University of Kentucky UKnowledge University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2008 CULTIVATING CHANGE: NEW PRODUCTS FROM COSTA RICAS COUNTRYSIDE Erin Michelle Ricci University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Ricci, Erin Michelle, "CULTIVATING CHANGE: NEW PRODUCTS FROM COSTA RICAS COUNTRYSIDE" (2008). University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations. 579. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_diss/579 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Erin Michelle Ricci The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2008 CULTIVATING CHANGE: NEW PRODUCTS FROM COSTA RICA’S COUNTRYSIDE _____________________________________ ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION _____________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Erin Michelle Ricci Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Lisa Cliggett, Professor of Anthropology Lexington, Kentucky 2008 Copyright © Erin Michelle Ricci 2008 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION CULTIVATING CHANGE: NEW PRODUCTS FROM COSTA RICA’S COUNTRYSIDE This dissertation examines rural families’ responses to global and local situations that have made earning a livelihood as a farmer very difficult. Drawing from original research, including a household livelihood census of 195 households, interviews with 72 people, participant observation, and archival research, the dissertation explores how rural families have responded to declines in domestic agricultural markets fueled by global and national forces and local environmental change. It asks: what impact will small farming families’ responses to these forces of change have on people’s identities as peasants? I argue that while great change is underway in the countryside, peasant identity continues to flourish as people on the ground re-work and re-negotiate what it means to be a peasant. This research provides a voice to those often overlooked by macro-analyses of economic, political, or cultural development by providing rich ethnographic details on how global forces impact otherwise out-of-the way places. This dissertation critically examines what is meant by development and change, what development and change look like in a local, grounded context and what current trends can teach us about the future of rural areas both in Costa Rica and in other regions of the world experiencing similar phenomena: increasing educational opportunities for youth, a continued opening up of agricultural markets, a blurring of the line between the urban and the rural, and declining environmental quality. KEYWORDS: Peasants, Identity, Rural Families, Households, Costa Rica Erin M. Ricci January 30, 2008 CULTIVATING CHANGE: NEW PRODUCTS FROM COSTA RICA’S COUNTRYSIDE By Erin Michelle Ricci Lisa Cliggett Director of Dissertation Lisa Cliggett Director of Graduate Studies January 30, 2008 RULES FOR THE USE OF DISSERTATIONS Unpublished dissertations submitted for the Doctor’s degree and deposited in the University of Kentucky Library are as a rule open for inspection, but are to be used only with due regard to the rights of the authors. Bibliographical references may be noted, but quotations or summaries of parts may be published only with the permission of the author, and with the usual scholarly acknowledgments. Extensive copying or publication of the dissertation in whole or in part also requires the consent of the Dean of the Graduate School of the University of Kentucky. A library that borrows this dissertation for use by its patrons is expected to secure the signature of each user. DISSERTATION Erin Michelle Ricci The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2008 CULTIVATING CHANGE: NEW PRODUCTS FROM COSTA RICA’S COUNTRYSIDE ___________________________________________________ DISSERTATION ____________________________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Erin Michelle Ricci Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Lisa Cliggett, Professor of Anthropology Lexington, Kentucky 2008 Copyright © Erin Michelle Ricci 2008 This dissertation is dedicated to my husband, Dan, and our son, Lucas, who was born at then end of my journey through graduate school and fieldwork. I could not have birthed either – the dissertation or our son – without the amazing support and encouragement that my husband has provided. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The ability of anthropologists to get us to take what they say seriously has less to do with either a factual look or an air of conceptual elegance than it has with their capacity to convince us that what they say is a result of their having actually penetrated (or, if you prefer, been penetrated by) another form of life, of having, one way or another, truly “been there.” And that, persuading us that this offstage miracle has occurred, is where the writing comes in. -Clifford Geertz (Works and Lives 1988) Unfortunately, this dissertation did not write itself. I had to sit in a chair (and at times when my back flared up an exercise ball) and write it myself. Still, my time “with my butt in the chair,” as my advisor liked to call it, would have never happened without the encouragement and support of many people. The Department of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky has served as a great incubator for me and I am thankful and lucky that I spent the better part of my twenties working with the great faculty there. In particular, I must thank my advisor, Dr. Lisa Cliggett, who has patiently now seen me through a master’s degree and a PhD. Dr. Peter Little served as co-chair of my committee for some time and encouraged me a great deal as well. Dr Susan Roberts in the Geography Department and Dr. Mary Anglin in Anthropology have also served on my committee and I appreciate their participation. Dr. Deborah Crooks was a member of my committee through my qualifying exams and I would like to recognize her participation in my doctoral experience even though she is not an official committee member. In addition to the stimulating coursework offered in my own department, I also took a number of course from folks in the Geography Department and feel indebted to them as well. In addition to working with Dr. Susan Roberts, I particularly benefited from courses with Dr. John Paul Jones and Dr. Wolfgang Natter. I would also like to thank Dr. Francie Chassen-Lopez for her seminar in Latin American history which may have been my favorite seminar experience in higher education. I am also grateful to my husband, Dan Ricci, who has seen me through much of graduate school and even agreed to drive to Costa Rica with me, despite the fact that he had never left the country before and spoke no Spanish. He has been a sounding board for my ideas and his insights have added to this final product. iii Finally, this dissertation would not be possible without the cooperation, generosity, and hospitality given to me by the people of Costa Rica. Many anthropologists have written about their struggles in the field. Some have struggled to find informants. Others have struggled with cultural practices that differ from their own: a lack of privacy, extreme differences in gender roles and status, or a struggle to stomach severe levels of poverty and disease. Fortunately, my fieldwork experience was rather luxurious by comparison. Even though I was in a remote area, I had many comforts of home- hot water, internet access through my phone line, a semi-automatic washer, and a refrigerator. These amenities made time in the field pleasurable. But the number one thing that made my fieldwork seem easy was the overwhelming hospitality of the people of Los Bajos1. In all of my time in the field, only one person refused to speak with me when I requested it. People took me into their homes, fed me, patiently answered my questions, offered to take me to their fincas, offered to take me on errands, invited me to their celebrations, to funerals, to worship, to school programs, and to simply sit and watch soccer games. Their hospitality was humbling to me and it is my hope that I will someday be able to repay their kindness. 1 A pseudonym iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………...……....... iii List of Tables .………………………………………………………………..…...…… viii List of Figures ……………………………………………………………….………..… ix Chapter One: Precarious Times for the Peasantry: Political, Economic, Environmental, And Cultural Change in Costa Rica ……………………………………………… 1 No Left Swings Here …………………………………………………………….. 1 CAFTA’s Strange Rites of Passage ……………………………………………... 2 CAFTA? NAFTA? Do We Hafta? ………………………………………………. 5 Other Agricultural Changes in “Los Bajos” …………………………………….. 9 Chapter Overviews ……………………………………………………………....12 Chapter Two: Methods and Emergent Themes ……………………………………….... 17 Methods ……………………………………………………………………...…. 23 Household Livelihood Census …………………………………………….…… 23 In-depth Interviews …………………………………………………………….. 27 Fieldnotes and Participant Observation ……….…………………………..…… 29 (Field) Trips ………………………………………………………………….… 29 Archival Research ……………………………………………………………...