シンハラ農村の労働交換体系

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  • Labor Exchange System in Sinhalese Agrarian Settlements
  • シンハラ ノウソン ノ ロウドウ コウカン タイケイ

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This article analyzes reciprocal labor exchange in Sinhaleseagrarian settlements in Matale District of Sri Lanka. Laborexchange is defined here as the exchange of labor in whichassistance has to be more or less precisely reciprocated by that ofthe same kind and quantity in a short time period, e.g., one dayof plowing assistance for one day of plowing assistance during acultivation season.Labor exchange in peasant agriculture is usually organizedby individual households to achieve an optimal mobilization oflabor for certain agricultural operations. This mobilizationresults both in minimizing the costs (drudgery and wages) ofpeasant production and in maximizing the exploitation of householdlabor. Except in a few cases, any symbolic expression ofparticular socio-cultural messages between the host and thehelper is of secondary importance. Labor exchange is thus akind of economic exchange in a neoclassical sense. However,since the rate of exchange is institutionally fixed at one for theprecise reciprocity, it is of course not governed by marketmechanisms. In other words, although exchange labor is ascarce resource, particularly during the times of peak demandfor labor in peasant agricultural production, the differencebetween demand and supply of exchange labor is not mediatedwith varying rates of exchange. As a consequence, the followingtwo questions must be examined to understand labor exchangebehavior. The first is how the difference between demandand supply of exchange labor is mediated at the individualhousehold level. The second is how the flow of exchange laboris determined in a locality. However, few studies in anthro-pology and mainstream economics have examined these questions,because their models and concepts have not been developed toanalyze reciprocal economic behavior, such as the labor exchangediscussed here. It is in this context that labor exchange inSinhalese agrarian settlements is examined in this article.I attempt to analyze labor exchange behavior as a maximization(or economization) process in peasant agriculturalproduction within the wider political-economic setting of SriLanka. The empirical focus is on the decision making processregarding labor exchange and complementary labor mobilization,in order to understand the causes and consequences of the choicesthat the peasant households make to meet the demand for labormobilization. For this purpose, the natural decision makingapproach is employed here, together with ethnographic observation.The bulk of empirical analyses on various phases oflabor exchange shows that at the individual household levelthe difference between demand and supply of exchange laboris largely mediated through exploration for exchange labor,in which each household forms a relatively fixed network oflabor exchange and (often competitively) organizes it withinthe network. It further shows that the relative degree oftolerance of imbalance in labor exchange affects both the mediationbetween demand and supply of exchange labor at theindividual household level and the flow of exchange labor inthe locality. Based on the above analyses and findings, thisarticle finally argues that labor exchange, rooted in history andcustom as a pre-capitalist mode of labor organization, cannotbe regarded simply as a cultural lag or hangover from a precapitalisteconomy; labor exchange is rather an adaptive responsemade by peasant households to their current ecological, economicand social conditions. This further suggests that the modelpresented here, although an empirical model of labor exchangein Sinhalese peasant agriculture, will guide research endeavoron various kinds of reciprocal economic exchange yet to beexamined.

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