THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN MEXICAN AGRICULTURE. ITS IMPACT ON THE HUMID TROPICS: THE CASE OF THE YOHALTUN PROJECT IN THE SOUTHEASTERN STATE OF CAMPECHE, MEXICO

This work deals with the development of capitalism in Mexican agriculture, and its impact on the humid tropics. The main objective of this work, and of the research approach that it proposes, is to distinguish the paths capitalism takes in its development within the agricultural sector, in order to emphasize the formation of the classes and the class strata which this development originated.;Two issues are present in the theoretical framework: first, the way in which capitalism develops itself in agriculture, and what are its specific laws; second, the paths and forms capitalist development takes in agriculture. In this second issue it is shown that the paths of this development are synthesized in the national market, and the consolidation of this latter, means the complete integration of agriculture into the capitalist development of a given socio-economic formation. It is also shown how the paths and forms of capitalist agriculture determine the way in which nature has to be appropriated and dominated.;A historical socio-economic analysis of the current capitalist development of Mexico is made in the second chapter to characterize the Mexican socio-economic formation. The role of the State in the capitalist development of agriculture is stressed in this chapter. And the paths and forms of capitalist agriculture are analyzed in the context of the consolidation of the national market. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of school.) UMI.;A theoretical framework is developed in chapter I to correctly place the answers to the following research questions: (1) what are the paths of the capitalist development of Mexican agriculture and the forms taken by the modern path of development?; (2) what is the role of the State and its instruments in the agrarian issue?; (3) what is the impact of this capitalist development; (a) on the traditional peasant economy, (b) on land tenure and production forms, (c) on new forms of peasant and rural agricultural proletariat struggles, and, (d) on the different alliances of these rural people in class struggle; and, finally, (4) what has been the impact of this development on the appropriation and domination of nature in the process of production?...