires an analysis of the complex interactions between peasant households and the social environment. The main characteristics of rural domestic units, as can be derives from numerous case–studies and an equally prolific theoretical literature, but especially from empirically–based models of rural households' economic organization may be outline. The land and other material resources usually require all household labor, without there being permanent and significant surpluses of labor capacity. The disproportion between material resources and labor capacity of the household may be constant or variable. The surplus-yielding domestic units may tend to capitalize; deficit–yielding domestic units may tend to become impoverished, and intermediate domestic units may move in one or the other direction over time.
