In an end of century marked by a new world order, farmers cannot remain at the margin; the new rural sociability no longer has its ties only in the districts and communities, but also in projects and economic apparatuses managed by organizations. Medium or big companies with an associative character are part of the new profile of farmers, and the knowledge and the abilities necessary to operate them are being gotten up to their culture. The farmer is not a person or a family. The farmer is a social phenomenon which is located in a historical, ethical, folkloric and religious context, that can hardly be definable, not even indefinable, due to the multiplicity of rolls that fulfills in the present society. The current farmer is a mixture of the past, the present and the future, and this statement is the real key of its reproduction. In this sense, to try to understand the farmer's organizations through sociological theories proposed in the past, especially the concept of social action of Max Weber, is of little caution, since the structure of values of these individuals has substantially changed or disappeared. Even though the reigned concept of values is the same, it is immersed in a historical context different from the one of Weber. The purpose of the present article is to undertake a theoretical reflection on the rules of Weber concept of social action showing that this concept is not tool to produce a valid analysis to understand the present individual, in special the farmer. The action, in this sense, is originated from the interaction of individuals or groups, who are characterized by their psychic system (considering not only the individuals structure of values, but also other existing elements such as necessities and impulses), this micro-surroundings that are generated must be in contact with the complexity of the world or rather with reality, with the purpose of facing it and being able to keep as an individual or a group organization.
Social action; Max Weber; farmer; indigenous
