ABSTRACT
This essay focuses on the terminology of measurement in rural Western India in the early 1980s, to show that farmers draw on an elaborate conceptual vocabulary to make sense of their environment, their agricultural practices, their social relations, and their economy. The close examination of key words in this domain of measurement reveals that they are socially, culturally, and practically shaped, and are very different from our modern, Western ideas about measurement, which aspire to be objective, neutral, and context-free.
