Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1994 Critical Chorology and Peasant Production: Small Farm Forestry in Hojancha, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Michael Stephen Yoder Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Yoder, Michael Stephen, "Critical Chorology and Peasant Production: Small Farm Forestry in Hojancha, Guanacaste, Costa Rica." (1994). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 5917. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/5917 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 CRITICAL CHOROLOGY AND PEASANT PRODUCTION: SMALL FARM FORESTRY IN HOJANCHA, GUANACASTE, COSTA RICA A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Geography and Anthropology by Michael Stephen Yoder B.B.A., University of Houston, 1981 M.A., University of South Carolina, 1989 December 1994 UMI Number: 9524497 UMX Microform Edition 9524497 Copyright 1995, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 Horth Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 48103 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people in both Costa Rica and The United States who guided me, helped me, and encouraged me along the way in creating this dissertation. I wish to acknowledge first of all the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) and Pew Charitable Trusts for the funding of my fieldwork in Costa Rica. I wish to thank Sonia Lobo of the Dirreci6n General Forestal (DGF) office in San Jose for her time and valuable information on state forestry-related policies. In Hojancha, the list of people I wish to thank for their invaluable time and help is lengthy: Danilo Mendez Cruz of DGF; Oscar Campos and German Guadamuz of Coope- Pilangosta; Marvin Lopez of CEMPRODECA; Felix Vasquez of the housing office; Emel Rodriguez of AGUADEFOR; Municipality President Oscar Garcia; and Padre Luis Vara. Thanks to Juan Marin for an enlightening discussion about Hojanchan politics. Thanks to Olman Campos and other employees of the Centro Agricola Cantonal de Hojancha (CACH) who gave me their time, and provided me valuable information through numerous lengthy discussions. I wish to give a special, heart-felt thanks to Jose Miguel Valverde, Director of the forestry program at CACH. Jose Miguel, my primary informant in Hojancha, tirelessly gave me many hours of his time. He is truly a friend. ii Without Jose Miguel's help, this dissertation would not have been possible. My warmest thanks go to the people of Hojancha. Not a single Hojanchan resisted talking with me, and all were patient with my Spanish, spoken with a North American accent. Many invited me into their homes, fed me, and willingly answered my questions about their lives and livelihoods. I am convinced Hojanchans are the friendliest people on earth. I wish to give a special thanks to Kent Mathewson, my advisor, mentor, and dissertation director. I appreciate all the advice and guidance you have given me, while encouraging me to explore new directions, topics, and theories. You have given me the confidence to be an academician. I also wish to thank my other committee members, Greg Veeck, Bill Davidson, Miles Richardson and Davin Ramphall for their careful reading of the second draft and their valuable, insightful comments. I wish to acknowledge the Cartography Lab at L.S.U. for the excellent production of the maps appearing in the first and third chapters. My sincere thanks go to Bill and Sharon Davidson for the use of "the pool house" for my Baton Rouge visits. I give a warm thanks to my father, John Yoder, for creating the excellent map in the seventh chapter. My mother, Gayle Yoder, deserves a special thanks for her encouraging words, . .just get it done!" I love you both very much. You are the very best parents. Thank you both for your encouragement and interest in my work. To my wife, Julie, thank you so much for having more confidence in me than I have in myself. Through your love, you convinced me that I could do this project. PREFACE In the summer of 1991, I travelled throughout Costa Rica for two months with some 20 other graduate students as part of a field course, Tropical Managed Ecosystems, sponsored by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS). By participating in the course, I hoped to broaden my knowledge of the ecological aspects of Central American small-farm agriculture. Based on fieldwork I had conducted a year earlier in Costa Rica's Valle del General, I had intended to write my dissertation on changes in that coffee zone emanating from that locality's integration in the world economy. I had established many contacts in both San Jose and the village of Santa Fe de Pejibaye in the Valle General. In short, the next three years of my life were "mapped out." During the OTS field course, however, my attention suddenly and unexpectedly turned to another area of Costa Rica. One of the research sites was a community called Hojancha in the Nicoya Peninsula, where local officials and farm families were experimenting with forestry as a means of reversing disturbing trends in poverty and land degradation. It was obvious from my first view of Hojancha that the community was quite different from other recent frontier settlement zones. Santa Fe de Pejibaye provided me the opportunity to hone my skills as a field researcher of cultural geography v in Costa Rica. But, Hojancha called louder to me, and inticed me to go there instead to investigate the "big questions" about connectivity between a small farm community and the global economy. The present document is the result of eight memorable months of fieldwork in Hojancha and several additional months of archival and library research in San Jose and The United States. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................... ii PREFACE ................................................ v LIST OF TABL E S ........................................ x LIST OF FIGURES ..........................................xii ABSTRACT ............................................... xiii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................... 1 Objectives .................................... 3 Methodology .................................... 8 Summary of Chapters ..............................10 Conclusions ....................................19 2. THE THEORETICAL RATIONALE OF CRITICAL CHOROLOGY ........................................ 20 Introduction.................................... 20 The "Place" of the New Regional Geography in Geographic Thought .......................... 22 The Reinsertion of Regions in Social S c i e n c e ....................................2 7 Defining a Region's Extent: Hojancha's "Regional Character" ...................... 3 6 Conjunctures and Critical Chorology: A Rein­ terpretation of the New Regional Geography for Third World Rural Localities ......... 42 Critical Chorology and the Environmental D i m e n s i o n .................................... 43 Peasant Persistence, Peasant Markets and the Political Economy of Hojancha ........... 46 Critical Chorology and the Role of the S t a t e .........................................53 Summary: Critical Chorology and Hojancha . 56 N o t e s .......................................... 5 9 3. THE STUDY AREA: PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY TO 1900 60 The Physical Geography, Climate, Flora, and Fauna of the Nicoya Peninsula .............. 61 The Hojancha Study Region and its Variable Physical Character ......................... 70 The Pre-Columbian