Social Change in an Upland Community in Quezon, Philippines

Abstract

This study attempts to describe and analyze social change in an upland community in Quezon Province, Philippines, through the analysis of changing agricultural systems and its effect on social differentiation and stratification. Specifically, the objectives of the study are as follows: 1. To analyze and compare the agricultural systems of an upland community in the early 1970s and 1980s ; and 2. To discuss the allocation of income, power and privileges as the agricultural systems of an upland community change. The study was conducted in Barangay San Roque, Catanauan, Quezon Province. Data were gathered through interviews by using prepared interview schedules. These were analyzed using frequency counts and percentages. During the early 1970s to 1980s, San Roque experienced changing agricultural systems. Farming methods which were formerly oriented towards subsistence production gradually gave way to more commercial methods of production. Subsistence farming with rice, corn and root crops decreased in importance as farmers learned to cultivate commercial crops such as bananas, coconut, fruit trees and coffee. An increasing number of farmers began to practise mixed cropping with perennial crops.