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Process in Social Boundaries
A Study of Processes in the Isolation of Selected Rural and Urban Communities
Christopher D. Freudenberg
University of Sussex
MA Thesis, 1970
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The aim of this thesis is to show how studies in terms of the concept social form are less useful than studies based on the concept of social process. An article by Robert Redfield is taken as an example of a study in terms of social form. The aim is to understand the assumptions of those who use each of the concepts and to assess their significance for the greater understanding of the mechanics of social behaviour.
After discussing Redfield's study in Section 1, I argue for the usefulness of studies based on the concept social process. I decide to concentrate on one aspect of his model: the isolation of the community from other communities and all those things which form part of the environment of that community.
In Section 2 I follow up this primary interest by seeking variables which cause or are caused by isolation in three village communities in Southern Europe. Having found that there are a number of relevant variables I decide to (a) have a main emphasis on one which I think is somewhat logically independent of other variables and (b) observe how this one variable is different in different villages and so in different environments. My discovery of some correlation between variables in the villages examined gives me sufficient confidence to make general statements about how isolation is caused in village communities. It also gives me sufficient confidence to say how inaccurate it often is to talk only of isolation as referring to that of the village.
In Section 3 I discuss how the isolated units in the villages considered are in.fact a variety of entities which exist in some cases within the village and in others include sections of the village and others outside the village, and in yet others include all people from outside as well as all members of the village. There are degrees of boundedness and this depends on the content of the relationships within the entity and may or may not depend on geographical circumstances.
Having realised that the mode of approach I use in Section 3 could be relevant to other kinds of community I proceed in Section 4 to subject data on three British urban community s tudies to the same treatment as was given to the three village studies. I examine the conception of boundaries and their environments in these communities and find that useful similarities and differences between the village and urban data are present and that the mode of approach is useful in revealing this understanding.
Finally in Section 5 I indicate that I am satisfied that I have shown the limits of the mode of approach of Redfield and the usefulness of that recommended by Miner, Barth and also Van Velsen whose argument I describe in this section, and that in fact I have added to the understanding of the isolation of village and urban communities. I also consider points made by Barth in his new book "Ethnic Groups and boundaries".
Redfield in his article "The Folk Society" (M.S. L11 No.4. 1947) concentrates on making contrasts between Folk societies and modern urbanised societies. In this section I try to assess the usefulness of Redfield's Folk-Urban continuum as described in the above mentioned article as a means for the greater understanding of the workings of peasant and urban communities. I criticise Redfield, using as sources for this criticism work by Horace Miner, Oscar Lewis and Frederik Barth. Further argument in the thesis derives from this critique.
The folk-urban continuum must be seen as an early attempt to improve on Max Webers "Ideal Type" model. The poles of the continuum are like two building blocks which must be elaborated into statements about variables in order to account for change and process. It may have been useful ten years ago but not now in the Redfieldian sense. Now we must break dow n the building blocks into their basic variables. In this thesis I try to do this with just a small part of the Redfield model: that which concerns isolation. The first section. which is an ennumeration of Redfield's argument and its critics, provides a contrast to the analysis in subsequent sections which are concerned only with isolation of communities.
The argument in this section goes in the following steps. I describe first the Redfield model presented in his paper "The Folk Society". I then ennumerate criticisms which can be made about the model: the limited value of using contrasts and not similarities; his concentration on the Folk end of the continuum; its limited usefulness for prediction. I then discuss the arguments of the authors of these criticisms. I conclude by saying that the procedures recommended by these critics, that is the concentration on the determinants of social form, content, process and continuities in the society under consideration, increase the usefulness of anthropological studies for making predictions about possible directions of change and for finding some universal characteristics of human social life.
Redfield's article is based on the assumptions that understanding of complex societies can be gained by examining societies which contrast with it, and that peasant societies have features in common which can be regarded as a type which will make this contrast with complex urban societies. Redfield says:
"Understanding of society in general and of our own modern urbanised society in particular, can be gained through consideration of societies least like our own" ... "The further assumption made here is that folk societies have certain features in common which enable us to think of them as a type - a type which contrasts with the society of the modern city."
The article is therefore a presentation of the characteristics which he identifies as making folk societies like each other and different from the modern city.
There follows now an outline of Redfield's description of Folk society. Much of the description is in Redfield's own words.
i) Small: The folk society is a small society. There are no more people in it than can come to know it well and they remain in long association with each other.
ii) Isolated: The folk society is an isolated society. Probably there is no real society whose members are in complete ignorance of the existence of people other than themselves. Nevertheless the folk societies we know are made up of people who have little communication with outsiders, and we may conceive of the ideal folk society as composed of persons having communication with no outsider.
iii) Stable: In building the ideal type we may conceive of the members of the society as remaining always within.the small territory they occupy.
iv) Non-literate: The folk communicate only by word of mouth. Through books people communicate with the minds of other people and other times and an aspect of the isolation of the folk society is the absence of books. Therefore communication upon which understanding is built is only that which takes place among neighbours within the little society itself.
v) Homogeneous: The people who make up a folk society are much alike. Having lived in long intimacy with one another and with no others, they have come to form a single biological type. What one man knows and believes is the same as what all men know and believe. Since the people communicate with one another and with no others. One man's learned ways of thinking are the same as another's.
vi) Strong sense of group solidarity: The members of the folk society have a strong sense of belonging together. Communicating intimately with each other, each has a strong claim on the sympathies of theothers.
vii) No division of labour: There is not much division of labour in the folk society; what one person does is what another does. In the ideal folk society all the tools and ways of production are shared by everybody.
viii) Economic independence: The ideal folk society is, as a group, economically independent of all others. The people produce what'they consume and consume what they produce.
ix) Behaviour is traditional, spontaneous and uncritical: The ways in which the members of the society meet the recurrent problems of life are conventionalized ways; they are the results of long intercommunication within the group in the face of these problems. These conventionalized ways have become interrelated with one another so that they form a coherent and self consistent system. Such a system is what we mean in saying that the folk society is characterised by a "culture". A culture, is an organisation or integration of conventional understandings. The folk society exhibits culture to the greatest conceivable degree. Behaviour is thus strongly patterned. There are fundamental principles which are understood by all. The ends of folk society are taken as given. What is done is done because it seems necessarily to flow from the nature of things. There is no disposition to reflect upon traditional acts and to consider them objectively and critically.
x) No Science. No critical examination of knowledge: Legislation has no part in the law of the ideal folk society, neither has codification, still less jurisprudence. There is common practical knowledge but there is no science. Behaviour in the folk society is highly conventional and knowledge is not critically examined or objectively and systematically formulated.
xi) Personal contact: Behaviour is personal, not impersonal. Many relationships are familial. In so far as the consanguine lines are well defined the folk society may be thought of as composed of families rather than individuals. It is the familial group that act and are acted upon. There is strong solidarity within the kinship group and the individual is responsible to all his kin as they are responsible to him.
xii) Sacred: The value of every traditional act or object or institution is, thus, something which the members of the society are not disposed to call into question; and should the value be called into question, the doing so is resented. This characteristic of the folk society may be briefly referred to by saying that it is a sacred society. In folk society one may not, without calling into effect negative social sanctions, challenge as valueless what has come to be traditional in that society.
Towards the end of the paper Redfield again refers to the usefulness of making contrasts with urban society. He says:
"The conception sketched here takes on meaning if the folk society is seen in contrast to the modern city. The vast, complicated, and rapidly changing world in which the urbanite and even the urbanised country-dweller live today is enormously different from the small, inward-facing folk society, with its well-integrated and little changing moral and religious conceptions. At one time all men lived in these little folk societies. For many thousands of years men must have lived so; urbanised life began only very recently, as the long history of men on earth is considered, and the extreme development of a secularised and swift changing world society is only a few generations old.
The tribal groups that still remain around the edges of expanding civilisation are the small remainders of this primary state of living. Considering them one by one, and in comparison with the literate or semi-literate societies, the industrialized societies and the semi-industrialized societies, we may discover how each has developed forms of social life in accordance with its own special circumstances."
Having outlined the points made in Redfield's paper "The Folk Society" I now consider criticisms which have been levelled against it. From these criticisms I derive the essential argument of the paper in favour of concern with social process rather than social form.
The following criticisms can be made about Redfield's model.
In his article Redfield concentrates on the folk end of the continuum. This is the essence of his argument: that more knowledge can be gained about a phenomenon by studying its opposite. Although one gains understanding of something by finding out what it is not, this does not necessarily tell us what it is. Redfield's study is useful for the understanding of the folk end of the continuum but the continuum is unsatisfactory without greater elaboration on what stands at the other pole. There is only cursory mention of characteristics which are distinctly urban.
Oscar Lewis has argued that this emphasis on the folk end of the continuum is part of an assumption that primitive society is somehow inherently better than complex, urban society. Lewis says that:
"... underlying the folk-urban dichotomy as used by Redfield, is a system of value judgments which contains... the notion of Primitive people as noble savages, and the correlation that with civilisation has come the fall of man ... It is assumed that all folk societies are the great disorganising force." ("Life in a Mexican Village", p.432)
Miner is his article "The folk urban continuum" (A.J.S. Oct. 1952) questions this criticism. He feels that this sort of value judgment is not really inherent in the continuum. I would agree with this but still criticise his concentration on the folk end of the continuum. Whether or nor Lewis is correct in making this criticism, Redfield can for another reason be criticised for his emphasis on the folk end of the continuum.
If one is only interested in the folk end of the continuum this emphasis might be legitimate. However, the usefulness of the continuum is considerably increased. If it can be also used to understand societies which are relatively less near the folk end of the continuum yet not urban. The lack of definition of the urban end of the continuum and the emphasis on contrasts without consideration of similarities means that the usefulness for understanding societies which are less near the folk ideal type is limited.
This criticism that Redfield's continuum has limited usefulness gives perhaps a hint that the essential criticism that I wish to make concerns not the detail of his study but the mode of approach. The criticisms which I have mentioned up till now are really only symptoms of a more pervasive ailment. The usefulness of the continuum for making predictions about what takes place in other societies which have characteristics which can be located on the continuum, or the effect of changes in one or other of the characteristics on the continuum for the society as a whole.
Before going on to elaborate on this criticism, I should point out that I am to some extent doing Redfield an injustice by introducing the criterion that continua, such as that presented by Redfield, should be capable of being used for making predictions. Redfield says himself that his aims were limited:
"The function (of the ideal type which forms one end of the continuum) is to suggest aspects of real societies which deserve study, and especially to suggest hypotheses as to what, under certain defined conditions, may be true about society."
He wanted to suggest hypotheses, not to test them. He thus did not intend to use his analytic framework to make predictions. But he did want to understand "reality":
"The type (folk society contrasted with urban society) is an imagined entity,. created only because, through it we may hope to understand reality".
My claim is that with his framework he will not be able to understand how societies which are similar to his ideal type change or are relatively similar or different.
These criticisms which I now discuss will I hope show how a more useful mode of approach can be used.
I turn now to the sources of my criticism.
Miner in his discussion of the folk end of the continuum points out an important aspect of Redfield's paper which is the essence of my criticism of Redfield and the essence of this section. Miner makes several criticisms of Redfield's framework. One of them is that it has limited theroretic insight. He cites previous criticisms as having already made this point:
"G. R. Murdock has criticised the folk urban concept because it does. not make use of historical, (or) functional theory and method (A.A. 1943 pp 133-136). Melville Herskovitz antedates Lewis in dissatisfaction with the type categories because they emphasise form rather than process." (1948 pp 604-7)
These criticisms point up accurately the basic nature of the continuum. It does deal with the form rather than with the content of culture traits. As a predictive device it is a weak hypothesis. This doubtless accounts for the fact that Redfield does not refer to it as a hypothesis at all.
"It will place the continuum in its proper perspective if we ask what utility remains for it if it provides little ... predictive value and if no theory concerning function and process is involved." (Miner 1952, my underlining)
It is Redfield's concern with form rather than process and content of culture traits which I wish to explain and criticise.
Miner does not explain very clearly what he means by form, content, and process nor does he go sufficiently into the significance of the words. He does not explain in any detail why he thinks that dealing with the content rather than the process of culture traits renders the continuum more useful. I wish in the subsequent part of this paper to explain what I understand these terms to mean and how they can contribute to the greater usefulness of the continuum.
Fredrik Barth uses the words in his paper "On the study of Social Change" (A.A. Vol. 69 No. 6, Dec. 1967). An examination of his arguments and the context in which he uses the words helps to explain how I interpret Miner's criticism of Redfield's folk urban continuum.
Barth feels that if we want to understand social change, we need concepts that allow us to observe and describe the events of change.
"The reason," he says, "for the social anthropologist's impasse when he tries to add change to his traditional description of social systems is found in the basic characteristics of the descriptive concepts we habitually use. We wish to characterise groups, societies or cultures and to do this we have to aggregate individual observations. We generally think of the procedure as one where we aggregate individual cases of behaviour to patterns of behaviour specifying the common features of the individual cases. Such patterns we think of as customs: stereotype forms of behaviour that are required and correct..."
"This kind of morphologocal concept of custom as the minimal element of form has been fundamental to our thinking because it serves a useful purpose. It allows us to aggregate individual cases into a macro system and to maintain the connection between the two levels..."
"But such a concept of custom makes the pattern as a whole unobservable except as exemplified in the stereotyped aspects of each individual case - the aggregate pattern can never be observed by measurement and change in a pattern or change from one pattern to another is even less observable."
"A statistical view of the practice of customs does not provide a way out ... We need rather to use concepts that enable us to depict the pattern itself as a statistical thing; as a set of frequencies and alternatives."
Barth is thus concerned to:
"isolate the underlying determinant of social forms, so as to see how changes in them generate changing social systems...."
Barth's interest in the events of change is stated clearly in the following. He feels that
"It is important for social anthropologists to realise that we further our understanding of social change by using concepts that make the concrete events of change available for observation and systematic description.
"This analytic perspective stands in marked contrast to the anthropological predilections for going from a generalised concept of social form to a list of lprd-requisites' for this general type."
This is the essence of Barth's argument in favour of concern with content rather than form. He says that approaches that rely on typologies of overt social forms (viz Redfield) will not provide as ready insights into the nature of social change.
Barth makes two further points. He argues in favour of
"... the necessity for specification of the nature of the continuity in a sequence of change, and the processual analysis that this entails,"
"... The importance of the study of institutionalisation as an ongoing process."
These two arguments are the basis of Barth's emphasis on the concrete events of change. He says that to speak about change one needs to.be able to specify the nature of the continuity between the situations discussed under the rubric of change.
Barth illustrates his argument by citing material from the Fur. In the example the way in which household organisation changes from one form to another is described.
Fur household organization is one where each adult individual is an economic unit for himself: each man or woman produces essentially what he or she needs for food and cash., and has a separate purse. Husband and wife have certain customary obligations toward each other: among other services, a wife must cook and brew for her husband, and he must provide her with clothes for herself and their children. But each of the two cultivates separate fields and keeps provisions in separate grain stores.
This arrangement can be depicted as a system of allocations (Figure 1). A woman must allocate a considerable amount of her time varying with the season, to agricultural production. By virtue of the marriage contract, she is also constrained to allocate time to cooking and to brewing beer for her husbandi
Figure 1.
The husband, on his side, owes it to his wife to allocate some of his cash to consumption goods for her. Such patterns of, allocation are thus one way of describing the structure of Fur family and household.
Some of these Fur couples change their mode of life and become nomadic pastoralists like the surrounding Baggara Arabs (cf. Haaland 1967). Together with this change in subsistence patterns one finds a change in family and household form, in that such couples establish a joint household. Their allocations change, as compared with those of normal Fur villagers (Figure 2). The husband specializes in the activities that have to do with herding and husbandry, while thewoman cultivates some millet, churns butter and markets it, and cooks food. They have a joint grain store and.a joint purse and make up a unit for consumption.
In the anthropological tradition, one might reasonably formulate the hypothesis that what we observe here is a case of acpulturation: as part of the change to a Baggara Arab way of life they also adopt the Arab household form. This manner of describing the course of change implies a very concrete view of household organisation as one of the parts of Arab culture, a set of customs that people can take over.
Fortunately, the ethnographic material provides us with a test case for the acculturation hypothesis: some Fur cultivators in villages where they have no contact with Arab horticultural populations, have recently taken up fruit-growing in irrigated orchards as a specialized form of cash-crop production. Among such Fur too, one finds joint households, but with a slightly different pattern of allocation (Figure 3). Here the conjugal pair make a unit both for production and consumption, jointly cultivating the orchard and sharing the returns.
To maintain the force of the acculturation explanation of the form of the nomad households, one would have to look for similar factors in the case of the orchard cultivators and hypothesize a change in values and acculturation to modern life among them. But it is difficult to see the sources of influence for such acculturation; more importantly, a restatement of the nature of the continuity provides opportunities for other kinds of hypotheses. If we agree that behaviour in households is determined by several kinds of constraints, that all behaviour is "new" in that it constitutes allocations of time, and resources made or renewed in the moment of action and that households persist because their forms are, recreated by behaviour each day, then we need to ask what the other determinants of these allocations are. To explain a changing pattern of activities, we need not hypothesize changed categorizations and values: we can also look at the changed circumstances that may well make other allocations optimal when evaluated by the same standards.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
Indeed, the traditional range of behaviour and allocations in a Fur village indicates that the Fur do not subscribe to any kind of prohibition in joint conjugal households - such arrangements are just not very convenient. A fair autonomy of husband and wife is regarded as a good thing, and joint economic pursuits are a potential field for conflict. Moreover, the techniques of millet cultivation are such that persons work individually in any case; and where a person desires help during peak seasons, he or she can mobilize labour in bulk through a beer work party. In the case of irrigated cash crops, on the other hand, the horticultural techniques are such that is may be convenient to cooperate. Persons with neighboring plots often do so; occasionally a husband and wife will also decide to cultivate a joint field because they "like" to work together and because they can partly take turns at irrigation, etc., partly co-operate.
The advantages of this jointness in cultivation are rather limited, only slightly reducing the labour input required for the same result, and few spouses choose to work jointly. But in a situation where one of the spouses can specialise in herding, the other in cultivation and dairying, co-operation offers great advantages. Similarly. when a pooling of labour in specialized arboriculture and fruit-picking gives far greater returns than millet cultivation, it is also clearly to the advantage of both spouses to go together over production and share the product jointly.
One may hypothesize a persistence of values in all these different situations: (a) a preference for husband-wife autonomy, and (b) a preference for the minimization of effort in production. How can spouses further these interests in different situations where environmental constraints change? Where effective production can be pursued individuallyy, persons will be able simultaneously to maximize both interests. Where pooling of labour in orchards gives great returns with limited effort, this allocation on the balance gives the greatest advantage to both spouses. Where they thus have a joint share in the product, it is difficult and meaningless to divide it up when the mutual obligations of cooking and clothing tie the spouses together anyway for certain aspects of consumption - so joint households are generated. Finally, where complementarity and co-operation are not only advantageous but necessary, as in a nomadic setting, the necessary allocations will similarly create a joint household, organized on a slightly different pattern from that of the orchard owners. It is by considering all the factors of continuity in the situation of change - in this case both valuational and technical-economic - that we are in a position to formulate and choose among the full range of relevant hypotheses.
In this example, then, we find that change in household form is generated by changes in one variable: the relative advantage of joint production over separate production. This is hardly a surprising conclusion. But if we attack the problem in terms of a typology of household forms, we might be led to classify household type I (individual households for each persons) and household type II (joint conjugal households) as very different forms and to worry about how type I changes into type II, which is like worrying about how the fish changes into the crab. Yet the situation is clearly not one where one household body changes into another household body; it is one where husband-wife sets, under different circumstances, choose to arrange their life differently. By being forced to specify the nature of the continuity we are forced to specify the processes that generate a household form. We see the same two people making allocations and judging results in two different situations, or we see a population of spouses performing allocations in a pattern that generates predominantly individual households in one opportunity situation, joint households in another. We are led to seek the explanations for change in the determinants of form, and the mechanisms of change in the processes that generate form.
In our efforts to understand social change, this general viewpoint shifts our attention from innovation to institutionalization as the critical phase of change. People make allocations in terms of the pay-offs that they hope to obtain, and their most adequate bases for predicting these pay-offs are found in their previous experience or in that of others in their community. The kinds of new ideas that occur can no more determine the direction of social change than mutation rates can determine the direction of physical change. Whatever ideas people may have, only those that constitute a practicable allocation in a concrete situation will be effected. And if you have a system of allocations going - as you always must where you can speak of change - it will be the rates and kinds of pay-offs of alternative allocations within that system that determine whether they will be adopted, that is, institutionalized. The main constraints on change will thus be found in the system, not in the range of ideas for innovation, and these constraints are effective in the phase of institutionalization. (from A.A. Vol. 69, No. 6, Dec. 1967, my underlining).
Thus the essence of Barth's stress on interest in continuity and institutionalisation rather than innovation is that in, order to understand change one must examine what is old as well as what is new. The essential constraints of the whole system that is changing are: the events of change and the continuities.
I mentioned earlier Miner's criticism that the s tudy of society in terms of content or culture traits and process would be more useful than in terms of social form which lacked predictive ability. I criticised him for not explaining satisfactorily why such method would be more useful. It is because it helps to understand continuities in the culture traits and to assess how the process of change takes place. Understanding continuities is useful because change derives from the existing social and ecological system and not just from innovation.
Max Gluckman has pointed out the dilemma that is the anthropologist
"... presents all the data, we cannot see the structure within it; if he emphasised the structure he loses much of the process of actual social life on which he has gathered voluminous data. The dilemma is aggravated when we come to consider changes of various kinds; for the more we describe change of all kinds in detail, the less we can analyse the structure of what we are seeing; the more accurately and carefully we delineate the structural relations within the data, the more we lose the movement and change." Vol. 20, No. 2, 1968)
I hope that in this section I have hinted that the dilemma is not insuperable. The method of approach which I have discussed, concentrating on content and process rather than forms, taking an example from the Fur that is: specifying the nature of the continuity between husband-wife sets who under different circumstances choose to arrange their life differently, so specifying the processes that generate a household form,) offers a means by which we can concentrate on certain aspects of the society. It also helps us to make more useful studies: to make predictions with an awareness of continuities and processes present in the society concerned. In Redfield's model it is impossible to do this because he is concerned with the behaviour not of individuals but of patterns of individuals, with social forms rather than their determinants. His model includes too many variables to be able to make reliable assessments of the mechanisms of social life. In the remainder of this thesis, by concentrating on a small part of Redfield's elaborate model. I wish to show how, by examining this in great detail in the mode suggested, information which is more useful for making predictions can be obtained.
The major conclusion from the previous section is that Redfield's model is too comprehensive to be useful. I wish to concentrate on one of his variables: the isolation of the community from other communities and all those things which might be part of the environment of that community. I thus deal with just one of Redfield's many variables.
There are a number of variables which relate to the isolation of a rural community. I select one which I think is logically independent of the other variables and observe its variation in different villages. I examine the villagers conception of a boundary between the village and the outside and the environment in which this exists. First I explain the variables which I have used in the following analysis.
By conception of boundary I mean values and beliefs which show how villagers see a geographical limit to affairs which are their direct concern. This includes especially what villagers say about outsiders. By examining the conception of boundaries and their environment we can assess the possible groups in which villagers can participate.
In considering the environment in which this conception exists the following aspects of the village could relate to the presence of a boundary between the village and the outside and are not purely verbal conceptions of this boundary.
Firstly the extent to which the local and the wider systems of organisation are different:
There are a number of factors concerned with the degree of mutual understanding between the local community and the outside, i.e. the extent to which there is imperfect or limited communication between the local community and the outside, the extent to which there are
Also the presence and activity of outside institutions in the village: The state representatives in the village (villagers or outsiders), authority exercised in the village; the church, priests in the village, edicts issued from the different levels of authority affecting the local community; political parties in the form of representatives and activities within the local community.
Also the access to resources of the local community compared with that of outside authorities who might want to exert influence on villagers and village affairs.
Also the extent of exogamy of villagers from the local community.
Also the mobility of members of the local community: visits by villagers to the outside or by outsiders to the village whether permanent or temporary.
2.0.2.2. Geographical Isolation
Secondly the conception of the boundary with the outside by villagers may be determined by the geographical isolation of the community. The size of the village and the dispersal of its population and communication facilities, are important concomiyant factors here.
All these factors in some way or other relate to the autonomy, separation or differentiation of the local community or family from outsiders.
In the following paragraphs I outline the factors which make Peyrane a bounded community, separate from outsiders. I discuss the boundary as the villagers conceive it and then the factors which contribute to there being a separation between the village and the outside which are thus part of the environment in which this conception exists. But first I give an introductory description of the village.
Wylie's book "Village in the Vaucluse" is an account of most aspects of social life in the French village Peyrane as it was in 1950-1. A short section deals with 1960-1. No basic argument is made explicit in the book. It is a, descriptive account and has extensive information on a variety of subjects. It is my impression that interpretation is intended to be left to the reader.
In 1954 Peyrane had a population of 713, a decrease since 1886 when it was 1213. However, since the population is constantly changing this does not signify that a few have left the village and most have stayed. Few residents of Peyrane were born in the commune.
Peyrane is 35 miles east of Avignon and 4 miles from Apt, the nearest market town. By public transport it can take 7 hours to travel from Avignon. From Apt buses travel twice on three days of the week.
Most people need to go to Apt fairly often. They go to visit the market town officials, for professional services (of the doctor, lawyer), to the pharmacy, for the services of various craftsmen (e.g. the blacksmith. or garage mechanic), young people come to court. Saturday is the busiest day in Apt when people from surrounding villages visit Apt to conduct their affairs.
It is not clear how important farming is in Peyrane. Wylie does not give ary statistics on occupation. It is my impression that opportunities for villagers seeking work within the village are limited. In order to make ends meet, it is not uncommon for people to seek supplementary income by doing several jobs at one time. The fact that most Peyranes must visit Apt for specialist services suggests that there are few craftsmen or tradesmen in Peyrane.
Market gardening seems to be the main work of farmers. They grow vegetables and fruit. There is good annual rainfall, but uneven distribution throughout the year and the lack of irrigation facilities means that farmers can be in serious difficulties. Crops are damaged by heavy rainfall in spring and autumn and by the dry winters and summers.
Peyrane is perched on top of a hill surrounded on three sides by 200 ft. red ochre cliffs which stand out against the dull limestone of nearby areas. Ochre has been mined from the cliffs since at least 1901 but output is now diminishing; only about 20 people are employed in the mines now. The production of olives and grapes, all in the past important in Peyrane, is now very limited.
Villagers always say that one must never trust other villagers. But Wylie tells how he and his family were warned not to trust anybody, to lock their house whever they went out and never to leave valuables about when there were strangers in the house. They paid little attentiofi to these warnings and found no justification for this distrust which they were encouraged to have. However, even though people constantly acause each other of being dishonest. when it comes to an overt case of dishonesty with the possibility of an outsid or being involved, then he is at once suspected rather than any of themselves.
Wylie says that there is an unexpressed ideal to which people are expected to conform. This ideal is that one must decide that others don't matter. But everyone is aberrant in some way; no one can avoid being the target of gossip. The people of Peyrane say that the essence of wisdom lies in the injunction: Don't get involved with people. Only a handful of people in Peyrane succeed in following this injunc tion. Most people believe that it is wise to avoid involvement with other villagers insofar as it is possible. At the same time, contact with other people is important for them. By presenting a sociable front to other people while at the same time concealing what one feels to be ones true self, the people of Peyrane try to live with each other yet remain apart from each other.
So these families or individuals who conform to the Peyrane ideal and try to become isolated units within the village are few and have little respect from other villagers. In practice Peyrane villagers interact with each other and distinguish themselves from outsiders.
Villagers often refer to "Ils" when discussing the occurrence of events which are beyond their control. In Peyrane, the concept "ils" is used as a way of describing the "they" that threaten them from beyond the limits of the commune. I have referred to distrust between villagers. Against the outsiders who make up "ils", villagers have little defence. It is these rather than each other whom villagers have most justification for distrust.
The identity of "ils" varies. Usually it refers to the French government in all its manifestations, for it is the government which collects taxes, makes war, controls the wine production and employs impersonal civil servants.
Everyone in Peyrane would agree that it is the duty of the citizen not to co-operate with officials of the government. A man who has power over you, they say, is essentially evil, whatever government officials are supposed to be. For example, except for a few supporters of one party the voters of Peyrane say that the heads of their parties and of all other political parties, are a "Pile of bandits". Even people who are not in politics but in government are tainted by the corrupting force of power, Peyranes say. They become insensitive to the feelings of others.
Although there is this antagonism towards outsiders who have any authority over villagers or village affairs, villagers realise that in many respects they are dependent on them for their livelihood. People recognise the necessity of government, and on a rational level they recognise the necessity of a certain amount of civic spirit. However when they are confronted by the frustrations caused by these outside "ils", they fulminate against them. These outside "ils" are like the weather: they are necessities which one must accept, because that is.the way it is. ("Village in the Vaucluse", p.209). As yet this distrust has not been tempered by the fact that people receive extensive family allowances, sickness and unemployment, old age and many other benefits.
Peyranes, Wylie says, have become extremely sensitive, since the recent years of being pulled one way by the Third Republic and another by the BBC, one way by pro-German posters and another by the pro-American posters, to the fact that the outsiders are trying to manipulate them. In 1946, when Peyrane was liberated along with the rest of France, the chief of the local maguis (underground forces), Raoul Chanon, took over the government of the commune. A few hours afterward he received a telegram from the departmental Comite d'epuration saying: "Arrest the following collaborators - the Notary, the Mayor, the Town Clerk, the owner of the ochre mines, the principal grocer, the owner of the bus and taxi, the baker and several wealthy farmers. When Chanon read the telegram he did not hesitate. He tore it into pieces and said "Nous reglons nos affairs en famille!" Wylie says that no act and no phrase could have more completely captivated the people of Peyrane. Chanon had asserted the right of the people to manage their own affairs.
The successful political must thus seek the image which will give him the most support in the village. Siding with "ils" obviously will not help. He will not attain it by prying into people's affairs or by isolating himself from others, nor by working simply for the sake of the work. Wylie tells us that
"If we make a list of all the candidates - regardless of their party label - who have the reputation of being serieux, who mind their own business and seem indifferent to the affairs of other people, our list will coincide with the list of successful candidates ... The relations of these men with other people are sufficiently warm. But they are the kind of men who are never accused of prying into what does not concern them."
Wylie cites a further example where "ils" in its meaning defined above is used to explain a change over which villagers had no control. A housewife returns from the village store having made some purchases. On telling of an increase in the price of yarn the following comments are made: "So they've done it again, they raise the price first on wool, then on coffee, then on sugar, and now they're starting all over again". ("Village in the Vaucluse", p.272).
Although they are not ignored people are sceptical about radio broadcasts and newspapers. Wall postersare just propaganda and propoganda does not interest them. The cafe is the place for gathering information.
I have identified in Peyrane a strong distrust of outsiders. This is stronger than the distrust which exists between villagers. This in the current discussion represents a conception by villagers of a barrier between themselves and outsiders.
In the following section I consider the environment in which this conception exists.
The presence of the conception which I have described above 6ould.be effected by some or all of the following circumstances.
2.1.3.1. Geographical Isolation
It has already been said that public transportation to Peyrane is poor.
2.1.3.2.1. Communication facilities
Communication facilities apart from by personal contact are far from those expected in our daily lives.
The hours of operation of the telephone are limited. For example, calling the doctor is not a simple matter if it is urgent, there being no doctor living in Peyrane. Between 9 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon he may be reached without difficulty. One has only to place a call from the post office in Peyrane to the village in which the doctor lives. At 5.00 P.m. the switchboards in both villages are closed, but the hotel in Peyrane has a special line that remains open until 11.00 p.m. and the police station has a line open all night. If the doctor is urgently needed one must, ask the police in his village to go to his house and call him on the phone. After 11 you have to go and fetch the doctor personally. ("Village in the Vaucluse", p.188).
Most families have a radio and most adults listen to some news broadcasts regularly. Most people have an opportunity to see a daily newspaper though it is impossible to say how much of the paper and what sort of articles are read. ("Village in the Vaucluse", p.213).
Since so many different kinds of people go to the cafe for different purposes and since few leave without chatting with the cafe owner and his wife, the establishment has naturally become the unofficial information bureau of the town. All the information and misinformation gathered by the extensive network of gossip circles throughout the community is eventually funnelled through the cafe. The doctor often calls in for an aperitif when he comes to town. People from outlying sections of the commune who come to the village only on official business at the town hall, drop into the cafe and leave news of their neighbourhood. Through the cafe owner the postman relays messages with which he is charged on his route. With these and many other sources of information at his disposal the cafe owner usually knows better than anyone else in the village the news of the community. ("Village in the Vaucluse", p.244).
Although films are shown every week, it is very rare that people show any strong feeling in reaction to the films. They react only insofar as they relate to situations in other films or experiences in their lives that are recalled by what they have seen.
At the time the study was carried out there was no television in the region.
2.1.3.2.2. Outside institutions operating in the village
The need for Peyranes to make frequent visits to Apt to conduct their affairs suggests that there are few specialist services within the village, yet villagers are dependent on them. However, it would be wrong to assume that the operation of outside institutions in the village is of minimal importance to the villagers' livelihood.
Many people in Peyrane receive family allowances, sickness, unemployment, old age and many other benefits. These allowances have become an important part of the economy of the village.
Peyranes are unable to execute decisions which concern village matters in all spheres. They are dependent on outside authorities. For example, it was agreed by the mayor and council that a new school should be built, the old one being in great disrepair. It was also agreed by the Ministry of Education and preparatory work went underway. However, just as it seemed certain that Peyrane would soon have a new school, difficulties began to arise. First there was a squabble among the people of the village over where the school be located. This argument was settled in favour of building it on the site of the old school. Then the administration of primary education and the administration of fine art, both sections of the Ministry of Education, could not agree. The administration of fine arts would not approve of the call for a modern building by the administration of primary, education on the grounds that a modern building would destroy the picturesque harmony of Peyrane. At this point everyone interested in the project began to despair. To secure the approval of one government agency for any purpose is difficult enough, but to get two government agencies to settle a difference and agree on a course of action is an almost impossible task. Several years later the new school of Peyrane still reposed in the Ministry of Education.
As well as having a derelict school building, the influence of the Ecole nouvelle, the indigenous progressive school movement developing in France today, had scarcely touched Peyrane. The school of Peyrane represents education in its traditional form as it has trained most French adults; it is not what French educators believe education should be, and it undoubtedly does not represent French education in the future. Parents however are very insistent that their children should attend regularly. Church:
The church seems to play a minor role in village affairs apart from at life crises. OnlY 37 villagers are practising Catholics. There are few communal celebrations. In 1956 the local priest died and the church was closed. Since the flock of Peyrane was not fervent enough to support a full-time priest a priest is sent up from Apt to say Mass on Sundays and on special occasions.
2.1.3.2.3. Economic Dependence
Every family in Peyrane is preoccupied with the question of increasing family resources to cover the cost of living. All people have in common the inevitable problem of supplementing income in order to make ends meet and everyone finds their own particular solution. Exchange of goods and services, gifts, social pressure, government allowances achieve this.
This need to cut corners, however, leaves its impressions on the village. It can be expected that there is distrust of anyone who might reduce ones daily income, especially outsiders whom they know less well and who could and do exercise considerable power over them.
I have already mentioned that there seem to be a lack of employment opportunities for Peyranes. ("Village in the Vaucluse", p.101).
Few resident Peyranes were born in the village. Most are from other towns around Apt and many come from still further away (the poorer regions of France, Italy, Spain, refugees fitom Alsace and Belgium who did not return home after the war). There is a transient population in Peyrane. Wylie estimates that between 1946 and 1959 as many as 3000 people could have lived in Peyrane.
Farmers' investment is affected by their lack of confidence that their children will remain in the village. For example, the market for grapes is almost saturated; the cultivation of apricot orchards would be better, but that means planting trees and waiting for them to bear fruit. Income would be postponed for several years. To plant trees one must have confidence in the future. Most of the farmers had the same reaction when this was discussed: "We know we should plant trees, but what's the use? Who knows if we and our children will be here by the time they start to bear?" In 1890 and 1900 the farmers of Peyrane planted oak orchards which would not bear truffles for six years - if indeed they were to bear anything. This sort of confidence has disappeared. Lucien, whose father was killed in the first world war and who spent five years as a prisoner in Germany during the second world war, spoke more bitterly than most people would, but he expressed a general point of view: "Plant an apricot orchard so the Russians and Americans can use it as a battlefield? Thanks, (I'm) not so dumb."
These latter points imply that the village acts as no barrier to the mobility of farmers today.
There are values and patterns of behaviour which. although not considered by villagers themselves as differentiating them, from outsiders, are distinctive to Peyrane.
Gossip, has some effect on people's behaviour. Although no doubt present in arenas outside the village, outsiders are not personally known to villagers as other villagers are. So any gossip which might take place outside the village about villagers and their affairs, would not come to the ears of villagers and so would not influence their behaviour.
Peyranes like gossiping. They are refreshed by a chance to talk about their problems. Wylie cites a case where a group of people relieved themselves by attacking the Jouvands, a family who to the proper inhabitants of Peyrane symbolised all that was not proper, the Mayor, the town clerk and the vague forces lying beyond the horizon of the vi1lage. They found consolation in talking about former days that were harder and former days that were easier.
No one in Peyrane can avoid being the target of gossip. You get criticised if you do something and you get criticism if you don't do it. This is an important part of the environment in which the beliefs, that mcBt decide that others don't matter and that one must not get involved with others, exists.
One of the things people can gossip about is whether a person is bien or brouille with other people in the village. The concepts embody a set of values which operated within the village and infrequently between persons in and others outside the village. If it does operate in this latter way it is probably with familial and other close ties.
"If you are brouille with someone it means literally that you have been mixed up with him: your mutual relationship has become confused. You have quarrelled and are now 'on the outs'. You have broken off relations...
The opposite of being brouille with someone is being, bien with him. Being bien ensemble means being 'in' with each other; being on friendly terms. You support each other in your brouilles and you may even participate in them. When you need someone to do a favour you can count on the friend with whom you are bien" ("Village in the Vaucluse", p.196).
If you are neither bien nor brouille with someone then you have little to do with him. Wylie says that many people in the village are either bien or brouille with each other. Those who live in a remote part of the commune or others with whom one has little contact do not have feelings of brouille or bien to villagers. There is nothing between them; their relationship is as if they were outsiders. The values bien and brouille are not conceived of as something that defines the boundary between the village and the outsider yet they do define this boundary. Bien and brouille are part of the villagers' conception of a barrier between the village and the outside only to the extent that villagers realise that they are neither bien nor brouille with outsiders. The values bien and brouille do not themselves offer a conception of the outsider.
There is a strong distrust among villagers of any outside authority. However this clear feeling of a barrier around the village exists together with a feeling of distrust which all villagers tend to have of each other, which though not as strong as the distrust of outside authority, is present. Villagers also have no confidence in the future. They are uncertain how long they will remain in the village. This implies that there is a limit to villagers' feeling of attachment to the village.
Villagers are dependent on the outside in several ways. They need and seek outside the village the aid of various persons who give specialist services. They are dependent on the decisions of outside authority, especially the government, in many village matters. They are economically dependent. Although many find work to do within the village most find it difficult to make ends meet. Government allowances of various kinds play an important part in the village economy. The population of the village is also transient.
In several respects the village is different and isolated from surrounding areas. Transport facilities to neighbouring towns, educational facilities and communication facilities are poor. There are values, important to villagers which distinguish Peyrane from surrounding areas.
The above points can be summarised in the following table:
Several unresolved problems remain after the above discussion of Peyrane.
C. Lison-Tolosana in "Belmonte de los Caballeros; A sociological study of a Spanish Town" is concerned to understand the relationship between man, his social institutions and his physical environment. He devotes a large part of the book to describing stratification within the village, the important part played by land ownership in stratification and the values and institutions with which the individual must contend. The book is a descriptive account of these aspects of village life, based on fieldwork carried out in 1958-1960.
Belmonte de los Caballeros, a town of 1300 people, is in a broad plain in which the river Ebro flows, on the main road from Madrid to Barcelona. Belmonte is one of three villages on the bank of the Elbo which have much in common. Arcos and Tores 5 and 3 km away share the canal from which water is taken to irrigate the fields. They have common concern in the obtaining of seeds and fertilizers, in the rise of agricultural prices, and have identical methods of production.
The town lands cover 1717 hectares (1 hectare = 2.471 acres). From these should be deducted (in terms of production) 68 hs which include barren land and highways, 22 hs upon which buildings are erected and 722 hectares of sparto-grass, thyme and poor pastures. The remaining 905 hs are arable land, but 237 hs of this area remains unirrigated and here reaping depends on the rainfall and a good harvest occurs only every 5-6 years. The other 668 hectares of land are irrigated; here production is certain.
Farming is the principle and almost the only source of revenue for the village. The main crops are sugar beet, wheat and some maize and cotton. Vegetables and fruit are grown for consumption at home.
In the village there are a number of artisans and craftsmen. These include 6 grocers, 3 cafe-bars, 3 carpenters, 2 bakers, 4 hairdressers, 2 cinemas, a tobaconist, tailor, stonemason and a messenger who goes to the city several times a day. There is a small flour mill which employs six regular workmen, and five families own a small plaster factory.
Belmonte also orientates towards the city. There is a regular bus service along the main road in both directions every two hours. Villagers visit the city frequently to conduct matters which they are unable to do in the village, (e.g. to visit the bank, buy farm implements, clothes, household goods) and for recreation; visiting ftiends, relatives, theatre, football, etc. The city is also the market town for Belmonte. No exact details are given of how far the city is from Belmonte. Few people have jobs in the city.
The village is also part of two wider units - the state and the church which are formally represented.
2.2.2.1. Attitudes toward the city
Belmonte attitudes about the outside world are amivalent. They criticise, envy and try to imitate urban life. On the one hand they have very little in common with the city dweller, with those who work in banks and offices, with lawyers, doctors and people who have studied. When they have to deal with them they feel like a hen in a strange yard.
Villagers have pride in their own work over that of urban dwellers. They say they work hard because it is the only way of getting their daily bread. They say that only fools work in the country. However, they emphasise that only countrymen know what it is to work. City people, they say, know nothing about this and have little idea of what it is to work.
This sense of inferiority, together with the toughness of the workin the country, the enviable comfort of those who "live without working" in the city., the idea that everyone is exploiting the farmer and that the government dces not concern itself much with agriculture, weighs very heavily on the minds of the villager. Although they have pride in their own life, if the schoolmaster tells them that their son would make a good student, they spare no effort or sacrifice so that he can study and get a position in the city or at least not be of the country. The villager is, thus always anxious to better himself. In order to adjust to, more cosmopolitan, and distinguished ways of life a son.t of the village feels he must remove the shackles of the family. The parents of such a person also consider themselves inferior. In any discussion of topics other than agriculture the father feels he must concede that the son who lives in the city knows more.
Belmontes have strong feelings about the importance of certain things which they have no alternative but to put up with. They use the expression es vergonzozo (it is shameful) to describe these things. They say "It is shameful what is happening to the light" which means that all the electric light failures take place for no apparent reason. Nobody knows exactly who is to be blamed and that very little or nothing can be done to put an end to it. In other words, it is shameful in equivalent to "It is unjust". The actions of the government or provincial authorities are described as 'shameful' and thus unjust, with regard to tractors, fertilizers, or taxes. The members of the declining generation feel that the ill manners and brazen behaviour that prevail today are shameful. This expression has as its object of reference things which go beyond the community but which directly affect it. It is applied to actions or consequences whose author is unknown or else when nobody in particular can be considered responsible. It thus seems similar to the "ils" of Peyrane.
Villagers thus feel both affinity for and antagonism against outsiders. They admire city dwellers, they have distrust for outsiders and they have pride in their own life.
The presence of the concleption of a boundary between villagers and. outsiders which I have described could be affected by some or all of the following factors.
2.2.3.1. Geographical Isolation
Transport facilities between Belmonte and the city are good. The city is near enough for a messenger to travel several times per day.
2.2.3.2.1. Specialist services used
Belmonte is not dependent on the city for all the specialist services which villagers require. There are some craftsmen and artisans in the village as well and the messenger who travels to the city several times a day. However visits are frequently made for business and recreational purposes.
2.2.3.2.2. Government in the village(1)
The government is represented in the village by a number of institutions: the council, court of justice, brotherhood of farmers and stockbreeders.
Villagers have little say in decisions made by and are thus not very si pathetic towards the government. They feel it does not concern itself with agriculture. They say that they do nothing but rob us of our own. They also say that 'he who robs a robber has a hundred years of indulgence'. They thus feel justified in not co-operating and deceiving the government, though the municipality must not suffer from villagers non co-operation. For example, the council may be lenient when tax duties are to go outside the municipality but when it deals with a collection of funds for the municipality the municipal guard verifies any doubtful case. It is not done to boast about defrauding the municipality, not because it is bad to defraud but because the council does not hold any property and has to collect whatever it needs through taxation. The fraud of one or more resident is a burden on the rest. This behaviour is part of the environment in which the feeling of injustice towards outside authority exists.
2.2.3.2.3. Values contributing towards isolation
There are a number of values which prevail in and are distinctive to Belmonte. For example the words, honra, verguenza, sinverguenza, es vergonzozo, honrado, all imply values which are important in guiding conduct.
As in Peyrane gossip is a widespread activity amongst Belmontes and influences people's behaviour. It is carried out amongst villagers and affects villagers' behaviour. Gossip between outsiders is of little; concern to them. For example:
"In spring and summer during the afternoon and evening, elderly women sit in groups outside the door of one of their houses... While they knit and darn they talk. Everything to do with the pubblo, everything that people do or fail to do finds a place in their conversation... These gatherings are real court sittings which evaluate, approve (though rarely), upbraid, denigrate, sentence, and sometimes absolve. At the same time they are the most effective information bureau on what is happening in the village. Fear of being, as they say, food for conversation in such circles provides a strong incentive to good behaviour. In these discussions the words mentioned above are used in the assessment of people's behaviour."
All Belmontes are concerned with agriculture. Their activity is regulated by the task currently in hand.
"Every set of operations concerned with the cultivation of a particular crop appears in its cycle, year after year, leaving consistent impressions on the mind. So the residents have a, collective consciousness of time, originating from and expressed in terms of campanas (= the climax of hard work of a season which then settles down into a stage of quiet calm in the work of the fields) and other agricultural activities. A period of time known as campana is a common frame of reference for popular thought. An anti-climax is a period of much less agricultural activity and therefore offers less reason for the conceptualizing of time. It is usual to hear such phrases as lit happened at sowing time' or 'threshing time' or 'when the wheat was turning green' etc. ... Phrases such as these suppose a common frame of collective memory." ("Belmonte de los Caballeros", p.33)
This conception of time can be distinguished from that of the town time is not thought of as something stable divided according to the tasks in the field.that occupy the larger part of the day, where daily tasks no longer provides a common enduring framework for its conceptualization.
Religious participation in Belmonte is high. Every new-born child is christened within a few days after its birth; all children receive first communion, all are confirmed, marry in church and receive the last sacraments at death and are buried according to Catholic ritual. More than 50% of the population take regular part in church activities. (295)
There is much participation at the religious festivals of the town's religious patrons when the parish achieves its highest outward expression of community life.
"The patrons themselves are not the objects of special devotion, for other saints receive special attention and prayers. There are few amusements during the week and one Sunday is the same as any other. But the fiestas, especially those of August 14th-18th, are a landmark in the course of each year. Trips to buy clothes, newly whitened houses, newly painted rooms, clean fresh streets, bottles, cakes, garlands, flags and lights announce the proximity of the fiestas, always rich in matrimonial promise. One breathes fiesta in the atmosphere. People eat more and better, they drink a great deal, they shout, sing and dance day and night, and during these days everyone is different, less serious', more friendly. The youthful tone of the festival disguises a deeper reality: the festival is fundamentally an outburst of community spirit bound up in traditional religious motives which penetrate the outer layers of family life and friendship. Dozens of people, whether children of the town who live outside it, or simply friends who have never lived there, come every year to celebrate it. Participation in the festival is not considered complete if a member of the family is absent... Visits to sick relatives or friends are considered an obligation during this period. Visitors call upon their relatives or friends house by house and greet everybody in the street...
This reaffirmation of the bonds of the family and friendship has at the same time a reverse side; the days of the festivals are most likely to revive any latent antagonism of town against town though not of individual against individual."
This feeling of community spirit does not really extend beyond the village. Its ftrthest limits are to friends and relatives who live away from the village who come to celebrate, but it is a village affair.
Farming in Belmonte is the principle and almost the only source of revenue for villagers. However there is a shortage of land. Much land has been bought up by people living outside the village (103 hs of the total of 905 hs of cultivable land). The economically strong can exploit land outside the village. (19) There is thus a pressure especially on the economically weak families to seek other sources of income or to emigrate. The mill, plaster factory, shops and other local services provide a number of ways of supplementing income within the village. Other new professions necessitate working outside or leaving the village. Some work in factories in, the city and even in France. However, assuming that the population is not transient as in Peyrane, it has not fallen. The discrepancy between residents de Facto and de Jure is 42 (1952). Residents who have fixed jobs in the city number "more than a dozen" which is not many. Most people then manage to live carrying on their traditional occupation of farming.
2.2.3.2.5. Generation conflict(2)
Lison-Tolosana talks of the conflict between what he calls the "decliningly", "controlling" and "emerging" generations. The conflict is as follows.
Many have needed to leave home and this has tended toward emancipation from the tutilage and authority of the father. The parent's authority and orientation can count for little with the son whose profession is beyond their understanding. The father's fund of experience cannot guide the son who leaves home. There is a new generation with a fresh stock of interests, attitudes and ideas which are discordant with those that have gone before. Many of this generation have.had better schooling than those of the preceding generations. Newspapers, radio, the cinema, T.V., ease of travel and employment in the cities have put them in touch with the outside world at an age at which the other generations were uninfluenced by such media. The stable of the family cannot provide occupation for many of them. They do not feel any affinity with the conventions that spring from the social structure of the town ... A striking example of discontinuity is provided by the new tone of courtship. The emerging generation has opposed with greatest tenacity any interference in choice of partner. The recommendation of the declining generation never to meddle in politics is a further example. A number of the emerging generation have united to propose their candidate as councillor. Their object was to choose from themselves a councillor who would be on their side and support the cultural, social and recreational programme this group is developing. This generation concerns itself with internal problems of a social and cultural nature. They do not share the conventions of earlier generations because they judge them inadequate for the present day situation.
"The traditional integrating principles of the community are becoming superfluous to those whose work has nothing to do with the land, and a burden to those who remain tied to the soil, because their ... outlook is far from harmonising with the ideas and.attitudes.maintained in the community by, the weight of tradition."
This diversity of values within the village is part of the environment of the ambivalent attitudes of villagers towards outsiders particularly city dwellers; the feeling of pride in themselves and deference towards city dwellers and their envy of the city dweller.
Villagers co-operate with each other and with outsiders. Within the village there is mutual aid between family members, friends and neighbours.
There is some co-operation between neighbouring villages. Belmonte joined the surrounding small towns that use the same canal, to buy the waterfall that should increase the facilities for irrigating the land.
However there is a certain amount of dissidence between neighbouring villagers. For example the residents of a neighbouring village felt humiliated when Belmonte succeeded in arranging with the sugar-beet factory to have a weighing machine built in the village.
Belmonte de Los Caballeros is in different senses isolated from and linked to the outside. Although it is economically fairly self-sufficient (few work outside the village), ther e are good transport facilities to the outside and many use the services of specialists resident outside the village. The conflict between generations is also indicative of this disparity between orientation towards the city and towards the village. These facts are reflected in the attitudes of villagers towards outsiders which compose what I have called the "Villagers conception of a boundary between the village and the outside."
The following table summarises points made about Belmonte:
The book "Hal-Farrug: a village in Malta" by J.F. Boissevain has the following main themes: the way in which the increasing tempo of industrialisation in Malta is affecting its social institutions; the role that the choices and actions of individuals play in generating social forms and patterns of behaviour; and the social position of the church in a most Catholic society.
Hal-Farrug is a very compact village with a population of 1250 which has remained almost constant during the last 20 years. About 15 Farrugin per year emigrate from Malta.
Buses from Hal-Farrug make 27 return trips per day to the urban connurbation around Valletta. The easy journey takes half an hour and enables Farrugin to take part in the economic and social life of the nation which centres on Valletta.
About 74% of the working population of Farrug work outside the village. Only 26% work within the village. Thus Hal-Farrug is not an autonomous or isolated village but is in intimate contact with other activities and parts of Malta.
The Maltese Islands are in the geographical centre of the Mediterranean. Malta, the largest island, is 17 by 9 miles, Gozo is 9 by 5 miles. The islands have a population of 315,000 (1967) with the high density of 2600 per square mile. Slightly over half the population live in an urban connurbation around Valletta and the grand harbour. The other half live in separate villages spread over the islands of Malta and Gozo.
No village is more than an hour's bus ride from Valletta and Gozo is only 30 minutes by ferry from Malta. Separate villages are often no more than a few hundr