Labor power,social and economic differentials,and adaptive strategies of peasant households in stem-family regions of Spain

The stem family was the predominant form of family organization in the regions of Spain stretching from the Pyrenees to the Ebro River. In this area rural domestic groups were larger and had greater labor power than in those where nuclear family organization prevailed. The major conclusion to be drawn from this article is that where the stem family predominated, small peasant farmers and those with no property were the predominant social groups. Socially differentiated behavior patterns have been found to exist in stem-family areas due mainly to the size of farms and to the existence of adaptive strategies closely related to wealth. These strategies were mitigated by a surplus of labor power, mainly among families with smaller farms. Households with little land were able to find complementary sources of income in livestock, in exploiting communal forests and grazing lands, in becoming day laborers or domestic servants, or through working in rural transformation industries.