ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the concept of peasant condition to outline the external ties. This concept refers to the interrelations between peasant agriculture and the context within which it is located and to which it is subordinated. The balance of trust and distrust translates into a specific patterning of the economic relations in which farming is embedded. The concept of the peasant condition finds its locus at the axis between the peasantry and its context. The peasant struggle for autonomy and progress involves constructing, maintaining and defending a self-controlled resource base. Facing a hostile environment nearly always requires forms of cooperation. Constructing a resource base and ensuring it remains self-controlled, involves a long, complex and ever-evolving flow of activities. The interaction with living nature shapes specific social structures and relationships: the artisanal nature of the process of production, the centrality of craftsmanship and the predominance of family farms are closely interrelated with co-production and the co-evolution of man and living nature.
