Shaping Modern Times in Rural France e-bog

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 "e;Ste Foy"e; during a period of rapid change (1945-75). Using ethnographic field data and archival material that she collected as a "e;participant-observer,"e; 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 "e;stem family"e; household, is a variant of the stem family systems associated with preindustrial southern Europe. How have Ste Foyans continued to remake this "e;archaic"e; 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.