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THE ROLE OF WEALTH AND CULTURAL HETEROGENEITY IN THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN AN ECUADORIAN COLONIZATION ZONE by ERIC CONLAN JONES Under the direction of Dr. Robert E. Rhoades ABSTRACT Agricultural cooperatives in Ecuador have experienced varied levels of success as well as increased difficulty staying together in the past 20 years. In addition, a trend towards greater concentration of landholdings and corresponding increases in inequality erodes land reform’s positive impact on the equitable distribution of land, albeit limited. For example, migrant laborers seek work with the new, large palmito and African palm plantations. These in-migrants are becoming more numerous than the original land-seeking pioneers who colonized northwest Ecuador's Las Golondrinas area 20-30 years ago. Research linking the areas of migration and social structure has neglected the implications of migration for the design and effectiveness of cooperative social relations, including the development of agricultural cooperatives. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data about migration streams, villages' social networks and the social networks of agricultural cooperatives in the Las Golondrinas colonization zone of northwest Ecuador, this research demonstrates the dynamics of three processes. First, migration affects the social relations involved in colonists' economic activities, with high mobility nurturing the tendency to trust fellow villagers based on similarity of their socioeconomic status, especially in the more central town of a regional economic system. Second, cultural similarities and the cohort effects of in- migration dampen this tendency, thus altering the conditions under which capital accumulation detracts from or improves formal and informal cooperation. Third, this specifically is the case for agricultural cooperatives; at the beginning, cooperatives may be held together by wealth differences because wealthy members take on disproportionate costs (and benefits). To succeed in the long term, however, the cooperatives must rely on in-group mechanisms for creating trust or a sense of shared fate. INDEX WORDS: Anthropology, Agriculture, Collective Action, Colonization, Cooperatives, Cooperation, Culture, Diversity, Economic Anthropology, Frontier, Heterogeneity, Inequality, Instability, Migration, Natural Resource Management, Pioneers, Social Networks, Social Organization, Social Structure THE ROLE OF WEALTH AND CULTURAL HETEROGENEITY IN THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN AN ECUADORIAN COLONIZATION ZONE by ERIC CONLAN JONES B.A., Hamline University 1992 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2002 © 2002 Eric Conlan Jones All Rights Reserved THE ROLE OF WEALTH AND CULTURAL HETEROGENEITY IN THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN AN ECUADORIAN COLONIZATION ZONE by ERIC CONLAN JONES Approved: Major Professor: Robert E. Rhoades Committee: Kavita Pandit Stephen A. Kowalewski Theodore L. Gragson Fausto O. Sarmiento Electronic Version Approved: Gordhan L. Patel Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2002 DEDICATION To small farmers and cooperativists everywhere, for creating alternative forms of socially organized production, and to Stephen Thompson, whose study of colonists inspired this work. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My Ph.D. committee at the University of Georgia was wonderfully supportive of this project, and gave important feedback to help me convey my research and ideas to others; for both of these forms of help, I am very grateful to Robert Rhoades, Kavita Pandit, Steve Kowalewski, Fausto Sarmiento and Ted Gragson. Particular thanks to my advisor Bob Rhoades for constantly reminding me that my subject matter was people, not just migration systems, social networks, economic inequality or cultural homogeneity. I also appreciate the generous staff of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Anthropology and their assistance along the way. Charlotte Blume offered support above and beyond her role as graduate secretary—I am humbled and thankful. The insights and experiences I gained through my dissertation fieldwork resulted in part from financial and logistical support from SANREM (Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development) and logistical support from partner institutions in Ecuador, including Ecociencia, La Universidad Tecnológica Ecuatoriana, and La Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Bob Rhoades made sure I had whatever I needed, and Hector Ballesteros helped me navigate Quito’s labyrinth of government and non-government informational resources. My intellectual debts for this specific project span the length of my graduate career. In 1996, it was my reading of Frank Salomon’s chapter “Killing the Yumbo” (1981) that stirred the anthropological instantiation of my long-held interest in migration and social structure. My reading of Mika Cohen’s M.S. thesis (1999) led me to think of instability and predictability in information transmission as integral to any framework that would help me address my questions. Steve Kowalewski encouraged me to consider central place theory as a way to deal with my v questions concerning geographic variation in the relationship between migration and social networks. All other intellectual debts are noted in the form of citations in the body of this work. The people of the area of Las Golondrinas deserve my gratitude for their patience and generosity. They deserve my admiration for their sincerity and honesty. What made this project most enjoyable were these people I met in the course of fieldwork. What made it most doable was the support of graduate colleagues, my parents and, especially, my wife. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................1 Theoretical Outline: Colonization, Heterogeneity and Cooperation.............................1 Objectives and Methodological Rationale ....................................................................6 Justification of the Field Site of Las Golondrinas.......................................................11 Outline of this Work ...................................................................................................12 2 ETHNOGRAPHIC SETTING .................................................................................................13 Site Description: Las Golondrinas, Ecuador...............................................................13 Settlement and Population Change .............................................................................15 Sample Sending Areas ................................................................................................19 Land Tenure and Land Use Change............................................................................25 A Town without a Provincial Home ...........................................................................33 Regional Agroecology ................................................................................................37 3 MIGRATION SYSTEMS IN A PIONEER COLONIZATION ZONE..............................................42 Problem Statement ......................................................................................................42 Studies in Migration and Rural Development.............................................................42 History of Migration and Rural Development on Ecuador's Coastal Plain ................51 Methodology...............................................................................................................55 Results and Discussion ...............................................................................................56 Conclusion: Migrant Foundations for the Development of Social Organization........74 vii 4 PEASANT SOCIAL NETWORKS ON THE FRONTIER .............................................................76 Problem Statement ......................................................................................................76 Literature Review: Rural Social Networks .................................................................77 Social Relations on the Frontier in Ecuador ...............................................................85 Ethnographic Background of Villages........................................................................87 Methodology...............................................................................................................90 Results and Discussion ...............................................................................................92 Conclusion ................................................................................................................101 5 SOCIAL NETWORKS OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES ON THE FRONTIER ..................104 Problem Statement ....................................................................................................104 Previous Studies on Inequality and Heterogeneity ...................................................105 The Context for Ecuadorian Cooperativism .............................................................110

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