Flexible families: Capitalist development and crisis in rural Peru

In the Peruvian peasant community of Mata Chico, participation in the natio nal economy over the twentieth century has transformed family relations. As people first adapted to an emerging capitalist economy, and then to a cris is in that economy, a family "community of interest" in farming gave way to "complementary interests" among parents and children, women and men. In pu rsuing complementary interests, younger family members undertake economic a ctivities that lead them away from the farm but family ties, though signifi cantly changed, remain strong.