Land contracts concluded with respectto leases and transfers of land rights revealthe originality and paradoxes of rural societyin Bourbonnais. At the same time, thesecontracts enable us to better understand whyjoint possessions and associative forms ofwork organization, as well as life and coresidencecommunities, predominated in thisregion. The central place held by sharecroppingand the very particular meaning of thistype of contract are emphasized and analysed.But beyond this specific type of agreement,the wide range of contractual practicesdisplay a noteworthy coherence: the relationshipbetween the sharecropper and hismaster, the relationships within family communities(not only sharecroppers, but alsoland owning peasants), and even characteristicforms of land tenure reveal significantsimilarities with respect to access to land andwork organization.