Elusive villages: social structure and community organization in rural East Pakistan

Bertocci, Peter J.

Book

Elusive villages: social structure and community organization in rural East Pakistan

University Microfilms International • Ann Arbor, Mich. • Published In 1992 • Pages:

By: Bertocci, Peter J..

Abstract
This dissertation analyzes the relationship between community organization and social structure in part of Comilla district (THANA), East Pakistan. The source combines the methods and concepts inherent in cultural ecology '…with certain social structural insights of Marx and Weber' (p. i-(A)). Of primary concern to Bertocci is the process by means of which class, status and power function together to '…regulate the workings and the interdigitation of territorially and functionally overlapping social groups' (p. 3). These groups are largely represented in this work by the REYAI (homestead-based residential units), and the extra-village SAMAJ (social groupings of several villages and their subunits). The dynamics of the social system operating within the confines of these social groups are analyzed in detail in this source with particular reference to the economic class, social status, and political power relationships which characterize the system.

Theoretical orientation in research and its results

Settlement patterns

Real property

Cooperative organization

Status, role, and prestige