Differentiation Among Padi Households in the Muda Region: A Village Case Study

Abstract

The question as to whether agrarian differentiation or the extent to which class relations can be said to be developing in the Malaysian countryside is the subject of this paper. Drawing on data from a village study in the Muda region it is argued that social differentiation between village households can be found but these differences are not yet indicative of class differentiation. This is because the dynamics of household formation in the Malay peasant context is governed as much by the needs of subsistence reproduction as by production. Also, it is questionable whether village boundaries form the limits within which class formation is taking place within the present Malaysian context.