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Observations on the Relationship between Intra–rural Migration and Achievement Motivation in Mérida State, Venezuela
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
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The past two decades have seen considerable research on migratory problems in Latin America, particularly those problems arising from rural to urban migration and the government role in containing, regulating or directing such migration. Much less research has been directed at the less pressing, but nevertheless important, area of intra-rural migration, especially that of spontaneous migration leading to the development of new areas of colonization, and of the government role in either assisting or regulating this.
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References
1 Settlements in the Méridan lowlands remain largely dispersed when compared to Andean villages, which tend to be fairly tightly nucleated around churches, bars, schools. etc. Most of the lowland settlements surveyed for this paper consisted of relatively scattered houses, or small groups of houses, with few or no central place functions or institutional buildings. Of the specific lowland settlements surveyed, only Mucujepe, which possessed church, a school, bars and shops, etc., would, therefore, be described as a village in the true sense of the word.
2 Casagrande, J B., Thompson, R. and Young, P. D., ‘Colonization as a research frontier’ Manners, R. G. (ed). Process and Pattern in Culture (Chicago, 1974), p. 292.Google Scholar
3 Questionnaires were given to the heads of each household in each village. Survey data is reproduced in this form because some campesinos refused to answer Certain questions. As a result, the sample numbers vary between questions, and percentages are introduced to create the necessary consistency for comparison.
4 These settlements do not yet appear on official maps of the area, but are the commonly accepted local names.
5 Casagrande et al., loc. cit.
6 For more detailed elaborations of this theoretical premise see Beale, C. L., ‘Rural depopulation in the U.S.A.: Some demographic consequences’, Demography, Vol. 1 (1964), pp. 264–272,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Pool, I. de S., ‘Communication and development’ in Weiner, M. (ed.), Modernisation: The Dynamics of Growth (New York, 1966).Google Scholar
7 Ravenstein, E. G., ‘The Laws of Migration’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1889), pp. 167–227.Google Scholar
8 López, J. E., ‘La Población’in Instituto de, Geografía Mérida (ed.), Estudio Integral de la Cuenca del Chama: Sector Lagunillas de Urao (Méida, 1963).Google Scholar
9 Authors who argue along these lines for other developing areas include Adams, R. N., ‘Rural Labour’, in Johnson, J. J. (ed.), Continuity and Social Change in Latin America (Stanford, 1964)Google Scholar and Mitchell, J. C., ‘Structural Plurality, Urbanisation and Labour Circulation in S. Rhodesia’ in Jackson, J. A. (ed.), Migration (Cambridge, 1969).Google Scholar
10 Winterbottom, M. R., ‘The Relation of Childhood Training in Independence to Achievement Motivation’, University of Michigan microfilms, No. 5113, 1953.Google Scholar McClelland, D. C. ‘Risk Taking in Children with High and Low Need for Achievement’, in Atkinson, J. W. (ed.), Motives in Fantasy Action and Society (Princeton, 1958).Google Scholar
11 Watters, R. J., ‘Economic Backwardness in the Venezuelan Andes’, Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1967), pp. 17–68.Google Scholar
12 The best currently available indices are still to be found in Adorno, T. W. et al. , The Authoritarian Personality (New York, 1950), but these suffer from a strong cultural bias and, for this reason, were not used in the fieldwork for this paper.Google Scholar
13 Details of the development and use of this testing measure are to be found in McClelland, D. C. et al., The Achievement Motive (New York, 1953).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Briefly, the test is based on a thematic apperception test. See Murray, H. A., Explorations in Personality (New York, 1938),Google Scholar using photographs as a stimulus to the production of short-story fantasies, leading to a subsequent content analysis of these stories, where the achievement imagery revealed within them is scored according to a standardized system. The scoring method remains a little subjective, but objectivity is maximized by repeated practice against standardized scoring manuals. See Atkinson, J. W. (ed.), Motives in Fantasy, Action and Society (Princeton, 1958).Google Scholar
14 Angelini, A. L., ‘Measuring the Achievement Motive in Brazil’, Journal of Psychology, Vol. 68 (1966), pp. 35–40;Google Scholar Rogers, E. M., and Neill, R. E., Achievement Motivation among Colombian Peasants (East Lansing, Michigan, 1966).Google Scholar
15 McClelland's test demands that subjects should write their story/fantasies under controlled conditions, within a fixed time period. Such stringency was impossible under Andean conditions. The control conditions were, therefore, made as friendly as possible, the time period was relaxed, and the stories were dictated rather than written down. In addition, the cue photographs were varied to include two familiar local scenes, together with two standard photographs, but this variation in photographs produced no apparent difference in results.
16 This theme is elaborated at length by Hagen, E. E., On the Theory of Social Change (Homewood, Illinois, 1962)Google Scholar and by McClelland, D. E., ‘The Achievement Motive in Economic Growth’ in Hoselitz, B. W. and Moore, W. C. (eds.), Industrialisation and Society (New York, 1966).Google Scholar
17 For example, the important role of the radio in the diffusion of information throughout the Venezuelan Andes is emphasized in Consejo de Bienestar Rural, Problemas Económicos y Sociales de Los Andes, Partes I y II (Caracas, 1953 and 1955).Google Scholar
18 For example, this correlation is positively developed by Bogue, D. J. and Zachariah, K. C., ‘Urbanisation and Migration in India’ in Turner, R. (ed.), India's Urban Future (Berkeley, 1961)Google Scholar and by Hamilton, C. H., ‘Educational Selectivity of Net Migration from the South’, Social Forces, Vol. 38, No.1 (1959), pp. 33–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19 This is strange, as it was the tropical climate and the health hazards associated with it which actively inhibited migration to the lowlands until the malaria and yellow fever controls of the 1950s. The fear of the tropical lowland climate is still very marked amongst many Andean campesinos.
20 Watters, , loc. cit., p. 47.Google Scholar
21 Ministerio de Agricultura y Cría, Programa de Extension El Vigia (Caracas, 1963).Google Scholar
22 Such an assertion should be taken as representative only of the Méridan section of thc Maracaibo lowlands. Overall, lowland agriculture in the Zulian section of the Maracaibo lowlands, both to the east and west of Lake Maracaibo, is much more progressive and more commercially developed.
23 Watters, , loc. cit., p. 49.Google Scholar
24 Seelkopf, C., Ensayo sobre alirncntación de Campesinos en Páramo y Llanos de Venezuela (Mérida, 1962).Google Scholar
25 Infant mortality rates are taken here to be deaths before or within the first 12 months of life, per 1,000 live births.
26 Peter, L. J., The Peter Principle (London, 1971).Google Scholar
27 This criticism of institutional inactivity must be viewed strictly in Context, and not as overall criticism of the Venezuelan land reform programme. The practical implementation of the Venezuelan land reform programme is certainly open to considerable criticism (see, for example, Heaton, L. M., The Agricultural Development of Venezuela) (New York, 1969)Google Scholar and Eastwood, D. A., ‘Land Reform in Venezuela: Theory and Practice’, Centre For Latin American Studies, Liverpool. Monograph No. 5 (Liverpool, 1975), but clearly the budget for land reform is finite and, as yet, cannot be expected to have had significant impact in all areas. Moreover, although there is little or no practical evidence of the reform movement in the Méridan section of the Maracaibo lowlands, in the Zulian section the reform movement has been much more active and much more successful. Criticism implied in this paper is, therefore, restricted to the government's order of reform priorities. It is asserted that, because of the relatively innovationalist nature of the migrant personality, then the Méridan lowlands possess a pool of relatively good rural labour. Based on this criterion, they, therefore, offer greater potential for initial institutional development and reciprocal capital regeneration than do other, more traditional Andean rural areas, in which scarce reform capital has already been invested.Google Scholar