ABSTRACTS.

The article presents abstracts of various articles and research papers that appeared in the April 1990 issue of the journal Sociologia Ruralis. An article authored by F.J.A. Bouman states that in the small-scale rural economies of the Third World people have always resorted to informal forms of saving, borrowing and lending to insure themselves against risk and uncertainty. Contrary to formal sector finance, these informal circuits are able to respond quickly to the challenge of new directions in the economy. Another paper by L. Llambi reinterprets 20th century agrarian transitions in Latin America based on a comprehensive synthesis of empirical material. Instead of a Eurocentric feudal-to-capitalist reading of Latin America's agrarian history, a transition within capitalism approach is proposed, while taking into account the region's still existing Amerindian pre-capitalist societies and their recent restructuring. The first part of the paper deals with the main epistemological issues underpinning the agrarian transition as an object oil inquiry.