Introduction

The peasant transition from a subsistence agriculture economy to a money economy is one of the most widespread phenomena of the twentieth century. People who a short time ago were economically self-sufficient have become a major source of wage labor for industrializing nations. The economists have developed mathematical and graphic models to predict change along several alternative lines of development. The anthropologist, however, is stuck with such difficult-to-measure variables as kinship, religion, world view, tradition, temperment, sodalities, and inheritance patterns. Actually “systems theory” is a misnomer, if “theory” is taken to mean a set of explanatory principles, such as the “theory of evolution” or Steward’s “theory of culture change”. In comparison, systems theory is empty, void of content, not so much a hypothetical explanation as a framework, a set of organizing principles by which to better comprehend raw data.