Book
Honour, family and patronage: a study of institutions and moral values in a Greek mountain community
Clarendon Press • Oxford • Published In 1964 • Pages:
By: Campbell, John Kennedy.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a socio-functional study of the moral/social values of the Sarakatsani, a group of pastoral nomads living in the Epirus region of Greece, in relation to kinship institutions, family structure, patronage, prestige, and religious beliefs. It was hoped that through a study of this nature, parallels could be drawn throughout the Mediterranean area which would thus help to contribute to a study of the social structure of the entire region. The author begins his analysis with a study of the interaction of kinship institutions, and the structure of the family, showing how an individual's moral obligations are concentrated within the extended family and kindred groups in virtual exclusion of all non-kin, for as the author shows repeatedly throughout the text families not connected by kinship of marriage (i.e. affines) view one another with intense distrust. Associated with the above 'institutions' is a system of social values and attitudes based on concepts of honor, pride, and strength which together guide the conduct of the Sarakatsani in their communal life. Campbell points out that inevitably these institutions and values severely restrict the forms of economic and civic cooperation possible in the community as well as the basic character of the relation between the '… community of mutually opposed family commonwealths and the rest of Greek society.' Thus, the end result is the development of a system of social and political patronage. Among many points of substantive interest in this source is the author's meticulous description of the Sarakatsani kindreds and their function in the society, the concepts of honor and prestige and their relationship to social ideals, relations of the nomadic Sarakatsani and with the sedentary villagers of the area, the organization and function of the 'stani' or 'company,' a group of related families functioning as a body in the management of the sheep herds, and the interrelationship of moral/social values with religious beliefs and ideals. The author, a social anthropologist and research fellow of St. Anthony's College, Oxford, studied primarily one particular community of Sarakatsani in central Zagori to which he has given the fictitious name of Neochori and from which most of the material in this source was derived. Neighboring communities, however, were studied to some extent, and this information is incorporated into the report. It should be noted here that shortly after the author began his fieldwork, during the period of 1954-1955, feelings over the Cyprus issue were running high, and as a result the author's relations with the local authorities were always difficult. Campbell believes that without the support of the then deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Panayiotis Canellopoulos, he would not have been allowed to remain, and as it later turned out, within a week of the deputy Prime Minister's leaving office, he was asked to leave, thus bringing his fieldwork to an end.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Pastoral activities
- Cooperative organization
- Ethics
- Mode of marriage
- Arranging a marriage
- Nuptials
- Kin relationships
- Cousins
- Kindreds and ramages
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Greeks
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2003
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Europe
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southeastern Europe
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Social Anthropologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1966
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1954-1955
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Sarakatsani, Zagori District, Epirus, Greece
- NotesAdditional notes
- by J. K. Campbell
- Information pertinent to the Greeks of the Zagori region has been subheaded for the EH01 Greece file rather than EH12 Greek Regional Cultures, since there is already an OWC file on the former but none on the latter.
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 365) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 64006268
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Sarakatsans/Greece