SHAPING MODERN TIMES IN RURAL FRANCE

[ROGERS, SUSAN CAROL]

From Publisher:

Challenging the notion that modernization is a homogenizing process, Susan Rogers contends that in the course of large-scale transformations communities often reproduce and strengthen distinctive cultural and social features. To make this argument, she focuses on the French farming community of Ste Foy during a period of rapid change (1945-75). Using ethnographic field data and archival material that she collected as a participant-observer, she finds an intriguing puzzle: an allegedly archaic social form, the ostal, has become increasingly common in the community. The ostal, a type of family farm organized around an extended stem family household, is a variant of the stem family systems associated with preindustrial southern Europe. How have Ste Foyans continued to remake this archaic mode as their community grew more prosperous and more involved in national and international markets? In showing how the specific identity of a community is reproduced rather than obliterated by modernization, the author reveals dialectical relationships between structure and change, history and culture, and the centralized nation-state and regional diversity. This analysis addresses anthropologists, historians, and scholars interested in local politics and economic development.

Product Info

ISBN: 0691094586

ISBN-13: 9780691094588

Publisher: PRINCETON UNIV PR

Type: Used

Binding: Softcover

Seller Info

BluestockingBooks

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Website: https://www.bluestockingbooks.com

Country: United States