ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ramifications of the divide in social analysis in relationship to the debate concerning the viability, nature and significance of contemporary peasant and landless workers' movements in Latin America. It presents an argument against two prevailing lines of analysis in favour of a return to a Marxist approach. The chapter describes the writings of Florencia Mallon, a historian noted for her attempts to introduce a postmodernist sensibility among Latin American historians. The 'identical subject-object' of her analysis is the post-colonial peasantry of Mexico and Peru. These dynamics as they relate to the peasantry are placed within a Marxist perspective. The object of criticism in the first case is a dismissive attitude towards the peasantry as a significant social and political force. In the second case, the object of criticism is a tendency to reduce peasant-based or led struggles and movements to their cultural identities or attributes and demands.
