Four models of economic differentiation in a rural township of western Guatemala are tested through qualitative and quantitative methods. The relationships between four major variables: occupation, religion, economic ideology, and economic status are evaluated through statistical methods. The findings suggest that occupation change, in this case the production and trade of non-traditional crops, is a major mediating variable in the process of economic differentiation. However, people's attitudes towards the economy are related to economic status independent of any effects of occupation. The study has implications for the prediction of change in peasant societies and the identification of processes of interaction between practice and ideology.