Fülszöveg
FROM AN ADVANCE REVIEW:
a boost to new-style peasant studies, and an application o f ecological-cum-historical techniques
which characterize a major evolving approach in the field. I would rank Wolf with Geertz and Sahlins
as the most influential voices of their anthropological generation. It looks to me as if this book will
deservedly add to one reputation and begin making another."
Two peasant villages, one speaking German, the other a Romance dialect, have lived side-
by-side in a forbidding valley of the Italian Alps for more than 700 years. They have sim-
ilar ways of coping with their mountainous environment; yet many aspects of their
culture, social structure, and ideology are strikingly different. Eric Wolf and John Cole
went to this valley to trace the development of these two villages through a long history of
shifting political and economic currents. The results of their research, lucidly presented
in this volume, support a thesis whose impact on...
Tovább
Fülszöveg
FROM AN ADVANCE REVIEW:
a boost to new-style peasant studies, and an application o f ecological-cum-historical techniques
which characterize a major evolving approach in the field. I would rank Wolf with Geertz and Sahlins
as the most influential voices of their anthropological generation. It looks to me as if this book will
deservedly add to one reputation and begin making another."
Two peasant villages, one speaking German, the other a Romance dialect, have lived side-
by-side in a forbidding valley of the Italian Alps for more than 700 years. They have sim-
ilar ways of coping with their mountainous environment; yet many aspects of their
culture, social structure, and ideology are strikingly different. Eric Wolf and John Cole
went to this valley to trace the development of these two villages through a long history of
shifting political and economic currents. The results of their research, lucidly presented
in this volume, support a thesis whose impact on anthropological studies will become
significant: Ethnicity is primarily a political tool.
CONTENTS:
The Inquiry. The Forging of Tyroiese Identity. Torments of Nationalism. The Economic Development
of the Rural Sector. History of an Upland Valley. Mountain Husbandry. The Mountain Estate. Inheri-
tance. The New Economic Order. Kith and Kin. Cultural Confrontation. Appendices. Bibliography.
Index.
FROM A REVIEW BY E._____________________________._____
y William Christian has given us an extremely sensitive study of man, religion and society in a valley in
Northern Spain. . . . it gives a social scientist like myself much to think about. And in contrast to so
many tomes produced by academics in this field, it is mercifully free of jargon, well-written, and testi-
fies to the personal concern as well as the erudition of the author.
"The book contains three chapters: the first focusses on the people of the valley, their activity and
their successive layers of identity. . . the second concerns itself mainly with the shrines at which these
people worship; the third deals. . . with the various modalities of their relations to God.
"There are interesting detailed transcriptions of interviews with a number of informants, and the per-
sonal devotions and religious practices are. . . related to the social setting, both of the commun-
ity and of the Church itself. The author shows much comprehension of the changing rote of the priest,
and analyses with particular acumen the problems faced both by the representatives of the Church and
by their flock in the days after Vatican II. Finally, Christian ha?> paid particular attention to the ana-
logies between the relationships in the religious sphere, between believer, Cod, and the saintly inter-
mediaries, on the one hand, and on the other hand the relationships of patronage prevalent in a still
highly hierarchical, class-ridden and bureaucratized society such as Spain.
"All in all / find this a truly admirable book. Not only will it be of value to students of the subject, it
should also give them much pleasure."
ROBERT M. NETTING, University of Arizona
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