Full Description
This book is an historical and anthropological study of Locorotondo in the province of Bari in south-eastern Italy. It focuses on the unusual nature of peasant society in the region and attempts to explain how it came about. What distinguishes Locorotondo and the neighbouring towns is that peasants live dispersed in the countryside rather than in densely populated rural towns, the pattern more typical for southern Italy. The people are mainly small proprietor grape growers, and have traditionally been better off than other southern Italian peasants. The book traces the development pattern from the eighteenth century. Interweaving anthropological understanding with historical data, the author assesses its effect on family life, social structure, and the relationship between town and country.
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of plates
List of tables
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
Part I: 2. Work and the crowded countryside
3. Inside Locorotondo
Part II: 4. Settlement and economy under the
waning old order
5. Society and terminal feudalism
6. Rural settlement in the nineteenth century
7. How peasants populated the countryside
Part III: 8. Rural social structure
9. Town and country
10. Some comparisons
Glossary of Italian and dialect terms
Bibliography
Index.
