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Vasilika: A Village in Modern Greece
Vasilika ( Βασιλικά) is a town and a former municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Thermi, of which it is a municipal unit.[2] Population 9,303
- GenresAnthropology
110 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1962
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April 27, 2022
“modern” is pushing it
One of the interminable “Case studies in cultural anthropology” series put out over several decades by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, this carefully-constructed, well-written study of a small Greek village 90 miles northwest of Athens is based on research done in 1955-56. At present, then, it describes conditions two-thirds of a century old. While it is interesting as a historical, in-depth look at the Greek countryside, the book is unlikely to prove a guide to understanding Greek life today. I read an article on the book on the Internet which praised Friedl for being a female anthropologist and for writing about women’s life. That just reveals the trends of today, a rather dreary repetition of the politically correct line. There had been a number of famous female anthropologists before Friedl. And I thought she covered the roles of all the villagers quite well. She herself did not set out to write a gender-based ethnography. So, what I was surprised to find in the secondary article was a kind of cultural statement about modern America!
True to the format favored by this series, she tried to cover a large number of topics—the economics and consumption patterns of the family, dowry, marriage and inheritance, human relations and transmission of values, plus a look at the various village institutions such as the school and church. The section on dowry and inheritance is longer than usual in such studies and fairly hard to absorb.
The most interesting thing I found was that, unlike villagers in many other countries, Greeks of the 1950s were very interested in city life and were proud to have family connections there. They felt that urban life and habits were superior to theirs and did not sentimentalize much about “rural beauties”. They encouraged their sons to get educated and live away from Vasilika and hoped to marry their daughters in town as well.
In short, VASILIKA is an outdated look at a Greek village before the European Community, before Greece was transformed and subsequently ran into debt problems. It’s an introduction to a society that probably doesn’t exist anymore, yet still laid the basis for what exists today. It should be considered one of the first studies of Greek society from the anthropological point of view. Sixty years ago, it might have been a five star book, but today I don’t think it merits more than three.
P.S. The blurb provided by Goodreads is describing a completely different Vasilika, in northern Greece. As far as I know, there are no books in English about that town, a much bigger place in any case. A bit of revision might be in order!
One of the interminable “Case studies in cultural anthropology” series put out over several decades by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, this carefully-constructed, well-written study of a small Greek village 90 miles northwest of Athens is based on research done in 1955-56. At present, then, it describes conditions two-thirds of a century old. While it is interesting as a historical, in-depth look at the Greek countryside, the book is unlikely to prove a guide to understanding Greek life today. I read an article on the book on the Internet which praised Friedl for being a female anthropologist and for writing about women’s life. That just reveals the trends of today, a rather dreary repetition of the politically correct line. There had been a number of famous female anthropologists before Friedl. And I thought she covered the roles of all the villagers quite well. She herself did not set out to write a gender-based ethnography. So, what I was surprised to find in the secondary article was a kind of cultural statement about modern America!
True to the format favored by this series, she tried to cover a large number of topics—the economics and consumption patterns of the family, dowry, marriage and inheritance, human relations and transmission of values, plus a look at the various village institutions such as the school and church. The section on dowry and inheritance is longer than usual in such studies and fairly hard to absorb.
The most interesting thing I found was that, unlike villagers in many other countries, Greeks of the 1950s were very interested in city life and were proud to have family connections there. They felt that urban life and habits were superior to theirs and did not sentimentalize much about “rural beauties”. They encouraged their sons to get educated and live away from Vasilika and hoped to marry their daughters in town as well.
In short, VASILIKA is an outdated look at a Greek village before the European Community, before Greece was transformed and subsequently ran into debt problems. It’s an introduction to a society that probably doesn’t exist anymore, yet still laid the basis for what exists today. It should be considered one of the first studies of Greek society from the anthropological point of view. Sixty years ago, it might have been a five star book, but today I don’t think it merits more than three.
P.S. The blurb provided by Goodreads is describing a completely different Vasilika, in northern Greece. As far as I know, there are no books in English about that town, a much bigger place in any case. A bit of revision might be in order!
Displaying 1 of 1 review