Family and Community in Ireland

by Conrad M. Arensberg

this text constitutes a classic in anthropological literature and in the sociology of the family. Based on fieldwork carried out as part of the Harvard Irish Study in Ireland, 1931-1936, it is an account of life in rural county Clare and in the county town, Ennis. There were three strands to the Irish a survey of the physical anthropology of Ireland by Earnest Hooton, published in 1955; an archaeological survey; and a social-anthropological and economic strand directed by Lloyd Warner of Yankee City fame. Family and Community in Ireland is an account of this third strand. The book was first published in 1940 and written largely by Conrad Maynadier Arensberg (1910-1997); he was one of the two main field researchers on the social-anthropological aspect of the overall study dealing mainly with life on the small family farms of a number of town lands in County Clare. As a prelude to the main book, Arensberg had published The Irish Countryman (1937) after completing his Ph.D. dissertation. The 1968 volume is a detailed account of many aspects of rural and small town Irish life of 20 years earlier. It deals with the life and work of these communities in terms of the economy, family labour, occupations, markets, inheritance patterns, mobility, and emigration. Even more central, however, are the themes of family and kinship. There is also considerable quantitative economic and demographic data in figures and tables. Familism is central to the work in that the family is seen to constitute the main organizing and structuring principle in the community. Its centrality as not only a social but also an economic system is evident to the this is clear in their accounts of many of the issues they examine. The very choice of marriage partner is strongly economic; as manifest in the account of the practice of matchmaking, this is a highly instrumental process.

Genres: Ireland

33 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book to help in my understanding of context while researching my Irish family. This book delves into the local town and family structures of Ireland of almost 100 years ago, even to the point of drawing up a typical home floorplan.

The book is based on pre-WWII social research, so is not really a warm and fuzzy read, but does provide a nice amount of information if you care to know about the social structures of rural Ireland.

Admittedly, I scanned through sections that continued on far past their usefulness to me, but when writing up a family history I am sure I will be using portions of the book as color reference.