ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTEBOOKS XVIII/I
ofluštvo antaopoloqov slovenije
Slovene anthropological society
Ljubljana 2012
Anthropological Notebooks 2012, Year XVIII, No. 1
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Editor-in-Chief
Borut Telban Managing Editor Gregor Starc Review Editor Nataša Gregorič Bon Editorial Board
Ivan Sprajc, Marija Stefančič, Tatjana Tomazo-Ravnik, Bojan Žalec, Liza Debevec
Charles Susanne Free University Brussels Brussels, Belgium
Howard Morphy Australian National University Canberra, Australia
Aygen Erdentug Bilkent University Ankara, Turkey
Proofreader: Terry T. Jackson
International Editorial Board
Ton Otto
Universit Aarhus,
' of Aarhus Denmark
Jadran Mimica University of Sydney Sydney, Australia
Pavao Rudan
Institute for Anthropological Research Zagreb, Croatia
Design: Robert Resman
Hermann Mueckler University of Vienna Vienna, Austria
Allan Young McGill University Montreal, Canada
Print: Tiskarna Artelj
Front-page: Boys of Olcote 1 (photo by Emmet McCauley, 2012)
Anthropological Notebooks is a peer-reviewed triannual journal of the Slovene Anthropological Society. It publishes scholarly articles, review articles, research reports, congress and seminar reports, book reviews and information concerning research and study in the fields of social and cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology, archaeology, and related disciplines. The language of the journal is English with abstracts and possible shorter texts in Slovene. Contributors are Kindly requested to follow the instructions given in the Instructions for Authors. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the editors of Anthropological Notebooks. For subscription (45 EUR per year, postage included) and submission of articles, please contact editorin-chief (borut.telban@zrc-sazu.si) or write to the above address of the Slovene Anthropological Society. Individual back numbers are also available (30 EUR each, postage included). The journal is distributed free of charge to the members of the Slovene Anthropological Society.
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ISSN 1408 - 032X
Anthropological Notebooks XVIII/1, 2012
CONTENTS
Caitriona Coen and Mark Maguire
Death of a Tiger: The collapse of Irish property dreams....................................................................................5
Ángeles Arjona Garrido, Juan Carlos Checa Olmos, Alexandra Ainz Galende and María Jose González Moreno
Same sex marriages in Spain: The case of international unions.......................................................................23
Iñigo González de la Fuente and Hernán Salas Quintanal
Community projects in the era of globalization: The case of a local rural society in Mexico.........................41
Du{ka Knezevic Hocevar
Family farms in Slovenia: Who did the measures 'Setting Up of Young Farmers'.........................................65
and 'Early Retirement' actually address?
Marjeta Kovac, Gregor Jurak and Bojan Leskosek
The prevalence of excess weight and obesity in Slovenian children and adolescents from 1991 to 2011.......91
BOOK REVIEWS
Walkowitz, Daniel and Lisa Maya Knauer
Contested Histories in Public Space: Memory, Race and Nation...................................................................107
Kulpa, Robert and Joanna Mizielinska
De-Centering Western Sexualities. Central and Eastern European Perspectives...........................................109
Barcan, Ruth
Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Bodies, Therapies, Senses..........................................................111
Pardo-de-Santayana, Manuel, Andrea Pieroni and Rajindra K. Puri
Ethnobotany in the New Europe: People, Health and Wild Plant Resources.................................................113
Per Axelsson and Peter Skold
Indigenous Peoples and Demography. The Complex Relation Between Identity and Statistics....................115
Gregg, Melissa
Work's Intimacy..............................................................................................................................................117
Dinero, Steven C.
Settling for Less: The Planned Resettlement of Israel's Negev Bedouin.......................................................119
Abadan-Unat, Nermin
Turks in Europe: From Guest Worker to Transnational Citizen.....................................................................121
Mencej, Mirjam and Dan Podjed
Ustvarjanje prostorov......................................................................................................................................123
Death of a Tiger: The collapse of Irish property dreams
Caitriona Coen
National University of Ireland Maynooth, trionacoen@gmail.com
Mark Maguire
National University of Ireland Maynooth, mark.h.maguire@nuim.ie
Abstract
The spectre of Ireland's Celtic Tiger stalks the landscape, and the social costs of the spectacular financial and property-market collapse continue to mount. This article discusses the results of twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out during 2010 and 2011 in a large-scale housing development in West Dublin. The research aims to understand the social and cultural consequences of the severe economic recession and collapse of the property market in the everyday lives of people who bought a "dream home". The research is set in one of the showcase property developments during the period of the so-called Celtic Tiger. Today, residents try to live their lives and maintain a sense of home in a disjointed spatial and institutional world. This research draws together a number of scholarly currents, from the work of Jean and John Comaroff to the insights of Niklas Luhmann and Slavoj Žižek, in order to explore the economic collapse in Ireland both theoretically and empirically. This article gestures to some of the more quotidian and nuanced qualities of contemporary capitalism and governance.
KEYWORDS: property market, dreams, Celtic Tiger, Ireland Introduction
This article is about the death of the Celtic Tiger and the collapse of the Irish property market. This story is told through the eyes and in the words of residents, planners, developers and others connected with Olcote Village,1 a large west Dublin development. Olcote Village is widely understood to be illustrative of the Celtic Tiger-era boom and bust - 'Live the dream: prices start at €349,000' read a banner that was until recently prominent in our field-site. In order to tell the story of Olcote, we briefly describe the history
'"Olcote Village" is a pseudonym.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTEBOOKS 18 (1): 5-22. ISSN 1408-032X
© Slovene Anthropological Society 2012
and cultural dimensions of Ireland's property market and look at the structural features of the planning and construction sectors. However, our main focus is the everyday lives of Olcote's residents. Much of this article is devoted to ethnographic accounts of homes, home-life, shattered dreams and uncertain futures. We are especially interested in writing about dreams and futures. If following Niklas Luhmann (1998; see also Rabinow 2004) one argues that the present moment is characterised by an inability to learn from the past or anticipate the future then there is a challenge to understand the ways in which home and the dream-spaces of everyday life are rendered as problems. Simply put, one may ask: what are the socio-cultural consequences of the rise and fall of a powerful property market in which dream homes were bought and sold, and what are the ramifications of shattered dreams for people's lifeworlds and for societal hope?
On dreams and dwellings
[W]e shall see the imagination build "walls" of impalpable shadows, comfort itself with the illusion of protection or, just the contrary, tremble behind thick walls, mistrust the staunchest ramparts. In short, in the most interminable of dialectics, the sheltered being gives perceptible limits to his shelter. He experiences the house in its reality and in its virtuality, by means of thought and dreams.
Gaston Bachelard
In his often-cited masterpiece The Poetics of Space (1994), Gaston Bachelard eschews descriptions of the "humble house" in favour of home as a locus of affective experience, the place where memory and imagination dwell together - the oneiric house. But Bachelard also sounds a warning: home may well be a dream-space of safety, comfort and all that is familiar, but the walls of one's home are always-fragile constructs that demarcate illusions as well as concrete boundaries. Home cultures, then, bind subjects to their worlds in ways that show the very limits of subjects and their worlds.
A long line of anthropologists have attended to home cultures, from the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss (1963), Pierre Bourdieu (1970) and James Fernandez (1977) to more contemporary explorations of home and space which draw from contemporary critical theory (see Low & Lawrence-Zuniga 2003; Blom Hansen 2011). At the risk of over-generalization, this literature focuses on the material, spatial and socio-cultural conditions for the possibility of certain configurations of house and home and the qualities of life therein. Ethnographic research describes the quotidian experiences of dwelling - l'espace vécu, to borrow from Henri Lefebvre - where one finds the large-scale meeting and mingling with the stuff of everyday life. Anthropologists have shown great interest in houses as sites of contested and uncertain memories (see Morton 2008), but not enough attention, we argue, is given to houses as sites of uncertain future projections. And whilst we may speak of the
dwelling places of memory and imagination, "dream homes" have long been packaged and sold to consumers in ways that may compound uncertainties.
The present moment of financial crisis is one marked by devastating global property crashes, which have turned homes into collapsing assets and people's dreams into living nightmares. In this regard, the Republic of Ireland presents a striking example of what happens when dreams and dwellings become enmeshed in processes of marketization and people's lives and futures suffer accordingly. Amid the economic boom of the so-called Celtic Tiger era, which lasted from the late 1990s until 2007, Irish people bought houses at an extraordinary rate. Houses were bought as second homes, for retirement purposes, as "starter homes", in buy-to-let schemes financed by 100% plus mortgages, or as "units" to be "flipped" (resold quickly). Many people were not shrewd investors but, rather, property market novices supported by family and friends. Indeed, many older people freed the equity in their homes in order that the younger generation might get a foot on the property ladder. A great many people bought dream homes, and into those homes they poured self-worth, life-style dreams and hopes for the future. Now the fabric of daily life has been torn apart. Their dream-homes represent, to borrow from James Joyce, nightmares from which they cannot awaken.
Today, there is much talk around Ireland of "ghost estates", the unfinished residential and commercial developments that were abandoned Marie Celeste-like when the cheap credit ran out. Irish journalist Conor O'Clery describes the uncanny dimensions of Ireland's post-boom landscape:
From afar, many of these ghost estates look as if they are finished, but up close you find no cars in the driveways, no curtains in the windows and no sound but the wind stirring the weeds in the yards. In the cities the wind fairly howls through the open floors of unfinished apartment blocks, such as the skeleton of a 14-story building put up in Sandyford Dublin ... The building is part of a complex that was once valued at 36 million euros ... but is now worth about 9 million euros. Incidentally, there is a fine-looking 10-story apartment block right beside the 14-story shell that seems like a nice place to live, with residents sunning themselves on the balconies. But on closer inspection you will find it is an illusion, a giant illustrated canvas draped over another empty concrete block like a shroud (O'Clery 2010: 1).
Who is responsible? Several reports have been published, many of which point to systemic as well as individual failures (Kitchin et al. 2010). Moreover, an enormous literature composed of dozens of books on the Irish crisis has emerged, which sifts through the wreckage looking for the fingerprints of those who caused the crash.2 Business and political "cultures" are blamed; the accusers rarely question their own complicity, or their irrelevance. Little seems to change, and societal hope continually evaporates. In contrast, herein we wish to attend to quotidian experiences and to hopes for the future. We also recognize that many of our research participants are in no doubt as to who is responsible for their problems. Take the following statement by an angry research participant:
Ireland is run by parish-pump politics and always has been! Just look after your fucking own, and that's it. And fuck everybody else, you know? Literally sorting out everything at the parish-pump, you know (Interview, 2011).
But, importantly, this man could gain little comfort from knowing where to apportion blame. 'Who is responsible?' represented to him a redundant question, disassociated from the daily struggles to actually live, to pick up the pieces and move on. For others, the same question resulted in self-reflection:
2Examples of some of the most widely-cited texts include sociologist, Kieran Allen's Ireland's Economic Crash (2009), journalist, Fintan O'Toole's Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger (2009), and political sociologist, Peadar Kirby's Celtic Tiger in Collapse (2010).
Yeah, but let's be honest: no one cared when the Celtic Tiger was going on about who was scamming the system. I mean things were good. The times were good and nobody paid any much attention and the wages people could get! (Interview, 2010).
A deeper analysis of the situation, then, is required, one which attends to historical, economic and socio-cultural conditions, and to everyday life.
Celtic tiger, hidden flaw
Tim Pat Coogan once described the Irish economy post-independence as being composed of Guinness's Brewery and a large farm. Whilst his acerbic comment ignores Ireland's significant history of industrial development (see Maguire 1998), Coogan reminds us of the inescapable fact that, comparatively, Ireland remained a relatively poor European country throughout much twentieth century. Nonetheless, Ireland also has a special relationship with modernity. Throughout several centuries as a British colony, Ireland functioned as a laboratory for various forms of social, political and economic engineering. Following independence, during the 1920s and 1960s new configurations of state and economic activity were pioneered in Ireland. Moreover, if nothing else, the Celtic Tiger-era boom and subsequent bust placed Ireland at the bleeding edge of modernity.
In his essay Coming out of Hibernation, Luke Gibbons explores the cultural imbrication of notions of tradition within Irish modernity and the ways in which the modern in Ireland is articulated with both international and local accents. He draws particular attention to official imagery. From the 1960s onwards, the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) produced a stock of images to lure Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Ireland. One poster included an image of a turn-of-the-century British cotton mill along with the following banner: 'Missing the Industrial Revolution was the best thing that ever happened the Irish.' But the small print is even more revealing:
You won't find many smokestacks, crumbling kilns or abandoned cotton-mills in Ireland - or the negative industrial attitudes that went with them. Our industrial revolution coincided with the electronic age. Today Ireland is the European base for leading companies in high-tech and international services industries thanks to the innovative skills and progressive attitudes of its people. Ireland. Home of the Irish. The young Europeans (Gibbons 1996: 93, emphasis added).
The sentiments expressed in these IDA advertisements cohered powerfully during the so-called Celtic Tiger era. These are complex representations of tradition, the modern, commerce and the archaic, but lodged in the heart of the IDA's representations of Ireland was a bottom line - Ireland as a favourable place to do business.
Ireland missed out on the post-War boom but still suffered as a result of the late 1970s global recession and the oil crisis. Throughout the 1980s, the Irish state staggered under the weight of budget deficits equivalent to 15.7% of Gross National Product; emigration soared. But by the early 1990s the situation was changing fast. The global economy was booming, and EU infrastructure and human capital was transforming Ireland. Coterminous with this, FDI was charmed by the low Irish corporation tax rates (12.5%), "turnkey
facilities", subsidies and investment capital offered by the IDA. The chain migration of major corporations in search of favourable business environments on Europe's doorstep gathered pace. US companies found Ireland and the Irish especially alluring: it was a good place to do business with little union activity. And, in the words of a Microsoft report:
In the space of a single generation, Ireland has moved from being the poor man of Europe to one of the richest countries in the world ... There is a near eight-fold expansion in Irish exports of goods and services. The volume of personal consumer spending has risen by 140% ... (Microsoft 2004: 2).
But perhaps O'Toole (2009: 16) puts it better: 'If Ireland hadn't experienced rapid economic growth during the extraordinary global investment boom of the 1990s, the case for letting it sink beneath the Atlantic waves would have been unanswerable.'
Various commentators (Allen 2009; Coulter 2003; Foster 2008; O'Toole 2009; Kirby 2010) agree that there were two distinct phases to the Celtic Tiger era. The first phase lasted from 1995 until 2001 and was driven mainly by Foreign Direct Investment. The second phase, from 2001 to 2006/07, was characterized by construction, property market revenues, and cheap credit. The Microsoft report above exposes the half-hidden flaws in the Celtic Tiger "model". Simply put, Irish exports were often of services (especially financial services) rather than more traditional goods, and Irish debt was soaring amid a credit and property bubble of historic proportions.
Olcote Village was designed during the first phase of the Celtic Tiger and built during the second phase. It was a product of its time and place. The stoiy of Olcote indicates the historical, political, economic and regulatory conditions for the possibility of Ireland's property collapse.
Building Olcote Village
At the time it was planned Olcote Village was the first of a higher density proj ect in Ireland because before that time the rule was that a one bedroom unit was given a two unit space allocation. Olcote was about more than density. It was an architectural attempt to join up a lot of ideas and to create a community. Planners had not fully engaged in the Celtic Tiger mentality when Olcote Village was being planned and it pushed their boundaries. There was no slow organic trail (Irish Senior Architect of Olcote, interviewed 2010 and 2011).
The Irish property boom and the regulatory or planning environment are difficult to understand without reference to the Irish political system. For much of the twentieth century, politically and culturally, Ireland was dominated by the Fianna Fail political party. The party, which was in turn dominated by the figure of its founder, Eamon de Valera, reached deep into local communities and held office almost without interruption from the 1930s to the late 1970s. Articles 40.3.2 and 43 of De Valera's 1937 constitution (Bunreacht nah Eireann) permitted land owners to profit from the ownership of private property. Fianna Fail may have begun life as a party representing "men of no property" but by the mid-twentieth century they seemed more and more to represent the so-called "propertied classes" (see MacLaran & Punch 2004: 36 and passim). Fianna Fail built a
reputation as the masters of 'a machine-like style of politics' centring on clientalism and brokerage relationships between citizens, politicians and the bureaucracy (Garvin 1974: 312; see also Komito 1985; 1989; 1992; 1993). But national politics is only one part of the complex milieu in which the property market functions.
Ireland has almost no serious local government as compared to other European countries (see Lee 1989), except for one crucial area - planning. Whilst the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is responsible for planning legislation, much remains in the hands of 88 local planning authorities, 29 county councils, 5 county borough corporations, 5 borough corporations and 49 town councils. The system remains weak, ad hoc and often devoid of actual planning. In a valedictory press release in 2011, the retiring Chair of the Irish Planning Appeals Board had this to say:
I did realise at the time that some of the developments coming before the Board, particularly residential schemes, were questionable and indeed at publication of various annual reports I referred to concerns about the poor standard of some of the developments in tax incentive areas, the appropriateness of the suburban type schemes being attached to towns and villages around the country and to the sustainability of the zoning policies of many local authorities (Irish Planning Institute 2011).
Other commentators have noted the systemic failures but also pointed more directly to the rampant clientalism, brokerage and outright corruption within the system.
Kitchin et al. make the argument that the housing bubble and subsequent crash in the Irish banking and property sectors was not simply a consequence of the global crash or an absence of financial regulation, it was also a home-grown crisis due to a lack of planning regulations. Planning should, they argue, have acted as the counter-balance to the excessive pressures for development, working for the common good to produce sustainable patterns of residential and commercial property. However, the opposite outcomes obtained (Kitchin et al. 2010). By the 1980s industrial decentralization and residential suburbanization became the dominant patterns in Irish planning. Journalist Frank McDonald, for example, insists that County Councillors chose to site new developments on land that would have to be serviced by private roads because speculators would net vast quantities of money once rezoned land increased in value. Meanwhile, the political will behind road building revolved around political support from developers in return for rezoning land (McDonald 2000). Meanwhile, Dublin had become a "doughnut city" depopulated and with large areas of dereliction, while its suburbs were characterized by car-based American-style housing - by the late 1990s architects had taken to describing Dublin as "LA in the rain". During the 1980s the Australian poet Vincent Buckley toured Ireland and was perplexed by the strange quality of housing developments that looked unfinished and yet, oddly, used up (1985).
The planning of Olcote Village began during the mid 1990s, but Olcote was designed to be far more that just another housing development: Olcote Village took shape as an experiment in profit maximization that would involve dense clusters of "mixed units" that appeared to offer both secure investments and dream homes - built into Olcote Village was an image of residents and investors trading up and possibly down through the range
of units. A retired couple, for example, might release equity and "trade down" to a small unit in Olcote; a young couple might "get a foot on the ladder" by purchasing a small apartment-like unit and later "trading up". Amid a global frenzy of cheap credit-fuelled property speculation, and in a country where home ownership was a cultural sine qua non, Olcote Village was built at the cutting edge of modernity.
In an interview with Caitriona Coen, a Dublin-based County Councillor painted the following picture of Olcote:
So the whole idea of this village thing was to have more of a mix of income, professional, unemployed and trades people all in the one place. [Olcote] is for a certain type of person, a certain social class. It's kinda upper-class ... like for people who have done well. Then in other estates you have people who have not done so well. Now it is mostly private property there but it was ideal country for the investor, potential landlord whatever you want to call it, because it was, it was at ahhh, selling at prices to give tax relief for the landlord, tax relief on his interest and so on and setting the rent. I don't know how you work it. You get your outlay fairly covered by the rent, d'ya know? It was good from the point of view that people wanted to buy-to-let. Under those circumstances a lot of the, the, the new families wouldn't be having the money to buy (Interview, 2010).
The experiment was a simple one: a "village thing" would be built and sold to different social types on the basis of configurations of perceived needs and tastes. However, the business model also required a certain kind of business environment composed of light regulation, tax breaks, a supportive banking sector, and property speculation. Olcote Village was to be an experiment in cultural capitalism.
Welcome to OlcoteVillage
Olcote Village is located at the edge of Dublin city, where suburbia ends and the countryside begins. The landscape was until recently composed of agricultural lands and a large stud farm on which stood Olcote Castle, a Georgian-era manor home. The developers of Olcote Village bought the land and the protected landmark building. Mysteriously, however, the castle burned to the ground in 2002, and today a lifeless reproduction stares blankly down on the new housing development.
Generally, Olcote Village has the feel of an empty film set. Many residents work in Dublin city and, thus, life in Olcote is a "dormitory" existence. The pavements are narrow and restrictive. Typical qualities generally associated with village life are starkly absent. There are no key structures, such as a church or bridge for the eye to fix itself to. Near one of the gates to the estate a huge sign still encourages potential buyers to a nearby property development - 'Where Communities Grow: No Deposit? No Worries!' It advertises houses for sale in a half-built, semi-inhabited, ghost estate. At the edge of the ghost estate there's a newly-built train station, but it remains inaccessible to residents because the development company ran out of money before the road and paths to it were completed.
A retired couple, who were amongst the first wave of people to buy ("off the plans") a property in Olcote, spoke at length about their "dreams":
There are fourteen different types of houses in Olcote, so you had something to suit everyone. You had a one bedroom apartment for people just starting out. You had one bedroom bungalows for people with no family, or for the likes of us who have retired young. There was a four bedroom house for the likes of those down [there], for those with a couple of kiddies and may want to have more ... and had the money... People who wanted apartments, bungalows, bleeding penthouses, houses from one bedroom bungalow, to five bedroom, and a village on your doorstep. To me it was the prices: very affordable, and Dublin West is one of the biggest growing suburbs in Europe! ... I would never have lived in an apartment because it is not in my psyche, not in my generation's psyche, do you know what I mean? I am sure it will be in the future for people but we were of the generation where you had to have your front door, your back door, your side gate (Interviewed 2010).
This couple stressed their burning need for home ownership. They also gestured towards the seismic shift in the Irish property market during the Celtic Tiger era. During the 1960s Ireland had the smallest residential construction sector in Western Europe; during the Celtic Tiger era the rate of new home completion in Ireland was the highest per capita in the world (see Corcoran et al. 2007).
In a sense, the people of Olcote were sold their very own dreams, as homes, so they were told, that would only ever augment in asset value. Retired couples were encouraged to release equity; young people were encouraged to get a foot on the ladder or risk lifestyles inadequate to the times. And why shouldn't one try speculating during a seemingly endless boom? In a sense, everyone was a speculator, and those who favoured caution felt marginalised not merely by the media and political discourse but by their families too. One business man recalled the queasy feeling when:
At work, on a Friday afternoon, being told we need an answer now because we have several other interested parties prepared to sign the contract. We had been searching for months and my wife was so unhappy, and I didn't want to let her down. Sure that's no way to buy a home is it letting the heart rule the head? (Interview, 2011).
In Olcote Village houses has been rendered, at one and the same time, as units for speculation and as dream homes. During an interview, a representative of the estate agency (auctioneering firm) that dealt with Olcote simply noted that the Village was 'designed to capture all levels of the market' (Interview, 2010). The following quotation from a resident illustrates the extraordinary almost frenzied pressure that obtained at the height of the boom:
Oh, like, I'd put on, say their asking price was €260,000, and I'd say, 'Yeah, I'll put that on.' I'd be at work, so I'd ring up at 10 o'clock and they'd say, 'It's up to €280,000 now,' and you're like, ' Sorry, what?' Over two hours it's up to €280,000 - up €20,000? And at lunchtime it'd be up to €290,000, and by the end of the day it'd be up to €315,000. Well I'm way out now. I'm gone. Bye! Yeah, looking back now . only six years later . really, really weird: I was putting bids on everywhere, anything I could find (Interview, 2010).
And take the following example:
All of my family had bought houses long before they were thirty and I was really starting to panic when I was getting close to that age ... I was putting bids on everywhere, anything I could find, looking at loads of areas, looking in Santry and over here and there. I was terrified that I would miss out on getting onto the property ladder (Interview, 2010).
In a country where home ownership has long associations to the era of British rule during which the majority of the population was debarred from property ownership, people dreamed - and were encouraged to dream - about how they could fully appreciate the lifestyle-value of their homes while realizing the full exchange value of their houses. One man (who was 28 years old when he got a mortgage) explained how his wife had pressured him for years to 'grow up,' 'be a man,' and buy a proper home for his family:
We bought finally in 2005. The wife was nagging me, and the house was €395, 000. 'Sure! €400,000! Grand, we may as well just say it!' It is worth about €230,000 now. Down €170,000, but the mortgage is the same: €1,500 quid a month! I am fucked if I lose this poxy job! (Interview, 2010).
Eight months after this interview, in June 2011, his small shop closed for repairs never to reopen.
♦ t
f
Figure 2: "Shadowlands", a Ghost Estate in Ireland, courtesy of Kim Haughton
One woman, who bought a one-bedroom apartment in Olcote Village, recalled the frenzy she worked herself into once she turned 30. She felt that if she didn't buy a home right then her opportunity to speculate would be out of her reach forever. Along side a historical culture of homeownership, the situation in Ireland was rendered all the more pressured because of the dominance of a private rental housing market. In Memory Ireland (1985) Vincent Buckley questions why the Irish never effectively complained against a rental system where private landlords have carte blanche over an unregulated market. Private landlords throughout Ireland, but especially in Dublin, charged high rents for poor quality housing and the market was largely unregulated and characterised by tax break schemes and large-scale tax avoidance. Parents told their children to be wise and avoid the "dead money" of rent; everyone seemed to agree that houses were sound investments - bricks and mortar - and nobody could recall there ever having been a property crash before. One woman and her husband sold their home of forty years. Their children bought apartments with released equity and two years later the husband died. On one occasion the woman, sitting in her brand new showhouse bungalow, said: 'It's peculiar - I can't see Paddy in the new house at all but when I dream I see him in our old kitchen or garden and the kids are small.' Other research participants chose to describe their decision to purchase a property in Olcote Village by focusing on the alluring ways in which the properties were packaged and sold, especially as "show homes". The development company behind Olcote pumped money into the superficial restoration of Olcote Castle and were determined to see their investment pay dividends: the marketing of the development included references to the exotic, famous and wealthy persons who once frequented the area, while simultaneously describing the historical and indigenous qualities of the region. More than anything else, however, research participants recalled being sold a lifestyle rather than simply a house. As one research participant recalled:
On the plans, Olcote Village seemed lovely, and there was something for everyone, 'cause all the houses were different. Olcote, it seemed nice, like, and God, the thought of a village. We were, like, where we lived before, we couldn't walk to the shop or walk anywhere. There was nowhere to walk to. So we kind of said, 'There's that, and the attraction that the school was going to be here.' Of course we had to wait for that! I suppose I liked the concept of it, and what has ruined it to a degree is greedy people buying property to rent. It's greed! And they are the type that has done no favours to here and they don't give a toss who they rent to or what other people have to put up with (Interview, 2011).
For this young first-time buyer, the image of a new lifestyle in a village-like residential development proved alluring. She holds small investors responsible for her shattered dreams, as if to prove the old saying that in a crisis one always looks sideways or down for someone to blame. She is also clear on a crucial point: the home she bought was embedded in a particular home culture; she did not just buy a house but, rather, she also bought the concept of it. Slavoj Žižek reminds us that,
As we know already from Marx, the commodity is a mysterious entity full of theological caprices, a particular object satisfying a particular need, but it is at the same time also the promise of "something more," of an unfathomable enjoyment whose true location is fantasy. All advertising addresses this fantasmatic space ... The function of this "more" is to fill in the lack of a "less," to compensate for the fact that, by definition, a merchandise never delivers on its (fantasmatic) promise (2003:146).
No matter how many homes were bought in Olcote Village at the height of the property boom, there were always so-called show houses available for viewing by potential buyers. Would-be buyers could walk about these professionally-decorated houses and imagine themselves living there. One research participant described how he went out of his way to purchase a 'Scandinavian style' show house with a kitchen that would not look out of place on a TV cookery programme. He wanted the show house rather than decorate a home himself. What really mattered to him was the concept of it. Sociologist, Kieran Keohane explains: 'During the Celtic Tiger these show-houses became a modern form of haunting: as potential buyers searched for re-enchantment, show-homes offered "a home with character" and "a house with personality"' (Keohane 2009: 134). One of our research participants even made the following, striking comment: 'We took very little from the [previous] house really, and we only had to take one or two bits. The beds were made!' (Interview, 2010).
Just as Irish property speculators, small-time investors and buyers were purchasing dream homes amid frenzied market conditions in Olcote Village and many other developments across the country, the process of marketization of property was entering a series of crises internationally. In Irrational Exuberance (2005) Robert Shiller plotted the relationships between US population, inflation-adjusted US home prices, building costs, and inflation on 10-year Treasury bonds on a single graph representing the period 18902005. The visual result is stark: from the late 1990s onwards, with no obvious connection to building costs or population pressures, inflation-adjusted US home prices soared in an utterly unprecedented fashion. To an unprecedented degree, the humble home had entered the market and visa versa - property was not a right nor even a privilege but rather a marketized unit of desire. Sub-prime loans proliferated in a deregulated market and were securitized and speculated upon. Many of the same bubble-inflating variables causes in the US, from cheap credit to poor policy, were also available in Ireland. And just as the size of the property bubbles were unprecedented in both countries so too were the crashes. As of the end of 2011, neither market has bottomed out.
Death of a Tiger
There is potential here, but it is going to take time. The recession is not helping anyone; they have no money and huge mortgages. Huge mortgages!
Shopkeeper, Olcote Village, interview, 2011
The Celtic Tiger created a level of wealth unparalleled in the history of Ireland. From 2009 to 2010 Ireland's Gross Domestic Product shrank by just under fourteen per cent, one of the worst financial meltdowns ever recorded by a developed country. In late 2010, Ireland accepted a bailout from a troika composed of the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. Throughout that period the debt crisis in Europe threatened the stability of the European Common Currency. All that was solid and familiar about the world seemed to melt into air. But Ireland witnessed no large-scale protests over austerity measures, save for a pale shadow of the USA's Occupy movement. Each year since the beginning of the crisis, however, the city of Kilkenny hosts the Kilkenomics festival, a blend of stand-up comedy and economics. There is something revealing in this unlikely blend. Economics professors, various financial soothsayers and other international gurus disagree with one another so profoundly as to reveal the fundamentally ideological nature of their professions and the magical thinking it seems to require. Outside, people live amid ghost estates and contemplate the ravaging of the economy by zombie banks. The contrast calls to mind Jean and John Comaroff's remarks on 'millennial capitalism,' which, they tell us,
aspires in its ideology and practice to intensify the abstractions inherent in capitalism itself: to separate labour power from its human context, to replace society with the market, to build a universe out of aggregated transactions . Formative experiences - like the nature of work and the reproduction of self, culture, and community - have shifted. Once-legible processes - the workings of power, the distribution of wealth, the meaning of politics and national belonging - have become opaque, even spectral . A striking corollary of the dawning Age of Millennial Capitalism has been the global proliferation of "occult economies." These economies have two dimensions: a material aspect founded on the effort to conjure wealth - or to account for its accumulation - by appeal to techniques that defy explanation in the conventional terms of practical reason; and an ethical aspect grounded in the moral discourses and (re)actions sparked by the (real or imagined) production of value through such "magical" means (2000: 305-10 passim).
The Comaroffs note that magic, the occult and even the figures of ghosts and zombies are not mere allegories. Rather, the key is to situate these forms of thinking and figures amid a world in which the conditions for the possibility of the knowable have been altered, beyond anything else by forces working with respect to futures such as probability and confidence. Simply stated, ways of predicting the future (and insuring it via risk and precaution) and confidence in the future (confidence being now described as a driver of the market, something one might destroy by merely talking in a negative way) have become marketized and simultaneously opaque.
Figure 3: "Bale-in", a 3 year-old dream house in Ireland currently being used to store hay, courtesy of Zara Brady
What of the present moment and the uncertain near future for residents in Olcote Village? In Catriona Coen's fieldnotes she recorded two striking ethnographic moments that capture the contemporary and future as embedded in everyday life.
During the spring of 2010, Catriona was invited to the former show home and now dream home of a research participant who was especially nervous about the future. She noted the extraordinarily high degree to which the home was designed, the way it looked design cataloguelike. 'Don't you just love it?' the research participant stated rather than asked as he conducted Catriona around the house. He commented on how safe he felt and how "cocooned" he was in his Scandinavian-style home. 'The outside,' he said, gesturing towards the neighbourhood from his frosted glass' encased balcony, 'does not match the inside. I know.' 'I thought,' he said looking back, 'fantastic - when I heard there was going to be a management company, great!
I don't mind paying if the place is going to look well. So I paid them every year on time except this year. What am I paying for now? ... And when I think back waiting for the village to be open; it was like a ghost village and everyone was like, 'When will it be open?' Oh God! ... A lot of shops have opened and changed. We used to say, 'Olcote was the best kept secret,' but there is definitely a "but" now ... (Interview, 2010).
Almost without exception, research participants professed love for their houses and, for the most part, refused to acknowledge the likelihood of the outside puncturing their dream lives with cold economic realities such as immobility, negative equity or even repossession. Indeed, many claimed that their homes are extensions of their personalities. But whilst their dream homes loomed large in their everyday lives, the walls of their homes seemed ringed by limits, beyond which lay a whole series of unfinished landscape features and weak social bonds. Buying a home in Olcote involves entering into contracts with management companies and building a community anew from the ground up. Their social encounters as well as their economic and cultural world seemed bound up in uncertainty. Left uninterrupted by global and economic collapse, we found Olcote to have been a laboratory intended to test a new strain of capitalist home ownership in Ireland.
Prior to the economic collapse Olcote Village had several residents' committees (homeowners' associations). Thereafter, several splinter groups appeared sporadically and the original residents' groups became inactive. Catriona attended a meeting with the original residents' committee, which was, so she was told, 'in a period of transition.' The meeting began with the committee members present together with Catriona and one resident in attendance. The resident spoke of her personal situation in a series of unconnected stories for fifteen minutes. Two other female residents arrived, followed by another who asked if any politicians would be attending. 'I have a baby-sitter; I need to go!' said one committee member before vanishing. The resident who had been speaking simply continued and turned to the topic of the possible presence of pyrite in the neighbourhood.
Pyrite, common in the quarries used during the construction boom, may cause structural problems when exposed to water over time and is feared by new home owners in Ireland. The mere mention of this mineral had the potential to threaten property values. A committee member pointed out that professional advice had been sought and each home-owner would have to pay the costs of a structural engineer's report - a cost of several thousand euros. 'Sure, I would not be expected to pay for it as well?' wondered one committee member. 'Why would I have spent money on a surveyor's report when the house was new?' wondered another. Everyone seemed to be experiencing a loss of familiarity with their world, as if the common sense of things were not only absent but, more, that the world itself was organized against them - they were responsible for everything, even those things that were not of their doing.
Conclusion
Few people in Olcote Village distanced themselves from their decisions to buy a home or lease a business premises there. 'I live in the here and now, and we all have to live somewhere,' said one resident, disavowing the future as a site of possibilities. Other said, 'These things come in cycles. Sure, we had our turn for a while and it will come around again.' Cycles being a word sometimes used in the public sphere by persons who seem to know about these things, a word that suggests certainty and continuity. But certainty and continuity are starkly absent in Olcote, where dream homes have become sites of uncertain futures.
Figure 4: "Bank Shares in 2012", courtesy of Mark Maguire
In Observations on Modernity (1998), Niklas Luhmann reflects on the ways in which continuity from past to future is ruptured in the present moment. Broadly, Luhmann describes a moment in which uncertainty abounds amid an "ecology of ignorance" - an ecology composed of unmarked spaces and systemic ignorance, and forms of knowledge characterized by predictions, precautions and false prophets. One of the implications of Luhmann's work is the question of what subjects perceive in their worlds: once revealed to be contingent or working for the betterment of the few, are the operating rules and procedures of society animated by values or driven to produce societal good? Can we be safe or secure in our decisions or in the direction we are going? Indeed, is my sense of self-worth or self itself built upon more than illusions, and therefore am I able to operate in the world? There are few answers to these questions in Olcote Village, where people once confidently poured their wealth, identities and futures in an effort to buy more than a mere house. Time will tell whether or not a world denuded of illusions is worth living in.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the reviewers' for their useful insights.
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POVZETEK
Pogled irskega keltskega tigra zalezuje pokrajino, družbeni stroški spektakularnega kolapsa finančnega in nepremičninskega trga pa se še naprej kopičijo. Članek predstavlja rezultate dvanajstmesečnega etnografskega terenskega dela, izvedenega v letih 2010 in 2011 v obsežnem stanovanjskem razvojnem projektu zahodnega Dublina. Raziskava skuša razumeti družbene in kulturne vplive hude ekonomske recesije in kolapsa nepremičninskega trga na vsakdanje življenje ljudi, ki so kupili "sanjski dom". Izvedena je bila v enem izmed vzorčnih stanovanjskih naselij v obdobju tako imenovanega keltskega tigra. Prebivalci se danes trudijo živeti svoja življenja in ohranjati občutek doma v razpršenem prostorskem in institucionalnem svetu. Raziskava združuje številne znanstvene tokove od del Jean in Johna Comaroffa pa do vpogledov Niklasa Luhmanna in Slavoj a Žižka, da bi raziskala irski ekonomski kolaps teoretsko in empirično. Tako se članek dotika nekaterih bolj vsakdanjih in raznovrstnih kvalitet sodobnega kapitalizma in upravljanja.
KLJUČNE BESEDE: nepremičninski trg, sanje, keltski tiger, Irska
CORRESPONDENCE: CAITRIONA COEN, Department of Anthropology, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland. E-mail: trionacoen@ gmail.com.
Same sex marriages in Spain: The case of international unions
Ángeles Arjona Garrido
Universidad de Almería, arjona@ual.es
Juan Carlos Checa Olmos
Universidad de Almería, jcheca@ual.es
Alexandra Ainz Galende
Universidad de Almería, txiquiherri@hotmail.com
María Jose González Moreno
Universidad de Almería, mgm302@ual.es
Abstract
Marriage between homosexuals has been legally recognised in Spain since 2005. This phenomenon has made visible many couples who lived "underground", regardless of the nationality of the spouses. The purpose of this article is to discover the main patterns of same-sex marriage in which one spouse is Spanish and the other foreign. The Movimiento Natural de Población (National Population Movement) (MNP) is the source of statistics used in this study, as it has the most up-to-date data on this subject. The data show that, depending on the country of origin of the spouses, same-sex marriages in Spain are more heterogamous than heterosexual marriages. Equally, this greater heterogamy is shown in terms of age, occupation and education level.
KEYWORDS: heterogamy, homogamy, intermarriage, marriage market, same sex marriages
Introduction
On July 3, 2005, Law 3/2005, regulating the right of individuals of the same sex to marry, became effective in Spain.1 This situation broke the universal nature of access to adult sexual life, especially paternity, imposed by heterosexual marriage (Andersson et al. 2006), while also reflecting the continual change that the institution of marriage is undergoing
1 Before this reform in the Civil Code, 12 of the 17 autonomous regions in Spain had already legalized homosexual marriages, which could be registered as cohabitation (see Calvo 2010; Cortina 2007; Platero 2010).
ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTEBOOKS 18 (1): 23-40. ISSN 1408-032X
© Slovene Anthropological Society 2012
(Chen 2008; Domingo 1997; Gunkel 2010; Marcus 2009), as the appearance of these legal regulations has at least made homosexual spouses socially and statistically visible. We are thus facing a case of equal rights (Moreno & Pichardo 2006) understood as the cultural construct that turns homosexuality into a regulated and legal area; therefore, the dissidence of this sexual orientation has been broken in the face of equal rights.
In any case, as Rosenfeld (2007) observed, marriages between individuals of the same sex are a clear indicator of social change and of the modernisation of social values (Pichardo 2009). This reality is even more obvious and transgressive when homosexual marriages cross national borders, and take place between people with different ethnic or cultural origins. The search for a partner outside the borders of their own country, in the frame of what King (2002) called the 'transnationalisation of intimacy,' and the migration process linked to it, adopts in most cases a perfectly structured scheme, differentiated in terms of gender and sexual orientation (Roca 2007).
The purpose of this article is, therefore, to delve into the phenomenon of international same-sex marriages from a demographic and sociological viewpoint. It is a first attempt offering future lines of work to explain it in countries where this new form of marriage is legal and in the process of consolidation. To begin with, it is based on the elements of analysis used to describe mixed heterosexual marriages, and then, their adequacy to the case of bi-national homosexual marriages is explored using the data available.
Therefore, in the first place, we explore the degree of marriage endogamy presented by homosexual international marriages in Spain, versus international heterosexual marriages. We start from the hypothesis that international homosexual marriages are more heterogamous than heterosexual ones. Furthermore, since this article concerns itself mainly with an international analysis, heterogamy is initially considered to be equivalent to the origins of the spouses. However, as the classic anthropologic conceptualisation of this practice includes other factors, marriage guidelines are also analysed; such guidelines refer to the marital status, occupation, education level, and age of homosexual and heterosexual spouses. In short, this study seeks to offer some figures and arguments to fill the empirical and theoretical vacuum that exists with regard to this phenomenon, while being aware of the significant limitations that must be confronted: its significant social invisibility and a lack of statistics on the entire phenomenon, which impede its quantification and characterisation.
Theoretical structure
The theoretical framework of the phenomenon of mixed marriages is structured around two themes, the patterns and/or factors in the choice of a mate, and the consequences of those marriages. Following the purpose outlined, special attention is given to the first line of work.
In the first place, and taking a rational logic - rational choice - as reference, the choice of a partner is made once the costs and benefits have been assessed (Becker 1974). In other words, marriage is an exchange of resources between two individuals who are perfectly assessed and, therefore, criteria based on available information are applied to the
choice of partner to maximise results. More recently, Blossfeld and Timm (2004) discussed limited rationality, since the time consumed in the search and the information found are both limited, which makes a comparison of candidates not always possible and, naturally, the choice does not depend only on an individual's decision.
The marriage market concept, understood as the physical and symbolic meeting space in which subjects who wish to get married can be found, appears as a result of this perspective (Cabré 1994; McDonald 1995). It is called a market because in this exchange place, just as in other markets, there are operating rules, based on supply and demand, and subject to the conditions of more or less free competition, although the mechanisms that are activated to find a balance do not include price, but other elements such as age, sex, singleness, etc. Thus, later theoretical work pays attention to marriage market regulations.
Among the elements that explain how it works in the configuration of mixed marriages, there are preferences for certain characteristics of potential spouses, especially socioeconomic and cultural. The socioeconomic resources refer to the possibility of improving their social status. The theory of exchange maintains that subjects belonging to ethnic minorities who marry into the majority group improve their social status (Heer 1974; Monahan 1976; Shoen & Wooldredge 1989; Wirth & Goldhamer 1944). Therefore, people with better levels of education, higher incomes and prestigious jobs are the most attractive candidates in the marriage market for prospective spouses (Nakosteen & Zimmer 2001). From this point on, there is no lack of literature that usually finds a positive correlation between mixed marriages and the man's income or higher education (Nakosteen & Zimmer 1987; Korenman & Neumark 1991).
Cultural resources include values, opinions, lifestyles or views of the world, and mastery of the language. Thus, the main candidates are those who share similar cultural patterns (Kalmijn 1998) and better linguistic competence, since these characteristics increase the opportunities for contact and communication with the native population. As a result, over time and generations, immigrants assimilate values and language, resulting in intergroup marriage (Gordon 1964). In other words, exogamy increases with the passing of generations (Giorgas & Jones 2002; Lieberson & Waters 1988; Lievens 1998). Thus, for example, Europeans arriving in the United States - especially English-speaking ones and Germans - present a higher rate of mixed marriages. However, this phenomenon has not occurred for all population groups: Latin Americans or Asians residing in North America, with the passing of generations, have not undergone marriage assimilation, as could be expected from this theory.
Based on this reasoning, bi-national homosexual marriages will increase over time, because while they will take place by consensus between individuals of the same nationality at the beginning, they will subsequently became consolidated with partners from other countries (Anderson et al. 2006; Festy & Digoix 2004). Nor should we forget that endogamous marriages, in some groups, regardless of their sexual orientation, may be attributed to family influence (Hurtado 1995; Hwang et al. 1997; Qian et al. 2001), when a discourse based on cultural "distance" between groups is built up.
Another theoretical element that explains intergroup marriages is based on opportunity, understood as the likelihood of meeting members of the outgroup. Thus when
subjects interact, mainly with others in their own group, marriages are endogamic. The elements that provide opportunities for contact are defined mainly by group size (Anderson & Saenz 1994; Hwanz et al. 1997; Lievens 1998), since this influences the chances of meeting members of one's own group. Thus, endogamy is more prevalent in heavily represented groups. Obviously, in same-sex marriages, this variable is fundamental, since homosexuality is less common than heterosexuality.
In the second place, and closely related to the above, is the sex ratio (Anderson & Saenz 1994; Hwanz et al. 1997; Pagnini & Morgan 1990). In modern migration, the first to arrive are usually young men (Castles & Miller 2003), restricting the possibilities of marriage between Spaniards and foreign women, since in many cases they migrate for family regrouping or as heads of a household, but with their original partner from home. However, a society with information and new technologies leads us to rethink foreign migrations (Roca 2007). In other words, the World Wide Web has made migration for love possible, exceeding the migratory project for economic reasons. In some cases, even the traditional social network becomes unnecessary as relationships are established through various web-based social networks.
In the third place, there are the existing residential patterns (Iceland & Nelson 2010; Massey & Denton 1993). When segregation indices are high endogamy becomes stronger due to the lower probability of making contact with members of other groups. However, in same-sex marriages, this is not only minimised, but in some cases, the consolidation of residential spaces where gays and lesbians concentrate, regardless of their nationality, makes endogamic and exogamic marriages possible.
Finally, in the explanation of mixed marriages, the state, religion and family, play an outstanding role in regulating the phenomenon. The first defines and identifies different groups, even giving them a certain legal status, and regulates the form and requirements for marriage. Thus, for example, in Spain, the law carefully ensures that the reason for international marriages is love and not the desire to obtain legal status in the host country (Calvo 2010). However, in our case, the legal status of the foreign spouse also comes into play: if it is illegal, it can become an impediment. The state sees to it that all international marriages are due to love and not just to acquire documents legitimising the presence of the immigrant. Furthermore, few countries recognise same-sex marriages, so that people need to marry individuals from countries where the legislation is favourable to their sexual orientation, or when applicable, people from the same country have to marry abroad. And here the relevance of the internet and contact web pages is emphasised once more, since they act as a link between transnational couples, regardless of country and legislation.
Moreover, religions are, or have been, institutions that define the lines of the socialisation of people and their identifying structure. For example, Islam, the religion of most of the Africans who settle in Spain, not only forbids marriage between Muslim women and partners from a different creed or without religious beliefs (Hooghiemstra 2003; Kulzycki & Lobo 2002), but also prohibits it, like other religions, between individuals of the same sex (Sherkat & Creek 2010), which is regarded as anti-natural and contrary to religion. However, there are numerous examples in reality that show that religious guidelines have not been followed, nor have they marked people's process of socialisation. Thus, for
instance, there are many cases of Muslim women who marry non-Muslim men in their country of destination, thus ignoring one of the Koran's rules.2 Furthermore, in Spain, in the previous year, over a dozen women from Islamic countries entered into homosexual marriages with European women.
Certainly, the family is the main socialisation agent on which the transmission of norms and values is based, and it can inhibit heterosexual or homosexual exogamy. More specifically, there are several theoretical arguments that explain the role of the family in establishing relations with the outgroup. In the first one, through the theory of equality, people seek partners who are like themselves, especially, in terms of occupation, education, religion or language. That is, homogamy, in which social networks have a fundamental role, as they regulate the norms and sanction behaviour, which does not comply with them. Thus, endogamy is emphasised by groups that want or need to maintain group cohesion, and domestic values and traditions (Clark-Ibanez & Felmlee 2004; Sniderman & Hagendoorn 2007; Huijnk et al. 2010). Even families that emphasise conservative values are more likely to have prejudiced and negative attitudes toward the outgroup (Lambert & Chasteen 1997), and they therefore understand homogamic marriage as a value in itself.
Nevertheless, research has shown (Andersson et al. 2006) that same-sex marriages are more heterogamous than heterosexual marriages, especially with regard to age, education and nationality. Similar results were found by Festy and Digoix (2004) in France, especially with regard to age.
As stated above, social networks are fundamental for access to marriage,3 but the transgressive nature of homosexuality, in addition to having fewer opportunities because of the smaller number of foreigners with this sexual orientation, makes the choice of a partner less selective about following certain patterns. Therefore, it is not difficult to find homosexual couples with a great age difference between the spouses (Anderson et al., 2006). In Spain, Cortina (2007) points out how among homosexual couples, regardless of gender, the age difference is greater than between heterosexual couples. Figures increase even more, if possible, in international marriages, a situation that is due to the lack of balance between demand (Spanish homosexuals) and offer (foreign homosexuals) in this type of marriage, in which choice criteria are fairly limited.
Moreover, Schwartz and Graf (2009) suggest as an explanation for greater heterogamy among homosexuals, in addition to the abovementioned smaller number of homosexuals, different expectations with regard to fertility, since these marriages have fewer children than heterosexual marriages and so older partners can be chosen. They also have less social control of families, and therefore, marriages have more freedom.
The choice of spouse and the formation of mixed marriages is definitely a multi-dimensional process determined by interrelated factors, which can be summarised as individual preferences in the choice of partner, social group influence and the limitations or possibilities of the marriage market.
2	See Koran, Surat 2: Aleya 221.
3	Roca (2007) speaks in some cases of a migratory love chain, which starts when love relationships begin to be encouraged between members of social networks for couples: immigrants' friends who are introduced at a wedding, on trips or through the internet.
Method and data
There are several sources in Spain that provide information on the marriage of Spaniards to foreigners, but the most applicable and useful for research on mixed marriages4 are the 2001 Population Census and the Movimiento Natural de Población (Natural Population Movement) (MNP), both compiled by the National Institute of Statistics (INE); although they are each of a different nature, they complement each other in certain subjects.
The census reports on all self-declared cohabitating couples, regardless of whether they are live-in partners or married. This source has certain important limitations. First, it provides out-dated 2001 data; second, it reports on the nationality of only 5% of the population, and third, it underestimates the number of dwellings inhabited by homosexual couples because of the hostility this phenomenon generates, even more so than when such marriages were not allowed.
The MNP, however, provides annual information on the marriages that took place in Spain from 2005 to 2009. It also provides data on certain characteristics of the spouses, such as nationality, sex, profession and age, and in the previous two years it has even included their education. Nevertheless, this source also has serious limitations, as it does not record cohabitation, which is very frequent among Latin Americans, for example (see Castro 2001). Neither does it include foreign mixed or endogamic marriages of people currently living in Spain, although it does include marriages that may have had as their incentive a residence permit for the foreign spouse, rather than love, and a reduction of the residence time required for nationalisation.
In short, as pointed out by Surra et al. (2007), there is no single source, even international, which compiles and quantifies the diversification of couples and the variables of interest for the study of this phenomenon. This is a problem which should be solved by the managers and technicians who arrange and design information collection.
Therefore, in view of the specific purpose of this text, we used the MNP. The total number of marriages performed in Spain from 2005 to 2009 is 996,313. But we worked mainly with the 4,772 same-sex marriages of natives to foreigners during this period. More specifically, considering how the INE records mixed marriages, we grouped Spouse A as being of Spanish nationality and B as being of foreign nationality.5 Finally, it should be mentioned that, as can be observed in the tables at the end of the article, the total figure is not always equal to the total number. The differences are due in the first place, to the absence of information on some of the variables, either by deliberate or involuntary omission of the person recorded. In the second place, since 2008, indicators such as education have been included; which had been missing in previous years.
4	Encuesta de Población Activa (Active Population Survey) (EPA), Encuesta de Fecundidad (Fertility Survey) (EF), Encuesta de Hogares de la Unión Europea (European Union Household Survey) and Encuesta Nacional de inmigración (National Survey of Immigration) also provide information on mixed marriages.
5	Cases where both spouses are foreigners, when there is no information, or nationality of one or both spouses is not given have been omitted from the analysis.
Results
This section attempts to quantify the scope of the phenomenon of mixed homosexual marriages, taking into account the sex of the spouses. It is then analysed, considering the main socio-demographic characteristics of the spouses given by the MNP: origin, marital status, profession, education and age.
The first point observed in the data is the gradual increase of mixed homosexual marriages in Spain (see Table 1). In 2005, there were only 280, while the following year the figure rose to 1089, and in 2009 it reached 1212. However, the significant increase from 2005 to 2006 is due to the fact that in 2005 such marriages were only recorded from July onwards, the month when this type of marriage was legalised.
The same trend is repeated when the data are analysed according to the sex of the spouses; the number of marriages of both homosexual men (hereinafter: gays) and women (hereinafter: lesbians) are gradually increasing over time. However, the trend appears to be stronger among gays, since the number of lesbians only increased from 63 to 286, while the number of gays rose from 217 to 929 (see Table 1).
Table 1: Homosexual marriages of natives to foreigners (2005-2009)
Year	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Men-Men	217	887	781	950	926
Women-Women	63	202	206	254	286
Total	280	1,089	987	1,204	1,212
Source: MNP. By author.
Moreover, this matrimonial logic is not only repeated among couples married in Spain, but where both spouses are foreigners (see Table 2). In the beginning, only 41 couples were married, of which six were lesbians and 35 gays. In 2009, there were 306 homosexual marriages among foreigners, of which 81 were lesbians and 225 gays.
Table 2: Homosexual marriages of foreigners in Spain (2005-2009)
Year	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Men-Men	35	185	194	187	225
Women-Women	6	49	82	77	81
Total	41	234	276	264	306
Source: MNP By author.
However, are these overall patterns the same for both homosexual and heterosexual marriages in Spain? The data show that they are not.
The first detail observed in Table 3 is that mixed heterosexual marriages in Spain accounted for 13.2% of the total heterosexual marriages, while homosexual marriages of Spanish gays to foreigners were 37.3% and of Spanish lesbians to foreigners 20.4%. Therefore, it can be stated that on the basis of the nationality of the spouses, same-sex marriages have a greater tendency to heterogamy than heterosexual marriages, and these differences are stronger in marriages between gays.
Table 3: Marriages in Spain by sexual orientation and type of relationship (2005-2009)
	Mixed	Endogamic	Total
Male	(3,761)	(6,329)	(10,090)
Homosexual	37.3%	62.7%	100%
Female	(1,011)	(3,950)	(4,961)
	20.4%	79.6%	100%
Heterosexual	(129,719)	(851,543)	(981,262)
	13.2%	86.8%	100%
Source: MNP. By author.
Concentrating exclusively on the figures corresponding to mixed homosexual marriages, and considering the main variables acting on the marriage market, it can be observed that homosexual marriages are more heterogamous with regard to origin than heterosexual marriages, although the places of origin of the spouses are similar.
As we can see in Table 4, Spanish gay marriages occur primarily with North and South Americans, followed by Europeans, as opposed to unions established with Africans and Asians. Likewise, the majority of lesbians also marry North and South American women (83.6%), reaching a higher percentage than gays, and on very few occasions, Africans or Asians. Heterosexual unions are also established mainly with North and South American (56.1%) and European partners (26.5%), although in this case the figures are lower, since the numbers of marriages to Africans (14.6%) are much higher than those for gays and lesbians.
Table 4: Marriages of natives to foreigners by home country of foreign spouse
(2005-2009)
Home country		Europe	Africa	N. & S. America	Asia	Total
	Male	(659)	(113)	(2,880)	(50)	(3,702)
Homosexual		17.8%	3.1%	77.8%	1.4%	100%
	Female	(139)	(19)	(833)	(6)	(997)
		13.9%	1.9%	83.6%	0.6%	100%
Heterosexual		(34,026) 26.5%	(18,672) 14.6%	(71,994) 56.1%	(3,556) 2.8%	(128,248) 100%
Source: MNP. By author.
With regard to the characteristics of the married couples, the marital status of the foreign spouse, as shown in Table 5, is predominantly single. In the case of gays it reaches 93.8%; for lesbians 90.2% and for heterosexuals 82.5%. However, certain differences can be appreciated in marriages to divorced partners. While it is 6% for gays and 9.6% for lesbians, the figure rises to16.4% for mixed heterosexual marriages.
Marriage is considered an important factor in social mobility. Table 6 shows that there are no important differences in occupation between Spanish homosexual marriages and Spanish heterosexual marriages. In the case of gays, marriage is most common among blue collar workers (47.3%) followed by white-collar workers (43.6%). Lesbians show a very similar trend to that of gays; i.e. Spanish lesbians marry mainly foreign blue
collar and white-collar workers. In heterosexual couples, this marriage pattern is repeated again, although the difference lies in the fact that the number of blue collar workers is higher by 15 points than that of white collar workers, versus the four points that separate homosexuals.
Table 5: Marriages of natives to foreigners by marital status of the foreign spouse
(2005-2009)
Maritial status	Single	Widow	Divorced	Total
Male	(3,471)	(8)	(223)	(3,702)
Homosexual	93.8%	0.2%	6%	100%
Female	(899)	(2)	(96)	(997)
	90.2%	0.2%	9.6%	100%
Heterosexual	(105,791) 82.5%	(1,485) 1.2%	(20,972) 16.4%	(128,248) 100%
Source: MNP. By author.
Furthermore, the data from the MNP show that when the professions of both homosexual spouses are compared, white-collar Spaniards (61.8%) tend to marry foreigners with white collar jobs, but 34.8% marry blue-collar workers and 2% unemployed foreigners. In other words, over a third of the foreigners achieve social mobility by marrying a Spanish homosexual.
Table 6: Marriages of natives to foreigners by occupation of the foreign spouse
(2005-2009)
Occupation		White collar	Blue collar	Private income	Unemployed	Student	Total
	Male	(1,462)	(1,587)	(27)	(146)	(130)	(3,352)
Homosexual		43.6%	47.3%	0.8%	4.4%	3.9%	100%
	Female	(390)	(429)	(2)	(34)	(31)	(886)
		44%	48.4 %	0.2%	3.8%	3.5%	100%
Heterosexual		(44,938) 38.4%	(65,333) 55.9%	(180) 0.2%	(4,865) 4.2%	(1,623) 1.4%	(116,939) 100%
Source: MNP. By author.
The second indicator considered in measuring social mobility through marriage is education. Unlike the above case, there are important differences between homosexual and heterosexual marriages. As shown by the data in the following table, among homosexuals, the level of education of the foreign spouse is higher than among heterosexuals.
For example, gays tend to marry partners with university education in 27% of cases, lesbians in 34.8% and heterosexuals in 22.3%. In fact, when the education of the spouses is compared, from the data supplied by the MNP, in homosexual marriages, 57.7% of homosexual Spaniards with university degrees marry partners with the same level of education, 28.7% marry a foreigner with secondary education and 13.1% someone with primary education. This also shows how highly heterogamous mixed homosexual marriages are.
Table 7: Marriages of natives to foreigners by education of the foreign spouse
(2005-2009)
Education	Illiterate	Can read	Primary	Secondary University		Total
		and write	education	education	education	
Male	(1)	(15)	(417)	(596)	(381)	(1,410)
Homosexual	0.1%	1.1%	29.6%	42.3%	27%	100%
Female	(1)	(3)	(112)	(157)	(146)	(419)
	0.2%	0.7 %	26.7%	37.5%	34.8%	100%
	(366)	(1,561)	(18,020)	(13,555)	(9,635)	(43,137)
Heterosexual	0.8%	3.6%	41.8%	31.4%	22.3%	100%
Source: MNP. By author.
Finally, among the basic variables that explain any kind of marriage is the age of the spouses. The MNP data show that the average age of Spanish homosexual spouses is 37.5 compared to 31.7 for the foreign spouse. More specifically, it is common among gays to marry people who are between the ages of 19 and 40 (78.3%), a situation that is repeated in the case of lesbians (81.6%) and of heterosexuals (81.6%). However, in 21.6% of the cases, Spanish gays marry foreigners who are over the age of 41, which in the case of lesbians is 18.3% and 13.3% in heterosexual couples (see Table 8).
Table 8: Marriages of natives to foreigners by age of the foreign spouse (2005-2009)
Age		Under 18	19-30	31—40	41-50	51-60	Over 60	Total
	Male	(6)	(1,685)	(1,213)	(507)	(155)	(136)	(3,702)
Homosexual		0.2%	45.5%	32.8%	13.7%	4.2%	3.7%	100%
	Female	(0)	(435)	(379)	(145)	(31)	(7)	(997)
		0%	43.6%	38%	14.5%	3.1%	0.7%	100%
Heterosexual		(475) 0,4%	(64,789) 50.3%	(45,931) 35.8%	(12,889) 10.1%	(3,372) 2.6%	(795) (128,248) 0.6% 100%	
Source: MNP. By author.
To summarise, Spanish gays are generally the ones who present the highest rates of heterogamy, since they show the greatest tendency to marry foreigners of different education levels, professions and ages. Although lesbians present marriage trends that are similar to those of gays, the figures obtained are lower. Put in a different way: a relevant number of foreign homosexuals attain social mobility through marrying Spaniards. Finally, it should be pointed out that heterosexual marriages in Spain are more endogamic than homosexual ones, not only with regard to the origin of the spouses, but also to their age and education levels.
Discussion and conclusion
The purpose of this text is both to quantify mixed same-sex marriages in Spain, and to discover any trends in homosexual marriages and compare them to their heterosexual counterparts.
The first item shown by the data is an increase in same-sex marriages among gays and lesbians, although less so for the latter. This trend is repeated to a lesser extent among foreigners, i.e. homosexual marriages between foreigners in Spain.
The main cause for the increase in this phenomenon is that a reality which was more or less veiled has now been made visible, not only by legal difficulties, but also by social pressure, which rejects homosexual practices and relationships. Moreover, there is no lack of politicians in the Partido Popular (a conservative party) who argue that they will abolish this law (Calvo 2010), as they consider it anti-natural, regarding the concepts of matrimony and homosexuality as incompatible among other things.6
Likewise, as in heterosexual marriages in Spain (see Camarero 2010; Cortina et al. 2008; Cortina et al. 2009; Rodríguez 2004; Sánchez-Domínguez, De Valk & Reher 2001), endogamy is predominant in homosexual marriages (Gil 2010). In other words, most of them take place between individuals from the same country. This shows that there is a positive relationship between the imbalance in the numbers of people and the difference in levels of endogamy. Thus, the greater the excess offer, the more endogamy there is. Therefore, it in is the groups with the largest numbers that members marry their compatriots. To put it in a different way, as there are more Spanish than foreign homosexuals, this fact facilitates exclusively native marriages. Nevertheless, endogamy in same-sex marriages is lower than in heterosexual marriages and especially among gays.
The differences between gays and lesbians in homosexual marriages open possible lines or hypotheses for future research work, since they are more closely linked with the characteristics of the marriage than with the number of homosexuals of one sex or another. Thus, explanations would need to be sought for the differentiated motivations that one or the other shows when they enter marriage or declare cohabitation. For example, Andersson et al. (2006) in Sweden and Norway discussed protection against AIDS (more frequent among gays) or acquiring legal status for the spouse in the case of mixed marriages.
To all of this, as in any marriage we must add the new position of women in the marriage, associated first with their participation in the labour market, delaying their age for marriage and, second, and as a consequence of the above, the fact that women are starting to lose their subsidiary character in economic matters, which they had in heterosexual couples (see Oppenheimer 1997). In other words, economic independence not only enables women to choose a partner, but also to select the option of remaining single. Nevertheless, there is no lack of cases in which women in paid employment continue to be to be subjected to their husbands, either for cultural reasons or because of their insufficient earnings.
6 Vidal-Quadras recently even noted that not annulling the law placed the marriages of center/right voters in Spain at risk. See http://www.europapress.es/nacional/noticia-vidal-quadras-exige-derogar-matrimonio-gay-aborto-no-poner-riesgo-unidad-centro-derecha-20111102183345.html.
Furthermore, as Platero (2007) maintains, the recognition of lesbians as mothers and wives does not produce great changes in the traditional roles assigned to women. There are many lesbians, who in the eyes of society, appear as women who are available for unpaid work. In other words, lesbian relationships are not granted the same legitimacy and recognition as heterosexual unions, but are perceived as temporary and unstable.
Concerning nationality, it has been found that there is more exogamy among homosexual than heterosexual marriages. The differences may be due to how the marriage market works, as well as to preferences and selection criteria.
The first component in any marriage, and especially in mixed marriages, regardless of their orientation, is the shortage or abundance of candidates. Therefore, in most marriages in Spain, both spouses are Spanish. However, in the case of mixed heterosexual marriages, the greater the deficit of foreigners of the required gender, the more endogamic they are, or vice versa. A clear example is found in marriages between Spaniards and foreign women, specifically, Latin American, of whom there is an excess, because there are more of them than men in Spain; therefore, they cannot marry someone from their own group. This explains why, according to INE data, Brazilians are currently the group that produces most of the marriages to Spaniards. Conversely, of the groups with a male majority settled in Spain, such as Algerians and some Europeans like Italians or British, the proportion of endogamy is higher among females than males, since it is the number of men which is higher. Thus, many Spanish women are married to men of those nationalities. Therefore, the composition of mixed marriages in Spain can be explained largely by the size and imbalance of the numbers of males and/or females, which cause endogamy to increase in the sex with lower numbers.7
As seen above, the percentage of same-sex marriages of both Spanish gays and lesbians to North and South Americans is also very high, especially to Latin Americans.8 The first explanation is that this community is overall one of the most numerous in Spain, and therefore, there is a wide margin for the marriage market. Moreover, some of these countries have much greater female migration, while in other cases there are many more males, often leading to an excess of that population.9
In same-sex marriages, new elements of analysis have to be added, the transparency of offer and demand and the different value placed on candidate characteristics. Suffice it to say that in almost all the countries where immigrants come from to Spain, homosexual marriages are prohibited, and often persecuted and severely punished, such as in the case
7	However, in certain cases, as in that of Brazilian women, the data show that Brazilian nationals are in fourth place among Latin American countries that are trusted by the Spanish population, behind Argentina, Mexico and Chile. Special mention should be made of the social representation of the Brazilian community differentiated by gender, which is considered especially sensuous and exotic, i.e. Brazilian women (mixed race, above all) who are regarded as sex symbols or icons (see Malheiros 2007; Masanet & Baeninger 2010).
8	Marriages of Spaniards to natives of the United States and Canada barely make up 2% of marriages to North and South Americans. The rest are mainly with Latin Americans.
9	For example, there are 73,526 Brazilian women residing in Spain, compared to 44,282 men; 122,221 Bolivian women compared to 90,948 men, 161,831 Columbian women compared to 130,831 men.
of Islamic countries.10 Therefore, the offer is often also hidden in the host country due to pressure from compatriots in particular, and from the host society in general, since the fact that they are foreigners is another negative aspect to add to their homosexuality, producing in them to a state of fear and helplessness.11
This also explains why in most same-sex marriages of Spaniards, Latin Americans prevail, more so because of their cultural proximity, essentially derived from speaking the same language, which is a facilitator for contact (Roca 2007). This also works for other groups with similar linguistic roots, such as Romanian, Italian or French and so forth. Therefore, as suggested by Blossfled and Timm (2004) in their discussion of limited rationality, the time allotted to choosing and the information acquired is greater for Latin Americans.
To overcome this type of barrier, homosexuals, aware of the difficulty in making contact, have tried to create alternatives to make meeting potential partners possible. One of them is the place of residence. While for mixed heterosexual marriages residential segregation restricts the contact with natives, the concentration of homosexuals in a certain place has just the opposite effect. For example, the neighbourhood of Chueca, in Madrid, is considered the one with the highest concentrations of homosexuals in Spain.
Along with cultural characteristics, the characteristics of the Spanish labour market and its ethnic segmentation (Arjona 2006; Veira, Stanek & Cachón 2011) allow greater contact with potential Latin American spouses, both for homosexual and heterosexual marriages. According to the information from the National Survey of Immigrants, women are highly employed in proximity services, domestic help and care of the elderly and children, while men work in services or construction where their direct daily contact with Spaniards is more frequent than that of other groups inserted in labour niches, such as freight transport and agriculture, where contact with the indigenous population is very limited. Furthermore, this proximity by employment, as pointed out by González (2006) in the United States, sometimes favours homosexuality, which is subjected to and obligated by subordination and job dependency, sometimes, by discovering love with a sexual orientation brought from home or acquired at destination. However, research work in Spain has not reflected that homosexuality may be occurring due to the work situations involved.
As shown by Cortina et al. (2009), the economic position is quite homogamic in mixed marriages in Spain, i.e., any differences that existed initially have been reduced by the profession and education of the spouses. In fact, the classic marriage between a woman with little education and an economically well-off man is no longer the predominant model in endogamic marriages of Spaniards to Spaniards (Cabré 1994; Cortina et al. 2009; Domingo 1997), and marriage is losing its capacity for raising social mobility.
However, it is not clear that this is also true to the same extent in same-sex marriages, and although the majority trend is to marry a person in the same profession or with
10	So, for example, in Iran homosexuality is punishable by prison and even death.
11	The Kifki association of Moroccan homosexuals, lesbians and transsexuals in Spain says that up to 30% of them have thought about suicide at one time or another, either because of their unsustainable situation or in response to marriage pacts with someone from the other sex. See http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/10/19/ internacional/1319053011.html.
the same level of education, there are significant percentages in which substantial differences exist between the native and the foreign spouse. Profession is especially significant here, since (as mentioned above) most foreigners are subject to a highly segmented labour market in which human capital is not effective.
Age also becomes an important variable to explain how couples are formed. According to Cortina et al. (2009), mixed heterosexual couples in Spain are more heterogamous in age than exclusively Spanish couples. In over 50% of marriages between a Spanish man and a foreign woman, the man is at least three years older than the woman. The figures rise considerably in homosexual marriages where the difference is six years, because there is so little margin in the bi-national homosexual marriage market that offer and demand overcome some of the basic cultural difficulties imposed on the patterns of endogamic homosexual marriages.
The figures show that more homosexual men than women marry at all ages. This might mean that there are more gays than lesbians. However, we think the basic explanation is that there is greater social pressure on women showing their sexual orientation (lesbianphobia) (Platero 2007). The literature examined shows that negative opinions about homosexual marriage make people very reluctant to acknowledge their sexual orientation, more so in the case of lesbians and particularly if they are foreigners, as well, since nationality alone already generates rejection (see Pérez & Derues 2005).
Finally, marital status is like the cornerstone marking matrimonial patterns. The majority of homosexual marriages are formed by single people. Although the data show that singleness is a stronger marriage strategy among homosexuals than heterosexuals, this could be partly explained by the short time that this type of marriage has been available, minimising the probability of marrying a divorced person. This does not imply, of course, that one may not have had other partners previously and even cohabited, but the legal vacuum prevents any discussion of divorce.
Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that the percentage of Spanish homosexuals married to divorced foreigners is high, especially for the short time this type of marriage has existed. Furthermore, the vast majority of marriages are to Latin Americans, where this type of marriage is unregulated.12 Therefore, it might be thought that some of these foreigners come from previous heterosexual marriages, a situation which is appearing increasingly among women.
The figures show the following general conclusions: first, there are important numerical discrepancies between men and women who cohabit with partners of the same sex, as women marry individuals of the same sex less frequently than men. Second, heterosexuals and homosexuals do not follow the same patterns, as the latter are more heterogamous. This situation should be the hypothesis of future work (Sassler 2005), especially when there has been more experience with the phenomenon of both mixed and endogamic homosexual marriages, and the roles of the different demographic variables in establishing preferences of one group or another can be found. Third, this study has important limitations derived mainly from the deficiencies of the statistical data sources and from the fact that we are dealing with a very recent phenomenon.
12 The first Latin American country to regulate homosexual marriages was Argentina, which did so in 2010.
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POVZETEK
Istospolne poroke so v Španiji pravno priznane od leta 2005. Zaradi tega je veliko parov, ki so prej živeli v "ilegali", postalo vidnih, ne glede na državljanstvo zakoncev. Namen tega članka je ugotoviti glavne vzorce istospolnih zakonskih zvez, v katerih je eden od zakoncev Španec, drugi pa tujec. Movimiento Natural de Población (MNP) je vir statističnih podatkov v tej študiji, saj vsebuje trenutno najbolj ažurne podatke o tej temi. Podatki kažejo, da so mednarodne istospolne poroke bolj heterogamne od heteroseksualnih zakonskih zvez. Prav tako se ta pogostejša heterogamija kaže z vidika starosti, poklica in stopnje izobrazbe.
KLJUČNE BESEDE: heterogamija, monogamija, mešane zakonske zveze, poročni trg, istospolne poroke
CORRESPONDENCE: ÁNGELES ARJONA GARRIDO, Universidad de Almería, Humanities and Education Science Department, Sacramento s/n La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120 Almería, Spain. E-mail: arjona@ual.es.
4c
Community projects in the era of globalization: The case of a local rural society in Mexico
Iñigo González de la Fuente
Universidad de Cantabria, inigo.gonzalez@unican.es
Hernán Salas Quintanal
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, hsalas@unam.mx
Abstract
This paper is a proposal for an anthropological analysis of the cargo system in Mexico, including both indigenous and non-indigenous communities. From the understanding of the cargo system as an essentially heterogeneous institution, this paper suggest as its main hypothesis that this institution is the origin of other mechanisms in the interaction of the members of the communities. First, the community institutions promote the participation of the largest number of people. Second, interactions' scenes are constantly created and recreated by the community members. Third, the roles' rotation, as a product of a tacit agreement into community members, is fundamental in assuring social participation. The proposal is structured in three parts: the composition of the cargo system as a continuum that explains the differences between individual and collective behaviour; the idea of community as a fundamental concept in understanding the cargo system;as a conclusion; the idea of a communitarian project becomes the common characteristic of all the communities (native or non-native) in the Mesoamerican area.
KEYWORDS: community, cargo system, social project, globalization, Mexico
Introduction
This paper is the result of broader collective research1 examining rural transformations under the effects of so-called globalization. In this case, particular attention has been paid to the diverse phenomena whose axis resides in several issues studied by political anthro-
1 We refer to the investigation projects Continuidades y transformaciones socioeconómicas y culturales en el municipio de Nativitas, Tlaxcala ¿Hacia la conformación de una nueva ruralidad? which is financed by the program PAPIIT from UNAM (Key IN302709); and Repensar lo rural y el concepto de nueva ruralidad comopropuesta para entender las transformaciones contemporáneas en el Valle Puebla-Tlaxcala, financed by CONACyT (Key 98651).
ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTEBOOKS 18 (1): 41-64. ISSN 1408-032X
© Slovene Anthropological Society 2012
pology, in particular, the ways of community organization and the denominated cargo systems. Motivated by the fact that most papers and research on the structures of local power have been centred in Mesoamerican indigenous communities, we join the authors who include non-indigenous groups in the analysis (Bonfil 1988: 238; Robichaux 2007: 25; Korsbaek 2009a: 49).
Therefore, we have researched communities that could be catalogued as half-breed,2 in which we have found the specific characteristics of the cargo system3 and even, as will be seen, the strengthening of some of them. Jesús Tepactepec is one of the sixteen villages that make the municipality of Santa María Nativitas, Tlaxcala. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the place was occupied by aboriginal populations. Placed in a region with abundant and valuable natural resources (land and water) and adequate weather for agriculture, it was colonized early on and the population began to fuse. Without losing its agricultural drive, during the colonial epoch and even more so towards the end of the nineteenth century, it was organised under the hacienda system; nevertheless, the distribution of agricultural land and the building of the ejido in 1918 were the triggers of important changes during the twentieth century.
Nowadays, Jesús Tepactepec is made up of 120 ejidatarios, five possessories and 92 neighbourhoods, which adds up to a total of 217 families and 900 inhabitants. Most of its land is cultivated, mainly with maize, beans and silage. However, the main sources of income and support for the families come from activities outside agriculture, so its inhabitants are employed in the nearby industrial corridors, in commerce and other services, thus accessing the flexible and unstable work markets that include several forms of regional, national and international migration.
This time, derived from qualitative information and ethnographic observation obtained from anthropological field work, we pose a proposition for the analysis of the cargo system that includes both indigenous and non-indigenous communities, obviously acknowledging its origin in the Mesoamerican cultural tradition (Robichaux 2007: 27). By no means will we be trying to make a list of the characteristics available in any other community, as does Korsbaek in the previously mentioned model of a typical cargo system. Departing from the recognition of the cargo system as an heterogeneous institution, we hereby suggest studying it as an empirical structure that can be directly seen in the field and that, as our main hypothesis, feeds a series of mechanisms that, by themselves, favour interaction settings4 whose main characters are the members of the community through the conjunct exercise of roles (cargos included) in the following way: encouraging that the scenes be attended by the largest number of the whole of members possible, propitiating the articulation of such scenes as frequently as possible, all of it with the tacit agreement between the main characters that there is a rotation of roles between scenes.
2	Utilizing the Indian/half-breed continuum from Robichaux (2007: 23), the half-breed pole is identified as the national Mexican culture.
3	The studied community cargo system presents the corresponding elements of what is known as the typical cargo system, which, according to Korsbaek (2009a: 41-3), are: a number of clearly defined trades, rotation amongst the community members, hierarchy of cargos, includes all or almost all of the members, non-profit compensation (but compensated with prestige), and two separate hierarchies: political and religious.
4	The concept allows planting a proposal that links the structural analysis to the action analysis. At the same time, this makes it possible to consider the territorial dynamic and temporal variable.
For this research, four seasons of field work were carried out between 2008 and 2011, with other isolated visits, according to the agricultural cycle, the ritual calendar and the family organisation. During these visits, it was possible to participate and see the cargo system and the political and religious organisations at work, in preparation for and during the most important festivities ofthe community, in neighbour gatherings, and in family parties, in Tepactepec as well as in the neighbouring communities of the municipality of Santa María Nativitas. In addition to this, we conducted ethnographic interviews with the highest ranking cargos in the religious, fiscal and political hierarchy (the auxiliary presidents) of those years, people in cargo of lower ranked positions at different times; to the highest rank within the ejido organisation (the ejido commissary), and more than ten adult heads of family inhabitants.
Along this paper, our analytical proposal is structured in three blocks. First, the framework of the study, in which we intend to place the sociocultural phenomena registered around the cargo system in a behavioural continuum aimed at individuals in one of the poles, and of conduct that tends to be collective on the other extreme. Second, we analyse the concept of community as the basic element to observe and interpret the cargo systems. Finally, we propose the idea of the community project as a common denominator between what has been seen and written regarding the cargo systems. We purposely avoid the debate on the different interpretations that anthropology has posed to the cargo system,5 even though, logically, diverse positions will make appearances throughout the paper. The information presented allows the understanding of the four dimensions of the cargo system to which we have paid attention: political-judicial, economic, religious and social.
The individual-collective continuum
Within the intercultural and holistic level, we hold a discussion around the concepts of community and individual (collectivism-individualism), trying to avoid idealisation6 and confusion7 of the first one; in this sense, we are talking about the human ways of organised life together (Delgado 2009: 51).
5	With no claims of completeness, Korsbaek (2009b: 376-7) and Castro (2000: 503-11) highlight several theoretical models to explain the cargo system of the Mesoamerican tradition: the levelling model, discussed by authors such as Eric Wolf, June Nash, Pedro Carrasco, Fernando Cámara, Manning Nash, James Dow, etc.; the stratification model, following the contributions of Frank Cancian and Marvin Harris; the redistribution model, led by Aguirre Beltrán and Ángel Palerm; the social control model, composed of works by Sol Tax, Ricardo Pozas, Ana M. Portal, etc.; the external shocks model, pointed out in the works of Jan Rus and Robert Wasserstrom, Waldemar R. Smith, Hugo Nutini and Barry Isaac, James B. Greenberg, etc.; the modernization model, in which Bonfil Batalla is located; the informal education-model, suggested by Ulrich Köhler; and the historical model, in which several of the previously mentioned authors are positioned.
6	The ideology of the 'modern communalism' alludes to the opposition between community and individual, 'usually placing the community over the individual.' In this way, we share the defence that Zárate (2009: 69) makes of modern community that accepts the 'possibility of deterritorialised communities [and] individualism within the inside of the community. ' In the same way, we defend the existence of collective senses within modernized societies.
7	Delgado (2009: 53) claims that one cannot confuse 'the common' with 'the collective.' The common 'may be everyone's ... that with which everyone has communion, and that encloses its components [from the community] in a world-view and organizational order which would not know nor should escape.' By contrast, the collective 'is associated with the idea of a meeting of individuals who become aware of what is convenient from their presence' ... and 'is organized from communication [communication exchange].'
According to Bonfil (2003: 57), one of the main objectives of a community is to lead a self-sufficient and autonomous life. For such a purpose, among other elements, the importance of encouraging family and community relationships is enhanced, as to have order when a larger number of individuals are cooperating. This continuous collective relationship has its foundation in practice: the bigger the interaction scenes between a larger total of people to be rotated in the starring roles, the bigger the possibility of behaviours being executed, not for the benefit of the individual but for that of the community. In this direction, following Bonfil, the cargo system would be the skeleton, the common denominator, the structure that produces and reproduces the intense relationships. Even though this idea will be dwelled upon along the paper with several examples, here is a preview: the institution of the party can be characterised as the one setting different scenes, whose frequency is generated by the ritual and community calendar, that have the participation of a considerable part of the community and extended family, where they sometimes are the guests and others, the hosts, besides other roles that could be played before, during, and after the celebration.
In the context of modernised societies, Bonfil reinforces (in a highly dualist manner) the existence of an 'individual and accumulative perspective' (ibid.: 68) bonded to the occidental capitalist society. Opposite to it, the communitarian is the result of the continued and frequent interaction between the members of a group, and such interactions are caused by the cargo system institution. As to make explicit this relation between individuals and the collective, it is necessary to place the social phenomena observed within a continuum of behaviours tending to individualism and those tending to the collective.8 Bonfil (ibid.: 84) talks about this continuity by pointing out the nature of the poles that define it as:
different cultural orientation: one corresponding the predominant individualism of the modern occidental civilisation, and the other pointing to a local society in which neighboring bonds play a more important role ... and that allow the gestation of own cultural forms in a wider daily level than what the nuclear family offers.
Without falling into the author's dichotomist position, we can assume that people, in everyday activities, could have better chances of being individualistic if they shared fewer interaction scenes with their neighbours; conversely, the collective is built on continuous forms of interaction. In this regard, we start from the hypothesis that one of the central ways in which local societies with Mesoamerican traditions secure a larger number of interaction scenes (and with that, have a community project securing behaviours towards the collective) is the cargo system.
8 This continuum proposal is purported to be useful to calibrate the possible transformations within the communitarian institutions derived from the processes related to modernization. Such a proposal does not bind the way Nutini and Isaac (cited by Robichaux 2007: 23) "secularized" communities to the half-breed opposite. It associates determined institutional mechanisms to the collective, versus other mechanisms that promote individualist behaviours. The proposal does not assume Camara's conclusions (2009: 398) in which 'centripetal communities' are constituted by culturally indigenous inhabitants. On the contrary, 'centrifugal communities', composed of an equal number of ladino and/or half-breed aspire to the change (modernization and urbanization).
This paper traces how the cargo system, through the institutional mechanisms that project it, actually tries to build scenes characterised by putting into interaction the largest possible number of members of each community and reinforcing the relationships among them; by doing it as often as possible; and by assuring that each member has a chance (not necessarily the same one) of taking the different roles that are being played in these scenes. All of it as opposed to local societies without a community project that is not shared by the population.9
The community
Once we have framed the analysis within the individual-community continuum, it becomes necessary to pause to analyse what a community is.10 In this line, Korsbaek (2009a: 32), when digging into the study of cargo systems, has dealt with defining it. It is, according to the author, about 'finding a definition for community which is both precise and operational,' so he defines it as 'a group of people in tight adjacency regularly with known geographical or political boundaries' (ibid.: 33). In another paper, he talks about the six characteristics that make up a community:11 a process carried out by the community, frequently but not necessarily within a territorial frame, with horizontal coherence, vertical coherence and a history. He adds that, given the aforementioned operative sense of the concept, what makes them different from the non-communities, is that they have a ' social project' in the sense of 'having an obligation towards the community.' Hereby, 'the cargo system is an institution apt for the formulation of a social project, thus creating a community' (Korsbaek 2009a: 36). In this definition, it is irrelevant what the size of the community is, or whether it has a shared history or not.
In the same perspective, Sandoval (2005: 266) adds that the roles played in a studied community, Mazahua, strengthen the cargo system 'with the fulfilment of tasks and with everyone's participation, making for an interacting and coherent system ... with a constant feedback.'
With these antecedents, we hereby propose the following operational definition of community: a social group generally within a territory, whose main characteristic is that most of its relationships are channelled by institutions12 that generate, maintain, and
9	May it act as an extreme example, in the opposite case, documented by Anthropologist Paz Moreno (2004: 378), around which the atomization of relationships between concentration camp prisoners in Auschwitz and dignitaries, with the purpose of avoiding any relationships between them: amongst other actions, the interaction was forced down to the minimum and so there would not be rotation in the self-vigilance roles.
10	For a contemporary discussion on the concept of community, see Delgado (2009) and Cámara (2009).
11	Bartolomé (2009: 105-6) proposes ten characteristics of the modern communities: a territory assumed as own; the area control from the inhabitant members of such; an own political organization; certain level of control over the production process; articulation with the job market that coexists with the redistributive economical and reciprocal forms; existence of a collective work; the possibility of being linked to the State in a collective way; sharing a history; constitute a ritual community around a holy patron; and that an assumed religiousness is shared as beyond that of the dominant confessions.
12	With the purpose of easing the analysis, categories of political, social, economic and religious institutions are created; however, it is assumed that a greater number of categories could be generated and that, in any case, such institutions would act interrelated.
reproduce interaction scenes (set of roles), starred by the largest number of neighbours possible. In other words, a community is a social group articulated by relationships of cooperation and conflict, whose institutions promote direct and constant contact between as many as possible of the members of the group and as frequently as possible. The debate on whether the individual is or not active is something else,13 the important point here is that communal institutions sought after the direct or indirect participation of all its members, without losing sight of the limitations in access to certain roles: some of them (those of highest social hierarchy) are forbidden to certain members of the community according to gender, age, civil status, place of birth, type of property, religious practices, etc.
From this perspective, we suppose that the cargo system shall be a vigorous part in human groups that want to, and need to be a community, i.e. having a "community project". In the words of Delgado (2009: 56), the components of a community want to be so when they 'agree on the most important part: living together. What happens is that this project ... cannot hide the existence of those social structures that are unequal and unfair.'
The community project
With these antecedents, the main characteristic strengthening the presence of the cargo system in numerous regions of the Mexican territory today is that its protagonists both implicitly and explicitly pursuit a community project, i.e. the members of the community that regularly inhabit a place with known geographical or political boundaries, endow themselves with institutions (the cargo system among others) destined to 'guarantee diverse community projects' such as 'the gifts of life, health, welfare, jobs, good crops, timely and sufficient rainfall, and so on' (Topete 2005: 293), which allow the creation and reproduction of social interaction scenes as well as identity mechanisms that reinforce the different groups interacting in said space.
As much as the population of Jesús Tepactepec is mostly inbred,14 it is outstanding what they share with the indigenous populations, i.e. their members share a community project that provides certain vitality15 to all of them. Moreover, the study of communities such as Jesús Tepactepec, which is an urbanised locality, culturally heterogeneous, and clearly influenced by global processes, is important in as much as it has left behind an agricultural past centred in the figure of the collective common land tenure, which ordered the economic life and was the articulating axis of the socio-political processes, to make way for a society connected to flexible work markets and precarious industrial, commerce and utility sectors. It is fundamental to pay attention to the community projects within populations incorporated into industrial work and participating in capitalist economy, a field of action where communal institutions could be redefined accordingly to the function of the conflicts and struggles inside and out of the community (Zárate 2009: 83).
13	Following Sullings (2004: 88), we consider that the social institutions must guarantee that all those willing to participate, the opposite of guaranteeing 'that everyone participates' closely related to the 'calling for the social activity' of the more active citizens.
14	As for the ethnic adscription of the population, the municipality of Nativitas stands out, as only 98 of the 18,463 inhabitants (0.53 per cent) of five years old and more, speak an indigenous tongue (Nahuatl) (INEGI 2003: 25)
15	Robichaux (2007: 26) refers to the perception of the cargo system in Southeast Tlaxcala, so that 'the community organizing structures ... keep strong, they are capable of reproducing and even expand and flourish.'
From the conceptual consideration made thus far, one of the purposes of this research is to look for and find a common denominator in order to consider a group as constituent of a community. That minimum is exactly whatever the groups want it and need it be to consider it a community, for them to share a community project, or for them to interact structurally with the largest amount of members of the group possible, that such interaction scenes are systematically given, as frequently as possible, and that the basic contract16 among parts warranties a regular exchange of roles (rotation). According to that objective, the main hypothesis which has thus far guided this work is that a social group has a community project when a large portion of its institutions work as mechanisms (on a social, political, economic and religious level) that in one way or another tend to: 1) favour heavily populated interaction scenes (plurality17 variable: tending to many); 2) ensure the summoning of every member of the community to the played scenes (totality variable, tendency of everyone); 3) promote the highest possible frequency of such scenes (frequency variable: tendency to the smallest time interval possible between one scene and another);18 4) to be conductive to role exchange among participants with the necessary frequency according to the general consensus (rotation variable: a tendency to increment everyone's chance to hold the most possible parts in the social interaction scenes within their particular history in the community).
From that hypothesis, and without losing sight in the individual-collective continuum, we present the following statements, through which the following information has been arranged: 1) the larger the number of members of a community interact, and the greater the frequency of these interaction scenes (assuring the role exchange), the greater the chances are for the reinforcement of the collective economic, politic, social and religious behaviours of the community (the material and symbolic benefit of the set opposite the individual benefit);19 2) the lesser the number of members of the community interact and the less the frequency of the interaction scenes happen, given that the role exchange is not guaranteed, the more the possibilities the economic, political, social and religious behaviours of that community tend to benefit but the individual.
These hypotheses certainly set off from the aforementioned fact that rural communities can and want to be self-sufficient; they want and need to share a social project; all these not leaving out the fact that there are collective and individual behaviours looking after private benefits. As well see later on, the modernising movements, some of which
16	Delgado (2009: 55) speaks of 'minimal but sufficient agreements' among the members, that 'of course ... are or can be considerably different between each other and even incompatible.'
17	Plurality refers to the meaning of 'multitude, largest number of things, or the majority of them.' Totality refers to the meaning of 'group of all the things or people which form a class or species.' Frequency refers to the meaning of 'largest or smallest repetition of an act or event' (RAE 2001).
18	We consider it fundamental to demonstrate that the community institutions are those that favour the constant, regular and frequent interaction of its members.
19	The comment of an inhabitant of Jesús Tepactepec results explanatory, who affirms that, product of the continuous interaction between the members of a community, we 'all help each other ... I am the dean of a school and I help the neighbours by placing their children, and they help me in return in other aspects' (interview in Jesús Tepactepec, Nativitas, and July 2010).
promote individualism, and in practice, reduce the continuity of scenes for many from all, are achieving diverse results: some community institutions are disappearing, yet other instances of these traditional institutions are being strengthened by this coexistence. In the particular case of Jesús Tepactepec, those interviewed have pointed out the disuse of farm work and the informant or the tequihua for the last fifteen years,20 while the election assemblies and the mechanisms to control personal ambitions to access cargos are still valid, and have even been strengthened (González 2011).
So, as assumed by Korsbaek (2005: 137), Mexican communities:
are permanently under modernity's great pressure, and in direct contact with it ... The community lives thus in a permanent state of tension that possesses multiple dimensions and aspects ... because it is a historical product of a series of processes that work at a very different rate, handing the anthropologist a very complex situation that crystalizes in the ethnographic present.
Korsbaek talks about long, medium and short duration forces, amongst which (for the purposes of this paper) we want to draw attention to the generalised result of poverty stemming from political non-distributive policies of wealth and surplus, salaried employment belonging to the modern world,21 migration, transportation and communication infrastructures, tourism, etc.; all of them 'strongly supported on promises made by the television, education and the government' (ibid.: 139).
It is of interest then, to characterise the cargo system as a set of tools to assure (on the economic, political, social and religious levels) the interaction scenes in which the majority of the total of members can actively participate, that such scenes are executed as frequently as possible, and that the majority has the certainty that, sooner or later, they will be in every role within the interaction scenes, regardless of whether those parts are at the top of the hierarchy or not. There are several reasons that promote the community project and they have been thoroughly studied by anthropology, even though what matters in the end is the understanding of the cargo system as an institution that generates and reproduces tools that encourages collectiveness.
The cargo system as the vertebral axis of the collective
In order to corroborate the hypothesis suggested in prior pages, we have selected several institutional mechanisms analysed throughout anthropological literature and that we have ethnographically registered in Jesús Tepactepec and other communities in Nativitas22 in
20	A prosecutor of Jesús Tepactepec thought that such institutions were disappearing due to the 'government strategies, which are determined to divide us by providing help so that we fight for it' (interview in Jesús Te-pactepec, Nativitas, July 2010).
21	Modern employment is characterized, according to Korsbaek (2005: 138) as submitting the employee to a new work culture, in the shape of new disciplinary demands, 'with its own values [competiveness, productive specialization, work-home separation, flexibility, control of the co-workers, etc.] frequently opposite and incompatible with the traditional values of the community [solidarity, control of the whole production, family organization, permanence, self-control, etc.].'
22	The municipality of Nativitas consists of 16 localities (thirteen towns-ejido; one neighbourhood; two ex-hacienda colonies) that work through the authority of the "community president".
which cargo systems are present with certain strength. To facilitate the analysis, such mechanisms have been categorised in four larger dimensions: political-judicial, economic, religious and social, which are obviously strongly related; in this sense, the cargo system is fundamental as it frequently and simultaneously enables several of these institutions. As we have being pointing out, within the religious sphere the following cargos exist: a ministerial officer, a major, a gatekeeper and two bell-ringers; and in the public arena there is a community president and a limited number of "sheriffs" or "commandants".23
It is in this way, every case of those small sociability roles over which the community is built (which shall be presented) tries to answer how it is that the cargo system invigorates the collective opposite the individual (restricting but never cancelling the individual interest), and in such manner, how the community project is held. In practice, it is said that such formulas have the cargo system as a vehicle and main warranty in common, which systematically assures the frequent interaction and role exchange between the largest possible numbers of participants in a community. In any case, attention is also paid to the possible changes of globalisation on the mechanisms of the collective, which, can lead to their weakening and disappearance, as well as be derived in the articulation of traditional mechanisms with the modernising institutions in such way that they are strengthened.24
Political-judicial level
In Tepactepec, we have found four political-judicial institutional mechanisms on which we can apply the variables of plurality, totality, frequency, and rotation: the assemblies, the political 'president of the community' cargo, the command, and the embargo. Every single possible scene generated through those devices is guaranteed, as shall be described, through the cargo system, the first one being the way in which functions are elected, the two following cargos actually, and the last in a traditional judicial system associated with various cargos.
Assemblies are the mechanism of consultation, debate, decision and election of the community of Jesús Tepactepec, and many others along the Mexican Republic. They can be categorised in ordinary assemblies (the general assembly included) and extraordinary assemblies. The first ones are a space where the majority of the community participates, both in taking decisions and in the organisation of numerous activities (the religious included) that are in a par with the whole community. In Tepactepec, the general assembly is the one in which every December 31st, three candidates for president are put forward among its members, to then be selected by majority (with the members of the assembly
23	Specifically, regarding the religious sphere, the ministerial officer or prosecutor is the main responsible person for the administration of the budget destined for religious activities; the mayor oversees the efficient operation of the liturgical events; the gatekeeper protects the church where he resides with his family; and the two bellringers are in cargo of ringing the church bells throughout the day. Regarding the political sphere, the community president (also referred to as auxiliary) serves to mediate between the municipality and the people it represents, in this way, helping the municipal president or major; the commanders engage in monitoring the safety of the community and distribute notices to each head of the family.
24	It is assumed that the study of the impact of the phenomena linked to the globalization on the community institutions requires a detailed analysis of each case. Even so, it is understood that it is worth relating, as following, each mechanism with the overworked phenomena by the social sciences.
behind the candidate they support), who cannot refuse the offering. The two not-chosen candidates can be so again in future summons.
The extraordinary assemblies are summoned in situations in which they cannot await the ordinary cycles (annual in case of the general assembly), even though they are not common, but called upon when the situation becomes almost unattainable.25
From our analysis perspective, we hereby understand the general assembly as an interaction scene in which, every year (frequency variable), a larger number of members (plurality and totality variables) of a group can express their opinions, choose, be chosen and decide upon matters affecting the community, both on a political and a religious level; furthermore, those actors can actively participate in the different roles represented: speaker, eligible candidate, elected candidate, elector, organiser, vigilante, and so on (rotation variable).
The assembly mechanism is receiving very important modernising effects as a result of the ways of constitutional suffrage, mainly the secret nominal vote as an individualised election mechanism. In the case of Tepactepec, it can be said that both mechanisms are positively articulated and even, or so they say in town, the assemblies have grown when it comes to participants in recent years due to the main cargos (ministerial officer and auxiliary president) handling considerable budgets.26 In spite of this, most of the time those occupying such cargos are forced to abandon them during the corresponding period, due to their own jobs and many of their daily productive activities.
In this sense, the political position of "auxiliary municipal president" (the second institutional mechanism referred) is traditionally in the cargo of the civic sphere of the community. This cargo is made up as the centre of the public political decision, i.e. as a representative and/or executive organ in which the truly crucial options that will inevitably affect the life of the whole political community (Spencer 2004: 60) are formulated, created and applied. On a local level, these centres imply disputes among the different factions and, perhaps, conflicts between the different local office holders, such as the case of the secular and religious (Gledhill 2000: 234).
Following the particular schemes up to this point, we can assure that such cargo can be occupied annually (frequency) by any member with active participation in the community activities (totality and plurality): the candidate selected has a history of lesser cargos in the community, system that ensures the rotation of roles in the diverse interaction scenes starred by the community throughout its existence. This assembly filter reduces the possible impact of political parties in as much as the selection of similar candidates as in their role as administrators of the public money. One of the most recent cases to demonstrate this control device is that of a former ministerial officer in Tepactepec in 2010, who deliberately
25	The last extraordinary assembly in Jesús Tepactepec took place in 2010 to release the prosecutor from his duty to the next, due to financial fraud in the accounts of its main festival.
26	Aguirre (1991: 39) defends the largest democratization that historically represents the forms of indigenous government against the occidental cultural patters, due to the fact that a larger number of individuals carried out, along time, governmental activities. In the specific case of this investigation, one cannot argue that, the more individual members of a group interacting (and with the highest frequency possible)the higher the chances that they behaviours tend towards collective benefit.
wanted to immediately become community president, skipping lesser cargos, which would have implied more effort and community service; this provoked sanction from the assembly towards his ambitions; he was chosen for the minor role of a bellman, momentarily (or perhaps forever) damaging his political aspirations. In any case, inhabitants are aware that assembly participants pick their candidates regarding their party preferences, with a tendency to select community presidents similar to the mayor, under the idea expressed by some inhabitants that it is 'the most convenient thing for the town.'
In a different order, the main political cargo is being formally transformed by the allocation of a public budget, which in Tepactepec has not meant a weakening of the position; in contrast, it has activated the participation of a larger number of members. In any case, the community presidency has always controlled a considerable budget due to the leasing of spaces for small commercial outposts during the most important fairs that take place in the community year round, parallel to the patronal celebrations.
Carrying on with the analysis of the political-judicial community, the commander cargo exists in numerous localities as a figure in caigo of the public vigilance and security of the community (in particular of the auxiliary president).27 It is a lesser position that can be annually held by every active member of the community, to take care of everybody: 'we are all the police' said the president of the contiguous community San Miguel del Milagro (interview in Nativitas, July 2008). Usually, these "policemen" are in the cargo of distributing the summons to each head of family and avoiding that any member of the community be left uninformed, e.g.of the assemblies of the quotas allotted to each head of family.
Despite it being an exceptional mechanism, Davinson and Sam (2003) describe the practice of embargo in a community next to Jesús Tepactepec, Santa Apolonia Teacalco, as a politic-judicial element.28 "Embargo" refers to the system through which inhabitants self-obligate to pay the allowances established by the town. The system consists of ' seizing property of a resident who refuses or fails to pay into economic cooperation.' In general terms, the withdrawal of goods starts with the town's men meeting with the authorities. The block chief (also arotating cargo) to which the arrested person belongs asks for the debt to be paid and, in case of refusal, they proceed to the embargo: 'We turn to a neighbour's house and seize any type of property possessed, enough to cover the amount of debt.' The authors point out that such system 'makes no exceptions' (totality) when it comes to a representation 'of the right of the community over the individual.' Even when the inhabitants of Tepactepec cannot remember when this mechanism was last used, they know of its existence and take it as a warning. There are other mechanisms, as we shall see next, of collective pressure towards those in debt.
27	friends, who usually support each other during the assemblies, as to distribute the cargos along the years.
28	The town of Santa Apolonia Teacalco was part of Nativitas until 1995, the year in which it became a municipality.
Economic level
In the economic field, there are two institutionalised mechanisms that can promote the collective opposed the individual: community jobs and allowances. The first are part of the work organisation of the communities, closely related to the civil hierarchy; the latter exist through-among other aspects, i.e. the whole structure of the religious ceremonies.
Those community jobs, which have several names according to the region (chores, labour, employment, devoir, errands etc.) are cooperative work mechanisms, collective in as those in which every adult male29 of the community mandatorily participates and which are used for public works, such as construction and road maintenance, building school, and repairing temples and other community buildings (Bonfil 2003: 61).
In the community of Jesús Tepactepec, a progressive weakening of these kinds of institutions can be seen, amongst which those interviewed say they have stopped functioning since just about fifteen years ago: 'the dirt-bag did not want to go, he bought it out with cement,' pointed out an inhabitant to express that formally it was about voluntary cooperation, but in reality, there were mechanisms to prevent anyone from skipping community work.
According to the members of the fiscal team in Tepactepec, these ways of collective work were 'a way to relate, collaborate, feel more identified with the others' and, if they have weakened it has been because of 'city ways' (interviews in Nativitas, July 2010). In this same sense, the community president of Tepactepec stated in 2009 that beforehand more tasks were assigned, but now 'the way of living in the countryside has changed; people have other jobs and have no time' (interview in Nativitas, August 2009). As it has been already pointed out, changes in the economic life of the town have transformed the ways of cooperation: the loss of agriculture as the centre has left something like cleaning the canals, a necessary task in which everyone participated; or the 15th of May celebration, the day of San Isidro Labrador, patron of the peasants, in which rituals where oriented towards the fertility of the soil and pleas for rain, which nowadays has been reduced to a mass amidst the agricultural fields.
The processes that have had the greatest impact on community work are those of urbanisation and wage-earning: the idea of a wage impacts straight onto the idea of collective work, in which 'there is no pay but retribution, obligation is acquired to do the same as others [a majority of everyone] did for you [rotation], when the moment comes [frequency]' (Bonfil 2003: 61). Changes in modern global labour paradigms (still not stated by Bonfil) have forced the inhabitants of the community participate in individual work markets, individualised, flexible and occasional, that promote the emphasis on personal projects, pushing aside those activities that required collective support, such as agriculture.
Allowances themselves are a mechanism that has been described within the economic level, despite their involving every dimension of social community life (political, religious, and family) whose main objective is to socialise the income of a particular group by means of monetary contributions and/or goods, which assumes the form of a 'monetary contribution collectivism and of ritual reciprocity' (Sandoval 2005: 270). As has been previously stated, Jesús Tepactepec has a total of 900 inhabitants, out of which 217
29 Women participate by preparing meals that are distributed between the job participants.
heads of families regularly cooperate in defraying several expenses related to the political and religious spheres of the cargo system, as told by the inhabitants: 'I have property', 'You married, and you cooperate', etc. So, for instance, from the political point of view, cooperation can finance a collective work and, especially, assure the arrival of public services such as water, vigilance, trash collection, public works such as the maintenance of the main town square, among others; this more demanding cooperation has the purpose of defraying the Roman Catholic ritual calendar; and there is everyday cooperation between relatives to celebrate any relevant happenings inside the kinship network, such as birthdays, anniversaries, baptisms, girls' quinceaños, weddings or school graduations, and so on.
Specifically, we now present the joint mechanism of cooperation-commission in order to apply the variables handled throughout this paper. Allowances, through commission (which shall be studied as a social mechanism later on) are generated so that each on allows for the rotation of several neighbours (a commission in Jesús Tepactepec is usually formed of six members: president, secretary, treasurer and three vocals) who visit every single household, or all the neighbours of the community (plurality and totality) and, besides learning with relative anticipation of the departure of those who have migrated, or have separated from their spouses or are facing severe economic difficulties, they ask for monetary cooperation. These visitations, in order to sustain the expenses of floral ornamentation in the church, music, pyrotechnics and fireworks for the religious parties, happen in Tepactepec at least eight times a year30 (frequency), generating authentic censuses of who has paid and who has not. In fact, such lists are presented in the church atrium, thus making public which heads of family have eluded certain contributions. Besides the implicit moral sanction result of the publicity, the fiscal office of Jesús Tepactepec has its own punitive mechanisms: as long as they do not pay, those members do not have the right to any church services (Eucharist for baptisms, communions, quinceaños, etc.). If someone continues in indebtedness, the community (through the assemblies) picks them for certain roles on next year's commission, as retribution for what has not been paid.
In spite of the strong impact on the population due to migration particularly to the United States, Canada and other states in the Mexican Republic (Federal District, Puebla; and in a lesser way, those who have converted to other religions,31 who stop contributing, cooperation still includes those who have migrated, through representatives (almost always someone in the family) in order to continue cooperating and carry on belonging to the community, i.e. to the all.
30	According to the chronological calendar: 1. New Year; 2. Carnival; 3.Feast of the fifth Friday of Lent, which is the patronal and most important celebration in Tepactepec; 4. Easter; 5. Easter Sunday; 6. Children's Day (April 30th); 7. Virgin of the Ascension (August 15th); 8. Virgin of the Nativity (September 8th). Besides these, the ejidatarios must cooperate for the celebration of San Isidro Labrador (May 15th); guards, for the Precious Blood of Christ; and depending on the block where the house is located, for the Posadas, celebrated during each of the four weeks before Christmas.
It is taken into account that some of these festivities need the services from three different committees (fireworks, drinks and music) and that each committee consists of six members, so it can be deducted that each head of family participates in some committee in relatively short time intervals.
31	According to the data in INEGI (2003: 26), 93% of the population of five or more years old in Nativitas, is Roman Catholic.
Just the same, both the tasks and the cooperation-commission, and in general, the institutions that allow for the articulation of individual and collective benefits are permanently under great pressure of healthcare, whose dynamics respond to individuals' behaviour patterns, which benefit only small groups. In this way, communities lose unity of action, and in consequence, a breakage is produced in the motivation necessary to contribute to community resources.
Religious level
In order to understand the religious dimension of most both indigenous and non-communities of the Mesoamerican area, an analysis of the Roman Catholicritual calendar according to which every religious cargo is organised is necessary (the office in the case of Jesús Tepactepec). Within this ceremonial cycle, we need to approach the servant system as a mechanism that favours social interaction scenes, and as a 'structure that dialogues with the local authorities, the degree of the cargos and the patronages are often confused terms' (Millán 2005: 227).
Roman Catholic holidays allow for the systematisation of the frequency of socialisation of most neighbours (plurality and totality) to be continuous year round. In the municipality of Nativitas, one can attend a festivity every single day of the year,32 including pilgrimages (to other communities), processions, fixing and cleaning of the churches (picking up flowers, floral arches), car blessings, the reception of incoming pilgrimages, the switch in the temporary residence of the corresponding religious statue, changing the robes of the patron saint, and a long so on. A particularly interesting mechanism (especially in terms of what is being presented here) is that of the perpetual adoration chapel, in the community that the municipality is named after: it is an interaction scene (a small Roman Catholic temple next to the parish) which must permanently hold the presence of a member of the community 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Also worth mentioning are all those interaction scenes starring members of several communities, such as the pilgrimages or the intercommunity processions (firewood collection carried out by the members of Jesús Tepactepec to Santa Apolonia Teacalco). Salas (2010: 153) saw a territorial network of social relationships within the pilgrimages, which refers to an invitation and assistance system to the patron saint festivities of the neighbouring villages or distant ones, constituting a mechanism that allows the strengthening of the communities' relationships with the regional surroundings, such as those built in the pilgrimage to and from the neighbouring village of San Miguel del Milagro. The members of the community of Jesús Tepactepec currently keep intercommunity relationships (meaning they receive visits that they promptly reciprocate) between 10 to 15 communities attracted by the figure of Father Jesus, inviting the inhabitants of Tepactepec to return the visit. One that stands out is the reciprocal visits with the neighbours of Santa Catarina del Monte (State of Mexico): when they are the hosts, the neighbours of Tepactepec mention how they want the visitors to 'stop by every house' (totality), scenes in which situations
32 Medina (2009: 136) equally perceives that 'the towns in the South of Mexico City have more celebrations than days in the year.'
arise 'to be known' (particularly if one accompanies the pilgrims as part of the office) and perhaps one can obtain a job or it works for 'political interests.' Undoubtedly one of the changes seen in these networks is that nowadays they have a much more political functionality than they did before, when they had a sense of cooperation.
Despite of the impact the labour calendar has on the ceremonial cycle related to productivity (with leisure and free time associated with the weekends and vacation periods), those institutions keep the same force as in earlier times (sometimes with different meanings), which in Tepactepec is related to the image of Padre Jesús de los Tres Caminos, one of the most visited (along with alms and donations) in the municipality and the whole state, next to San Miguel del Milagro.
It is fundamental to introduce at this point the figure of the sponsors or servants, in the case of Tepactepec we need to talk about the sponsorship of religious cargos. Even when most festivities are sponsored through the economic contributions of a majority of the members of the community, the servant system is another fundamental expression of the community's ceremonies. Unlike parties paid between all the participants, servants assume expenses that, in many cases, are above their economic possibilities; in this sense, they are usually those outstanding members of the community that have amassed enough money to resolve the expenses that come with the imposed cargo.33 It is therefore an institution of selective character 'that when you reach the top of the community hierarchy, it is only the privilege of a few,' as stated by Millán (2005: 27).
The community of Jesús Tepactepec does not have exactly stewards but several ecclesiastic sponsorships, among which the godfather of the 'the laying of the Niño Dios' stands out,34 whose costs are around one million pesos35 according to several of those interviewed. In concrete, they have to pay for the dressing of the "child" and the floral ornamentation of the church, for two days, December 23 and 24th, besides the food, beverages, music and pyrotechnics for the crowd, between members of the community and visitors.
33	Sandoval (2005: 272) explains that in the case of the Mazahua, such behaviour is a form of 'avoiding economical build up that provokes social and power differences ... This is the demand of a cultural formation which original value is socialization, very different from the exaggerated individualization and accumulation of money that rules the lifestyle of the occidental world.' This is not equally produced in the studied community, where the access to income sources of industrial, commercial and service nature, has generated a significant economic and social difference.
34	What stands out from this celebration is that amongst the sponsors there may be people that do not belong to the community. In any case, the requests to sponsor the "laying of the child" are so meaningful that an inhabitant of Tepactepec made his request in 1967 to carry out the party in 1981, and are currently defined until the year 2027, which reflects the social importance of such designation.
35	During the research time, 12 Mexican pesos were equivalent to an American dollar, so that a million Mexican pesos would equal approximately 83,500 US dollars. Recovering the example of the previous footnote, the inhabitant recalls that, in 1981, the organization of the party meant his family an investment of approximately 150,000 pesos, which in comparative terms, is equivalent to the current cyphers.
Social level
This fourth dimension contains the collective mechanisms that encourage collectivism and are precisely characterised by being present in the other mentioned dimensions. Consideration is given to three key institutions: the commissions and/or committees, cronyism and parties, besides two less institutional mechanisms, but very explanatory: the culinary act with mole and the bell ringing.
Commissions and/or committees are essential in the daily functioning of communities: they are a core composed of persons who are intended to the help those responsible for organising activities, both political (as noted, they are responsible for the drinking water, school maintenance, public works, etc.) and religious (patron parties, ceremonial cycle, etc.). In fact, recalling the existing interconnection between committees and partnerships, 'the compulsory model of cooperation in the cargo system has extended to the civilian. One way or another, no one [totality] escapes from the community cooperation' (Robichaux 2007: 24). According to what was pointed out previously, the members ought to rotate through most of the commissions before attaining the position of president of the community. According to a conversation held with the treasurer of the water committee of Tepactepec, the community uses the commissions for those who are willing to soon climb to the top of the hierarchy, jumping over public service positions so as to 'the one that speaks up in the assemblies, a bone [commission] ought to be given' (interview in Nativitas, July 2010).This form of social service acts as a mechanism to test those who want to occupy higher cargos of more responsibility and budget management.
Cronyism, or ritual kinship, fosters the existence of figures that can substitute for birth relatives in the case of absence (widowhood, separation, divorce, emigration, etc.). It is notable in this social level because, according to Bonfil (2003: 58), '[it] allows ordering the cooperation of a large number of individuals [plurality] for certain tasks in which the members of a domestic unit turn out to be insufficient', tasks that include all related cargo systems(including those that have been commented on).36
The number of sponsorships that Nutini and Bell (1981) recorded only for the state of Tlaxcala is convincing for this proposal. It consists of 27 forms of cronyism that are shared with other regions of the country, amongst which baptism, communion, confirmation, the quinceanos of girls, marriage and the different school graduations stand out; others less used but still in use, include the sponsorship of a priestly ordination, the three years of a child, or the wedding of silver and gold. More specifically, the authors recorded Tlaxcaltecans' Stop of the Burial Cross, the Lying of the Christ Child, the Coronation of the Holy Virgin, the Coronation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Taken to Mass, etc. In short, if we consider that 'without food or drink, there is no party', we have a wealth of scenes that, with such prominent feature, exponentially multiply the interactions between individuals and groups, as well as contribution to the local economy.
36 Bonfil (1988) pointed out the importance in which the cargo system strengthens family relationships and how it induces the establishment of cronyism relationships.
In the described context, the system of cargos is a structure that promotes and maintains interactions of kinship, friendship and cronyism, which ensure, among other things, the consolidation of mutual aid networks. In this scheme of representation, each individual and each village, guild, group, association, community group that trades products and beliefs, favours and services, is embedded in a system of interactions with other individuals and towns forming a social network that is territorialised within the community. This creates intended social units and, thus, the collective identities are reinforced. It is therefore appropriate to refer to a network of relationships as a forum for exchange and social integration, where the collective identity provides access to networks of belonging, of belonging, that according to Giménez (2007), it is the inclusion in a collectivity to which senses of loyalty are experienced. All forms of mutual aid refer to particular forms of reciprocity, which promote new spaces of interaction, which, in turn, allow the existence of social belonging networks (Salas 2010).
It is important to acknowledge the existence of forces that can slow down the institution of cronyism, and the institutions in general that hold community projects, as we have described in this paper. The proposal of 'liquid relationships' by Bauman (2000) speaks of the fragility of human relationships in a present age, of widespread individualisation in the sense that we have increasingly fewer ties to the people around us, or at least, these are not unbreakable; individuals looking for "pocket relationships", shallow and more numerous, a phenomenon that would explain the success of virtual relationships. These studied communities, apparently isolated from modernising movements, have experienced severe changes that display the gradual entry of social relations in this Baumanian fluidity.
The party is one of the institutions that exist in all the studied communities, vigorously present in Tepactepec. It constitutes a fundamental space for social practices in public spaces, which encourages participation and enhances the communicability between various individuals. Celebrations in a community may differ between family parties related to the rites of passage for members of an extended family (baptisms, communions, confirmations, graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, quinceanos and even wakes ups) and those which also tend to be include the community, such as friends and godfathers; and community festivals linked to the Roman Catholic ceremonial cycle, borne, as seen above, by the community in the form of cooperation or by a member (steward or sponsor) with more resources than the average population.
There are several family and community celebrations observed in Nativitas communities. First, family parties are a platform that generates and maintains ties of kinship, patronage, and friendship. Along with the extended family, through which we acceded to the field, the annual celebrations emphasised are the birthdays of the male breadwinner and the preparation of mole, parallel to the big celebration on September 8th. In the family mentioned above, eight being the number of children, 28 of grandchildren and nine that of the great grandchildren, such celebrations concentrate a majority of the family. A priori, all the heads of household (married) equally cooperate in buying food and drinks to be used at the feast; moreover, a member of the family makes a greater effort to hire the services of a mariachi. Similarly, we note the case of the quinceanos party for girls of the neighbouring municipality of Santa Apolonia Teacalco, who have their family workplace
in Nativitas. Attention is brought to the organisation of the celebration in the number of "sponsors" that deal with the expenses for the event. To begin with, godparents, who must be married, undertake payment for the party dress. The food is provided by the parents, who may accept cooperation from other family members in the form of animals for the kitchen. Drinks are paid by some relatives, and if they run out, everyone collaborates to buy more. Moreover, other relatives, friends and cronies are responsible for sponsoring arrangements for the church, hall and its fixes, the cushion, the medals, slippers, mariachi, music group, invitations, souvenirs, the crown, and so on.
There is an interest to be found in these examples (as well as their interrelation with the economic mechanism of cooperation and economic benefit to the small local businesses that depend on this kind of celebrations): the high number of participants, or in other words, the tendency for the party to have the largest possible number of possible guests37 (plurality), including all members of the community (totality), which will be in the position of hosts (rotation) when they experience an equivalent situation, i.e. a daughter turning fifteen (frequency): 'You have to invite everyone who invited you', according to the principle of reciprocity.
Second, community festivals stand out and are recognised as they are always accompanied by food, drink, music, fireworks or rockets, popular dances, collective masses, bulls, rodeos, sport competitions, etc. As commented on the Roman Catholic ceremonial cycle, the cost of the holidays can be borne by the entire community and /or on behalf of the stewards, who change (rotate) from party to party (frequency). They favour all kinds of interactions, including the exchange of food and drink with family, friends and godfathers. We find it interesting to include in the analysis the recent (2011) establishment of the saint's feast in the adjacent town jubilee of Santo Tomás La Concordia. Sharing with the rest of Roman Catholic festivity features referred to above, oneof the reasons given by residents to add a new party to the cycle stands out: 'because we are many.' A number or elements are perceived in the response, among which are: Santo Tomás is the community with the largest population in the municipality of Nativitas; however, the revenue generated by their parties does not reach those of the neighbouring communities of San Miguel del Milagro and Jesús Tepactepec. Being definitely a case of rent-seeking, interest in this context to reflect that the project of the holy jubilee is undertaken collectively: the community believes that the joint effort will bring more profit to each of its members than if the task was independently initiated by each of them. It is reiterated that such reflection does not disdain the existence of individuals who want to act on their own (negotiating with the budget, not cooperating, etc.).
The parties frequently promote behaviour in favour of the collectivity, explained in different ways by anthropology, but always under the premise of being scenes in which everyone can participate: they foster social cohesion, as everyone fraternises (Montes &
37 The people interviewed correlate 'prestige' and 'having resources' with obtaining the most number of guests: 'There are people that close down the street and make one great dance!' commented a neighbour on the last wedding he attended (interview of an adult inhabitant in Jesús Tepactepec, Nativitas, July 2010).
Galinier, cited in Castro 2000: 510); they are a social control mechanism because no one escapes from cooperation (Robichaux 2007: 24); they inhibit the accumulation of power in any individual or group (Wolf, cited in Chance & Taylor 1987: 2); they legitimise the differences of wealth because everyone goes through the service of the cargo system (Cancian 1965), etc.
One of the major potential effects of the modernising processes on the party, as a community institution, come from the needs of leisure associated with high levels of productivity in industrial societies: for decades, inter-group transactions between hosts and guests (predominantly based on reciprocal and redistributive swaps)have been displaced by the creation of "tourist areas" (Nash 1989: 80), whose essential characteristic is the increased commercialisation of relationships (interactions and /or transactions) between hosts and guests (relations to recover the individual, i.e. the tourist, as a central figure and that do not involve the agreed rotation of roles).38
Another excellent example is the preparation of the mole; its being the ritual meal to be offered to guests at certain festivals (frequency) is also noteworthy. We would like to emphasise here its perception as culinary representation in which many people participate in preparation (more than any other Mexican "dish") (plurality), for a relatively long time (usually more than 24 hours) and a considerable reversal of roles: there can be different cook, helpers, sponsors of money or spices, diners, etc. (rotation). In Jesús Tepactepec and Nativitas, women and men participate in the mole elaboration "party", the first cooking and the latter performing tasks such as collecting firewood, culling and grinding of the seeds and chilies. Large amounts of mole are prepared to sample, both at the time of the celebration and for guests to take home: the moment before departure ('I will give your mole') is of great symbolism, leaving the visitor pledged to 'do what I saw wherever I went', for when the now-host attends their party.39
There are several factors associated with globalisation that directly impact the food and nutrition of the communities. Following Vargas (2001: 5-6), some highlights include: 1) the centralisation of the distribution of consumer goods through transnational corporations, which often means that local products travel to large centres and return to their producing sites to be consumed with the consequent increase in price; 2) the promotion of the need to consume goods, regardless of the true value they have (fast food restaurants), 3) the decrease in the range of foods consumed by the population,40 due to interest to produce edible plants and animals with high economic returns.
Likewise, the communication mechanism through "the ringing of church bells" is distinct. In the community of Jesus Tepactepec, there are at least four forms of ringing
38	Such a theoretical perspective suggests new research for Nativitas in two complementary ways: on one hand, the cases of San Miguel del Milagro y Jesús Tepactepec as places of a continuous process of touristisation; and on the other hand, the special transcendence of the community party institution as a response to such mercan-tilisation.
39	Many of the informants estimate that 'the simplest of parties with mole, drink and dance' may cost 20,000 Mexican pesos (interviews to the heads of family in Jesús Tepactepec, Nativitas, July, 2010).
40	In the case of mole, for example Oaxaca style, there is a recipe of about 30 or more ingredients (Vargas & Casillas 2004: 277-304).
the bells, besides the two daily ringings at 5 am, as a wake-up sign and getting out into the countryside to work, and at 8 pm, as a return signal: the "toll" to announce the death of a member of the community, the "praying" to ask the saints to end a natural disaster such as heavy rain, storms, droughts and storms; the "summons" to call the faithful to mass; and the ringing only the largest bell in the bell to warn of impending danger to the community such as the theft of images from the church.
Needless to say, this is one of the mechanisms that may suffer further weakening given from the extraordinary momentum that new technologies have provided to communications, to the point that 'in contrast with the face-to-face interaction ... mass communication involves people for production and transmission or diffusion usually lack of immediate feedback from the receptors' (Thompson 1990: 218-24). However, the bell ringing in Tepactepec manages to collect in a short time, in the case of notice of danger around the church, anyone who can hear the sound of the bell (plurality), can maintain direct interaction with the bell ringers. Regardless, most notice calls (for meetings or to participate in a pilgrimage) are made by speakers, whose sound reaches out to every residence.
Final thoughts
Throughout the text, and particularly the previous section, we have defined and described, according to anthropological literature and field experiences in the town of Jesús Tepac-tepec, Tlaxcala, different institutionalised mechanisms that can be found in many of the local communities (including some urban neighbourhoods) of the Mesoamerican tradition. They are all, one way or another, related to the cargo system, so they are considered to be the backbone each of these mechanisms. Of course, if it is true that each of them could function independently (and even does sometimes), it is also true that the present system and its own inertia produces and reproduces the mentioned institutions, which, from the point of view emphasised in this text, foster interaction scenes in which most community members can actively participate. They seek that these scenes take place as often as possible, and they encourage the exchange of roles, which allows community members to participate in the schemes with all the possible roles; this reality creates active citizens who make sure that the system is functional despite the phenomena linked to globalisation and modernisation.
These considerations do not seek to either generalise or present the cargos systems as mechanisms of social cohesion; on the contrary, this recognition does not mean in any way the lack of conflict between members of the community.41 In other publications of this research, we have highlighted how the ethical-political community allows the articulation of ' significant groups of people ' through 'rules of social coexistence, ' which do not delete or erase the socioeconomic and cultural differences (Salas, Rivermar & Velasco 2011: 18).
The direct, necessary and desired interaction, considering the devices also make it mandatory, is to implicitly and explicitly justify what we call "community project", in other words, the least common denominator of some Mexican rural communities, whether
41 We do not obviate the importance of these systems as mass control media or even domination of the population.
the population is of the majority and ethnically original, racially mixed (in no case are there entirely homogeneous groups): its members want and need to belong to the community, or whatever it is, believe in continuous contact with the people who live together as generator, most of the time, for common benefit and/or articulated to the own individual benefit of modern societies. All of this is under the premise that the more times an individual can interact with their neighbours, the more likely that 'we help one another' in search of employment, cooperation for a celebration or for the support to get to the United States as a new immigrant.
It is very difficult to conjecture how the cargo system will evolve in the changing socioeconomic and political context in which rural communities operate in 21st century Mexico. Social transformations resulting from globalisation and modernity have penetrated so deeply into the social, political, economic and religious communities, that it would be easier to think that they may disappear or be transformed to lose their essential characteristics and basic than define them. However, we have demonstrated in this investigation that people keep grouping into territories, which are related through institutions that create, maintain and, in documented cases, enhance social interaction scenes and cooperative relations that exist alongside those of conflict, so that communities not only persist, but in some aspects their behaviour is strengthened.
We may conclude that human groupings, given the need to find meaning to their existence have preserved, as means of resistance, some elements belonging to them. Although dealing with processes that seem so disorganising to the community, such as migrations and population dispersion across different markets, societies of origin give a sense of "community" that allows the individual to direct its own identity, i.e. define its self within a collectivity: it is in the origin communities where life proj ects that allow members to articulate the global order through forms of appropriation of space are conceived, or ritual landscapes and items that order the lives of every subject and every society.
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POVZETEK
Članek prinaša predlog za antropološko analizo kargo sistema v Mehiki, ki vključuje tako domorodne kot tujerodne skupnosti. Z razumevanjem kargo sistema kot heterogene institucije, članek prestavlja glavno hipotezo, da je ta institucija izvor drugih mehanizmov interakcije članov skupnosti. Prvič, skupnostne institucije spodbujajo sodelovanje največjega števila ljudi. Drugič, člani skupnosti nenehno ustvarjajo in poustvarjajo prizore interakcij. Tretjič, so vloge rotacij, kot produkt tihega soglasja med člani skupnosti, ključnega pomena pri zagotavljanju družbene participacije. Predlog je sestavljen iz treh delov: sestava kargo sistema kot kontinuuma, ki pojasnjuje razlike med vedenjem posameznikov in skupin, ideja o skupnosti kot temeljnemu konceptu v razumevanju kargo sistema; kot zaključek, ideja o skupnostnem projektu postane skupna značilnost vseh skupnosti (domorodnih ali tujerodnih) na srednjeameriškem področju.
KLJUČNE BESEDE: skupnost, kargo sistem, družbeni projekt, globalizacija, Mehika
CORRESPONDENCE: IÑIGO GONZÁLEZ DE LA FUENTE, Universityof Cantabria, School of Teacher Training, Avenida de los Castros S/N, 39005 Santander. Spain. E-mail: inigo.gonzalez@unican.es.
Family farms in Slovenia: Who did the measures 'Setting Up of Young Farmers' and 'Early Retirement' actually address?
Duska Knezevic Hocevar
Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, duska@zrc-sazu.si
Abstract
The development of Slovenian agriculture is oriented towards sustainable multifunctional farming, yet small dispersed agricultural holdings and their low economic productivity place Slovenia among the EU member states with the most unfavourable agricultural structure. The recently introduced measures of "Early Retirement of Farmers", and "Setting Up of Young Farmers" were aimed directly at improving agricultural productivity. But to whom were these two measures addressed? In this essay, the author discusses some results of the anthropological fieldwork carried out in 2009 in Prekmurje (NE Slovenia), a region with favourable conditions for farming. The research seeks to explain the divergences and correspondences of the farms with and without aid. The semi-structured interviews revolved around topics on farm history and organisation of farm work from a generation and gender perspective. The results show that the measures addressed farms that had substantially enlarged the size of their farmland, the number of livestock and the capacity of their buildings when the young operators took over the farms. These farms are also better equipped (mechanised) and more family members work full-time on them compared to the non-beneficiary farms. Both forms of aid stimulated the farm transfer from the older to the younger generations. The two types of farms observed do not differ in the organisation of farm work by gender. In general, the differences between the male and female working domain are determined by the time-period observed (political regime) and the introduction of tractors in the late 1960s. However, the care for the elderly and children is the working domain of women in all of the generations observed.
KEYWORDS: family farms, Setting Up of Young Farmers, early retirement, generations, gender, Slovenia
ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTEBOOKS 18 (1): 65-89. ISSN 1408-032X
© Slovene Anthropological Society 2012
The research rationale: Towards a multifunctional farming
The Resolution on the Developmental Orientation of Slovenian Agriculture (RSRSKZ 2011) puts multifunctional farming and its implementation at the forefront of the medium-term period (by 2020) through the goals of sustainable development and a sustained increase of agricultural competitiveness. These goals, however, do not meet the facts on the ground, particularly those related to the prevailing form of agricultural activities in Slovenia, i.e. family farming. The average size of agricultural holding in Slovenia is relatively small with 6.4 ha, compared 11.5 ha in the EU-27. Agricultural units are as a rule divided and dispersed on several locations, mostly situated in less favourable areas for farming. Family farms are mainly self-sufficient and their economic productivity is low. Farmer's income is two to three times lower than the income of persons employed in other occupational sectors (Kovacic 2001), which requires supplementing the family farm budget with off-farm resources.
Next to the unfavourable farm size structure, the education and age structure of farmers also contributes to the low economic productivity. Nearly half of farm operators are without any formal education, less than half have vocational or secondary education, and only four percent of them have completed higher, university or postgraduate education (RSRSKZ 2011: 6). More than half of the operators are over 55 years old, while the share of operators under 45 is only nineteen percent (RDP 2008: 23).
The recently introduced measures of Early Retirement of Farmers (2004) and Setting Up of Young Farmers (2005) were aimed directly at improving agricultural productivity and assuring farming continuity. It became more than obvious that the existence of family farms was endangered and that only the transfers of farms to younger farmers can make an important contribution to the greater innovation and raised competitiveness of agriculture in Slovenia. To whom these two measures were actually addressed was the main research question of two successive research projects: a survey on generational and gender relations on farms in Slovenia (2007-2008), and a follow-up fieldwork on intergenerational assistance in farm families (2009-2011). The ensuing research was designed on the survey's general finding that the most vital (as to the size of farms, education of its members and their fertility) were the farms that had received both forms of aid. By upgrading observations, the ethnographic study sought to provide more in-depth descriptions of the complex dynamics between genders and generations in every adult member of farm household selected; the survey indirectly captured the family atmosphere through the view of only one household interviewee.
In this essay, the presentation of fieldwork results revolves around the question of whether both types of farms, the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, differ in their farm development and management through the generation and gender lenses.
Switch to the past: A farmer-industrial worker
To better understand the particular strategy of family farming in Slovenia, it is necessary to clarify specific historical circumstances. In their estimation of the negative characteristics of farming from a developmental point of view, the majority of national documents more
or less reiterate "the burden of the past" (SRSK 1992, PRP 2004, PRP 2008, SRK-UKPS 2009), mainly referring to the period after the Second World War when agrarian reforms were introduced.1
Many historians believe that the post-war agrarian reform (1946) was basically "class and politically" oriented, in the function of supporting the achievements of the socialist revolution (Cepic 1996: 146). The first measures referred to the expropriation of farms that exceeded the maximum of 45 hectares. Other measures pertained to the distribution of land to those who were capable of cultivating it by them. Professional farmers were to be eligible for the land allocation, yet the priority was given to the participants of the national liberation army, farmers without land and those who did not possess enough land to make a living out of it (Cepic 2005a: 887).
Since the Act of Agrarian Reform and Colonisation assured land only to farmers who possessed less than five hectares of farmland, predominantly small estates were created that did not secure a living either to the owner or his family. Moreover, since the act did not allow hired labour in agriculture, the farmers were forced to seek additional sources of income outside of farming, mainly in industry, or they simply worked only for their own needs. The main aim of the authority was to achieve the equation of social classes in the village by the prevalence of "small and medium" farmers. Contrary to expectation, the collectivisation, i.e. the pulling of small individual farm producers into the farm labour cooperatives, i.e. the Yugoslav type of kolkhoz, failed since every member of a cooperative had to invest their entire farm inventory, cattle and farm buildings in it (Cepic 1996: 158; 1999: 186; 2005b: 937-39).
This was the main reason why the state again radically intervened in the ownership structure. The second agrarian reform is marked by the famous Act of Land Maximum introduced in 1953. The Agrarian Fund accumulated land of those farmers who had cultivated more than 10 hectares of land. Usually the farmers who lived close to the industrial centres were allowed to make a living in a "double" way: in both local industrial plants and on the farms. Therefore, a farmer-industrial worker became a specialist of Slovenian industrialisation and not of the effective modernisation of farming itself. Those who were employed in off-the-farm activities still lived in the village and were occupied with farming only in the afternoon and evening.2
The second agrarian reform was the final act of transforming the ownership structure until the process of denationalisation after the proclamation of Slovenian independence in 1991. The "old practice" of combining on-farm and off-farm income resources still reflects the established socio-economic typology of family farms that, in line with the number of employed persons on or off the farm, distinguishes between pure, mixed, subsidiary and aged farms.3 The prevailing share of mixed and subsidiary farms (more than 70 percent)
1	At that time, Slovenia was one among six republics of Socialist Yugoslavia.
2	Very illustrative is a calculation that in 1953, 63% of the population in Slovenia was employed in a non-agricultural sector, yet people lived in villages in 'mixed holdings' (Cepic 2002: 59).
3	A pure farm is defined as a farm household with all of its members employed only on the farm; at least one member of a household is employed on a mixed farm; nobody is employed on a subsidiary farm; on an aged farm people older than 64 years old live.
proved the still typical profile of Slovenian farmer: a half-farmer and a half-worker. As some experts emphasise, the combining of various income resources on the farm as one of the strategies of multifunctional farming, remains the leading farm development strategy in Slovenia (Udovc et al. 2006: 71).
Theoretical framework: Current emphases
The concept "multifunctional agriculture" emerged in 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit in discussions on promoting sustainable agriculture and rural development (DeVries 2000). Since then, the concept itself has stimulated a wide-ranging debate among researchers and policy-makers. Many of them agree that the most frequently used definition pertains to the OECD (2001), which explains the multifunctionality of agriculture as the existence of multiple commodity and non-commodity outputs that are jointly produced by agriculture (Vatn 2002: 4; Bedrac & Cunder 2006: 243). To put is simply, farmers are viewed as rural entrepreneurs who by various activities produce different outputs and services that may have a use or non-use value for society (Durand & Huylenbroeck 2003: 13).
Somewhat simultaneously, the researchers of family farming describe the increasing shift towards pluriactivity as a livelihood strategy (e.g. Gasson 1986; Fuller 1990; Eikland & Lie 1999; Sofer 2005). Usually they identify two strategies of farming entrepreneurial behaviour. One alternative refers to the intensification of primary production by increasing the size of the farm or the production unit, i.e. specialising in a certain line of production. The other strategy is found in business diversification on the farm, i.e. in deepening the agricultural activity by some other business than conventional agricultural production (e.g. tourism, transportation services, wood processing, metal industry, energy production) (e.g. Vesala & Peura 2005).
Several case studies discuss such developmental strategies in farm-family businesses in the view of changing gender and generation roles and positions within the families (e.g. Rossier 2005). Such research shows that farm families in which the roles are rigidly allocated concentrate on traditional agricultural production and show distance from innovation. Moreover, some case studies led to a hypothesis that farm families with flexible roles and constant re-negotiation among family members on their activities and decision-making on and off the farms would easily tackle the challenges of technical, economic and ecological developments in the agrarian sector. Women and men who earn additional income off the farm are supposed to better confront an economic crisis, and without the participation of all family members, their strategies in various services are generally unsuccessful (Brandth 2002; Bock 2006). The studies that indicate the on-going changing gender relations on farms (Brandth 2002; Asztalos Morell & Brandth 2007) also demonstrate that developmental orientations of farms are strongly linked with the increasingly visible and active role of women working on or off the farms; however, providing care (to children and elderly) still remains their domain. Only a few studies show opposite evidence, in a sense that male farmers (e.g. sons) contribute more to caring for their parents simply because they live on the same family farm (e.g. Elder et al. 1996; Melberg 2005).
Intergenerational exchange and assistance is also indirectly discussed in the studies on farm succession due to the intertwined property, managerial and know-how transfers
among generations in farm families (Villa 1999). These studies try to show various life stages and social positions of an observed actor - a farmer - in a wider social context. Some cases show the tendency towards transformation from farming as an occupation that the older generations were obliged to carry on, to farming as one option among many for the current generation (ibid.).
In Slovenia, there is almost no anthropological research on contemporary family farms; the few anthropological monographs are some decades old (see Winner 1971; Minnich 1979). Comparable to the studies on family farms as a business and a family is the two-decade-old survey Farm Family - the Social Elements of Family Farm (1991). The main goal of the survey was to obtain data for a better understanding of the circumstances and possibilities of existence and development of farm families in Slovenia. The research model included the farm both as economy and household as well as its individual members on the other. The survey was a basis for several partial analyses about the farm family and its members by rural sociologists.4 For instance, in her study on self-renewal of farmers as a social class in Slovenia, Barbič (1993; 2005) analysed the occupational mobility of farmers compared to their parents' mobility. The results showed that self-renewal was characteristic for farmers as a social class. The farmers mostly married among themselves, and, from a generational viewpoint, they were oriented to other occupations, while the opposite, i.e. going from other occupations to a farm occupation, was not the case (Barbič 2005: 267).
Also worth mentioning is the survey Generations and Gender Relations on Farms in Slovenia (OGS), carried out in 2007 (Kneževic Hočevar & Černič Istenič 2010). The survey sought to determine who the recipients of the measures of Setting Up of Young Farmers and Early Retirement were. The results showed that from the developmental point of view, the measures addressed relatively more vital farm households with regard to the size of farms, the education of its members and their fertility, which also shared some "rigid" features. The young successors (the state beneficiaries) did not participate in wider social networks. Their social network still consisted of their closer siblings only, the division of labour among the family members was less flexible in view of their particular interests, and the younger generation was still committed to providing care for the older generation, either due to the "preservation of tradition" or the lack of some services in their living environment. Due to the methodological design of the survey, which was limited to obtain information about family members of the households from the view of only one household interviewee, these results did not enable broader conclusions on farm household family dynamics as understood by their respective members. Yet these findings on the general profiles of family farming developers served as a start for designing the initial themes of a semi-structured interview for the ensuing anthropological fieldwork.
4 See works of Barbič (1993; 2000; 2005), Hribernik (1992; 1995) and Černič Istenič (2006; 2007).
Fieldwork
Pomurje is a region situated in the northeast of Slovenia, bordering Austria, Hungary and Croatia, and its main town is Murska Sobota. Pomurje is one of Slovenia's least developed regions, with economic activity orientated to industries producing a lower added value per employed person. In general, the service sector is poorly developed as well. The region is clearly agricultural countryside, either by the share of agricultural areas5 or by the share of farm population (20% at the state level). Livestock production is the most important agricultural branch; the most widespread is cattle production followed by pig production and poultry. The specialty of the region is that more than half of the households are at least partially engaged in farming (RRP 2006: 55), indicating that the share of half-workers half-farmers prevails.
In 2009, the largest Slovenian apparel producer, Mura, and a meat-processing company, Pomurka, located in Murska Sobota, declared bankruptcy; thousands of employees lost their jobs. I expected this economic crisis to trigger full-time employment on farms of those workers who lost their jobs and who had previously combined their off-farm employment with work on the farm.
The fieldwork was carried out in three counties close to (each within 10 kilometres) the municipality Murska Sobota. Six three-generational farm households were chosen by snowball. The main criterion required at least two generations of people to co-reside together under "the same roof' and earn at least a share of the family's net income from agricultural activities. To better understand the generation and gender aspect in more-or-less developed family farms, the cases selected pertain to three farms, the beneficiaries of the measures of Setting Up of Young Farmers and Early Retirement, i.e. the farms with a secured successor. The other three were not the beneficiaries of the two forms of aid, and were without a secured successor during the course of the research.
The elder generation belongs to the time of socialism, when agrarian reforms significantly determined the farming structure and strategies in the country. The younger generation of collocutors mainly belongs to the post-socialism in which Slovenia proclaimed its independence (1991), joined the EU (2004) and adapted to the CAP reforms.
All family names are pseudonyms. The use of terms older andyounger generation pertains merely to the generational sequence, not the chronological age of the family members.
The introductory theme included the description of the family farm through the narratives on the farm history in each collocutor's view. By the example of the previously established database on generations and gender relations, the collocutors discussed some a priori designed themes related to various transfers, the division of labour tasks and assistance among their family members. Yet due to the "nature" of fieldwork some topics emerged completely anew.
The preliminary results given below revolve around the major divergences and correspondences observed between the beneficiary and non-beneficiary farms discussing the characteristics of the farms and their functioning through the organisation of work from a generation and gender perspective.
5 At the state level, the Pomurje region comprises 22.3% fields and gardens, 12.7% orchards, 11.7% vineyards and a minor share of grasslands (4.5%) and forests (3.5%) (RRP 2006: 55).
Introduction of six family farms
A review of the basic characteristics of the six selected farm families (see Appendix) shows that all farms are oriented to livestock-crop production and are "mixed" family farms. The cases are differentiated by the number of employed family members on and off the farm. The first three cases (two beneficiaries of the aid of Setting Up of Young Farmers (SYF) and Early Retiremnet (ER), and one candidate for SYF) have on average at least one member employed outside the farm. The second three (the non-beneficiaries), however, have one member employed on the farm, usually the operator. The regional crisis is mirrored in the type of occupations of unemployed persons who mainly lost their jobs in the textile industry (three individuals out of five from Cases 2, 4, 5).
The education of collocutors does not illustrate a typical pattern among the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the aid. University educated interviewees are found in both groups; however, they are always the representatives of the younger generation (three individuals from Cases 1, 3, 4). Among the younger generation, secondary education prevails, and their study programmes are mostly related to regional needs: agriculture and the textile industry. In general, the older generation over 60 have lower education (completed elementary schooling prevails) compared to the older generation under 60 (vocational schooling prevails).
As a rule, a son stays at home on the family farm. This applies for both the older and the younger generations. A woman is a transferee only in a case when there is no other male heir (Zerdin Family), or in exceptional circumstances. For instance, the older sister of YF (Novak Family) married on the neighbouring farm and after the death of her husband, an only child, she took over the farm of his parents. Even in cases when a daughter stayed at home, the farm was usually entrusted to her husband (the mother in the Novak Family).
With one exception only (Horvat Family), there are two houses on the farm. The new house usually belongs to the younger generation and is built some 10 metres away from the old house.
The holding size and the farm equipment vary substantially in view of the time period observed: socialism and post-socialism. The introduced land maximum in 1953 entailed that no family farm in this time period exceeded 10 hectares of owned farmland. Until the late 1960s, family farms as a rule were not equipped with machinery. However, there is an obvious increase of the size of farmland among the younger generation at the time of taking over the farm, particularly in the beneficiaries of SYF (Cases 1 and 2) compared to their parents' generation: from 7 hectares to 35 hectares (Case 1), from 0.3 hectares to 60 hectares (Case 2). The exception goes to the Car Family (a non-beneficiary) which was already one of the largest in the village in socialist times. The present operator of this farm has also enlarged the size of the farmland compared to his father, i.e. from 10 hectares to 40 hectares. Also worth mentioning are the enlarged capacities of the tourist farm in the candidate for the SYF aid (Benko family) compared to the business beginnings of his parents. By the time the younger operator took over the tourist farm in 2003, the guest house had been enlarged from a capacity of three rooms to nine rooms, and the size of agricultural land had slightly increased from 11 hectares to 16 hectares.
All farms substantially improved their equipment with machines after the introduction of tractors in the late 1960s. Unrelated to the aid received and the size of the farmland, each farm has at least one tractor with several attachments. Two cases (1, 3) from the beneficiary group possess two tractors, and one case (2) owns three tractors and a combine. Two cases from the non-beneficiary group (5, 6) own one tractor; the exception, with four tractors, is again the Car family.
Irrespective of the time period observed, all the cases increased the previous average number of livestock per farm holding. Similar to the increase of holding size, significant growth is observed among the beneficiaries of the two forms of aid (SYF and ER) and in the Car Family from the non-beneficiary group. Two farms from the beneficiary group (1, 2) increased the average number of livestock from 4 to 56, and from zero to 30 breeding pigs and 500 porkers; the old Car farm reared 10 to 15 cattle and now, as a pig farm there are some 40 breeding pigs and 1000 porkers.
Finally, all partners who married on the farm of their husbands or wives stem from multigenerational families and farm settings.
The following analysis of farm histories and the life stories of their current family members show the dynamics of relationships between the generations and genders regarding the division of tasks in both their families of origin and present family farms.
Work on the farm: Are there any differences between the two types of farms?
The older generation of interviewees from all farms explained that until the introduction of tractors in the late 1960s all work was done simply "by hand". Fields, grasslands, vineyards and forests were manually cultivated using cattle only, and work in the stables and houses was not mechanised. The parts of their narratives that refer to the division of labour in their family of origin in their periods of growing-up do not illustrate a uniform pattern or principle of task division as to gender or age. Yet a majority of the older generation reiterated that before the introduction of machinery on the farms, women had performed the major part of work "inside and outside" the house. The others, however, assured me that all the family members irrespective of gender and age executed every farm task according to their physical capabilities. In a majority of cases, the burdening with farm work of a single family member was dependent on the employment of other family members outside the farm. Only a minority of the older generation mentioned the distinct division of labour before the introduction of a tractor: males worked in the field and females worked with the cattle and in the house.
The introduction of tractors and other machines on the farm and in the house (refrigerators, freezers, washing machines) was, according to the collocutors, the turning point that determined the radical differentiation of tasks by gender and age. As a rule, the mechanised work on the land and in the stables became the working domain of men, and the rest remained the working field of women. Such a dividing line also strongly delineated male and female housekeeping tasks, which became a generally female domain. Such division is also characteristic for the employed members off the farm, who assisted at home
after coming home from their jobs. In the case of a man employed off the farm, he would work at home with the machines on the land. A woman employed off the farm, however, would be more engaged in non-mechanised chores on the land and in the stables or she would work in the house. The individual cases show the following picture.
Case 1: Novak Family
Working six years in Germany at the end of the 1960s, the father of YF earned enough money to buy his first tractor. In the next ten years, the father successively bought seven tractors with all possible attachments, and together with neighbours in the so-called machinery community they bought a harvest combine. Since then, his work has been "work with the tractof' on the land, his wife has been occupied with the stable and his mother has worked in the kitchen. His son, now the YF, has worked independently on the farm since he was ten years old, yet in the stable only. His father allowed him to work with a tractor only when he reached thirteen years of age. Now, the son alone carries out most of the work with tractors and machinery and the father gives his assistance when necessary. The mother is still active in the stable (milking), the son feeds and spreads bedding for the cattle while the father is occupied with the bulls. Housekeeping is also the mother's domain; she is sometimes assisted by her younger daughter or daughter-in-law.
The partner of the young transferee is employed off the farm; yet her domain at home consists of housekeeping, arranging the farm's files (e.g. monthly tax reports, fertilisation plans, crop rotation plan), and caring for their new house and surroundings. She assists in farm tasks only if necessary.
The older sister of YF (a widow), who is a transferee of her parents-in-law farm, regularly assists her brother with machinery; in fact, they work on both farms. Their younger sister, who is also employed off the farm, is engaged in the farm work only as an 'assistant when needed'. She usually gives help to their mother in the house; on the farm, however, only in seasonal common work.
Case 2: Horvat Family
Leaving their jobs in a transport service in the early 1980s, the parents of today's young transferee made a decision to start farming "from scratch". Following the example of a majority of farmers, they also equipped their own farm with stables and machinery. Since then and until her son's taking over of the farm, work in the stable (domestic and hired) has been the domain of the mother. Now, she and her daughter-in-law share the labour in the domestic stable, in the house and with the children. Before his "early retirement", her husband cultivated the farmland with machinery. Their son has assisted on the farm since his childhood. When he was ten years old, he started to drive a tractor and helped his mother in the stables. As he grew up, he tackled more demanding tasks. Now, he admits that he does not do the majority of so-called female work, such as washing, cooking and ironing, but he would if necessary. He regularly performed such work when he attended elementary school. Now, his wife is more engaged in bringing up their children, but he usually assists her. On the farm he works alone, and he also organises the farm documents.
Case 3: Benko Family
The older operator worked as a tractor driver in a cooperative after he married; he also worked on his own farm with the cooperative tractor. From 1965 to 1967, he and his wife were employed in a textile plant in Austria, but they regularly returned home in the summers to give a hand on their parents' farm. His parents barely managed the farm since his father has only one arm. In 1967, the older operator bought his first tractor in Austria, and by 1975 they already had three tractors on the farm. He and his wife were employed abroad again between 1971 and 1973, this time in Germany. Assisting in a restaurant, he became gradually interested in tourism in the countryside, already well established in Germany at that time. With the birth of his son in 1973, he was determined to stay at home and to undertake a subsidiary activity: farm tourism. The tasks were distributed as follows: his wife cooked for guests and family members while he only worked with machinery on the land. His domain was also guest services. At that time, their daughter and son did not assist in tourism due to their school obligations, and they did not work on the farm at all.
Since his marriage, the son, now a candidate for SYF and a transferee of a tourist farm, has managed the tourist farm mainly alone: he plans the work, runs the administration, works with the cattle, cultivates the land with machinery and is occupied with service. His father only assists on the land; if necessary, he hires additional labour. His wife is responsible for housekeeping and the purchases for guests. For cooking and cleaning, she has additional help or occasionally an employed assistant. Children are more her concern than his.
Case 4: Car Family
The operator believes that women have always worked on the farm much more than men, both before the machinery introduction and after it. The only difference is that since the introduction of tractors, there is no need for 'so many hands.' Now, he is the only one who works on the farm. His wife assists in a stable and runs bookkeeping and finance. His wife has been self-employed as a seamstress for thirty-six years and works part-time, four hours per day, on the farm as well. Their younger daughter lost her job at Mura during her maternity leave. Now, she takes part with her mother in working in the house and in the garden. When necessary, they both assist outside the house. The daughter's partner also lost his job in the same year, so he assists the operator mainly on the land, seven hours per day. The exception is cattle, which is the domain of his parents-in-law. Finally, he believes that today's generation of men is more engaged in the house, including playing with children, than the older generation.
Case 5: Kučan Family
The operator runs the farm, which was managed before by his parents, who were typical farmers-industrial workers. As a teenager, he assisted on the domestic farm and state farm estate in a neighbouring county. By means of pair-horse, he loaded the silage on the carriage. Very interested in farm machinery, he enrolled at the vocational school for car mechanics. Now, he possesses all necessary machinery for farm work. His domain is also the work in the stable. His son only assists in physically less demanding work (sowing), not to burden his heart, which was recently operated on, and still works in his unregistered joiner's workshop. The kitchen is predominantly the women's domain.
When the operator's wife married on the farm, there was no one fully employed on it. A family worked on the farm in the afternoons when they were off duty. As a fulltime employee at Mura, she also only assisted on the farm (on the fields and in the stable), nearly three hours per day. Now, temporarily unemployed, she is more occupied in the house and sometimes she looks after grandchildren. Her daughter, currently on maternity leave, believes that today a large-sized farm is a precondition for successful farming. Their farm functions more as a hobby. However, the farm proved as indispensable in this economic crisis in the region.
Case 6: Žerdin family
The female operator believes that obvious changes in the division of labour emerged with the introduction of tractors. In her case, this is visible on the farm, the domain of her otherwise off the farm employed husband, and in the stable, her and her mother's working place. However, they still assist her husband on the land and in the forest with whatever can be done by hand. Their son helps with machinery while their daughter helps in the house.
A similar picture of gendered division of labour can be extracted from those parts of collocutors' narratives that refer to mutual assistance of neighbours and relatives in general. Men commonly give machinery services and transportation and they normally receive such services. Women, on the other hand, offer help related to the household chores and care for children and the elderly and they also receive such favours from their neighbours and relatives. Yet the talk of mutual assistance revealed another important aspect: some members of a family farm can also be active on the farm of their close relative, thus significantly enlarging their everyday work engagement. Illustrative are the examples of the Novak family from the beneficiary group and the Kučan family from the non-beneficiary group. The older daughter of the Novak Family, after the death of her husband, the only child on the neighbouring farm, took over the farm of his parents and worked on it. At the beginning, her father assisted her on the 20-hectare farm; today, she farms her estate mainly with her brother's assistance and at the same time, she assists her brother (YF) on his farm. In the latter case, the operator's sister married into his wife's brother farm (25 kilometres distant). The result of this cross-marriage is that his sister renounced her inheritance at home in his favour and the opposite holds for his wife. Now, all of them cultivate 10 hectares of common forest and some 50 vines.
The introduction of tractors significantly marked the division of tasks among the family members and is also a symbol of a farm's success and prestige, irrespective of its type. However, the involvement of both generations working full-time on the farm has proved to be a more decisive element of farms' differentiation than the level of the farm mechanisation. In the beneficiary group, at least three family members work full-time on each farm regardless of the retirement status of the old generation, while on the non-beneficiary farms only the operator is fully employed on the farm. Keeping in mind the 2007 survey's observation that the young successors who are state beneficiaries do not participate in wider social networks but are confined to their closer siblings only, the following question remains: what distinguishes the beneficiary farms from the non-beneficiary farms as to the common life of generations?
What does it mean to live in a multigenerational farm family?
To avoid the commonly believed myth about close kin ties in multigenerational farm families and to clarify two other findings from the 2007 survey about (1) the less flexible division of labour among the beneficiary family members in view of their particular interests, and (2) the commitment of the younger generation to provide care for the older generation, the "fields of dis/agreement" among and within farm families' generations were observed through their assessments of the dis/advantages of living in a multigenerational family. Each case shows the following picture:
Case 1: Novak Family
The older operator (72) is convinced that at times the common life of young and old people in multigenerational families was not a problem. According to him, generations started to live separately when people from the Prekmurska region began to work abroad. In the West, the locals saw such a way of life up close, and when they returned they practiced it at home.
His wife (66) is more cautious in assessing the common life of generations. Women were expected to take care of the elderly, and she remembers how it was hard to work in the fields the entire day and then all the work in the house was waiting for her. She alone took care of her grandmother; her husband assisted only in lifting the elderly woman from the bed.
The younger generation sees the advantages of living together primarily in better organised work; each member of the family has only some tasks and not all of the work. The individual is disburdened and expenses per individual are usually lower in such a community. The son (32), YF, for instance, is happy that both parents still assist in the stable and his father in the fields although they are both retired. Yet he is also aware of a disagreement with his father on how to work, when to work and who will do something.
The younger daughter (37) also indicating some disagreements among generations, especially in view of feeding habits. Parents do not understand her daughters and she sometimes misses more intimacy. Yet she would not choose the life in an urban apartment alone with her daughters only.
The older daughter from a neighbouring farm (42) sees only advantages of life in a multigenerational family. More people know more things, they help each other and you are never alone in long winter evenings. The biggest privilege is secured care for children and older people. She identifies disagreements only in arguing with her father about different ways of farming.
Case 2: Horvat Family
The older operator (60) and his wife (55) are convinced that to live in a multigenerational family is more a benefit than a shortcoming if all the members get along. Grandchildren make the operator happy who, now retired and unfortunately seriously ill, is much more occupied with them than before. At the same time, he is secure in his old age, having trans-
ferred the farm to his son some years ago. His wife recognises as the major advantage of such a life in intergenerational teaching: the younger from the older and the opposite.
The son, YF (31), sees more benefits in such a community. You may always ask anybody for advice and there is always somebody to look after your children. The only disadvantage is if you are too attached to and dependent on your parents. When they die, you are lost. His wife (31) identifies as the most important gain that an individual is disburdened, because there is always somebody who can do something instead of you.
Case 3: Benko Family
The older operator (69) believes that a common life with various generations may lead to disagreements. As a child, he was faced with such a disagreement between his mother and his aged paternal grandmother. His grandmother even moved to his daughter's family in the other village because she could not live together with his mother anymore. Yet his mother did not get along with his wife as well. This negative experience with a mother-in-law was the main reason that she supported her children 'to live their way of life.'
The younger generation in the Benko family is more optimistic. The son (37), a candidate for YF, and his older sister were looked after by their grandfather. This was his main task as an old member of a family who with one arm only could not assist in the fields anymore. When he also lost a leg, amputated for diabetes, the family's mother and grandmother nursed him. Similarly, he as a transferee of a tourist farm took care of his grandmother for three years before she died. Today, the care for his children by his parents is indispensable since the nursery school is closed during the weekends, and for the weekends there is the major work on the tourist farm. As he emphasised: 'Mutual help in such a family is beyond any disagreements.'
His wife (28) is satisfied that they live apart from her husband's parents but close enough to be at their disposal when it is necessary.
Case 4: Car Family
Comparing his life in both his family of origin and current multigenerational family, the operator (58) emphasises the respect towards the elderly as the most distinct characteristic between his two families. In previous times, old people were much more respected than they are today. Now, he is disappointed due to the 'missed philosophy' of the young generation whose motto says that old and young people do not go together.
His wife (55) agrees that, in the past, there was much more respect among generations than there is today. When she married on her husband's farm, she had good relationships with all family members: she was taught how to cook with the help of her mother-in-law. When her parents-in-law became seriously ill, she automatically provided nursing care.
The younger generation voices some criticism as well. The younger daughter (31) admits that a multigenerational family means mutual assistance. However, conflicts emerge when two generations do not listen to each other. The younger daughter prefers a separate life, maintaining contacts with her parents from a distance.
Her partner (32), who married into the 'best farm' in the village, is persuaded that his parents-in-law do not respect him enough. The only benefit is that the parents-in-law cover the majority of expenses and occasionally look after their children.
The older daughter (32), who lives in a separate household across the road sees the benefit of a common life among the generations in the fact that children become aware that 'they are not the only ones in the world.' Her husband (42) is more careful to defend clear boundaries between the generations, because grandparents are inclined to spoil their grandchildren, which is not good for their future.
Case 5: Kucan Family
In general, all from the Kucan family agree that life in a three-generation family is primarily a benefit because you always get help when you need it. The operator (49) cannot even imagine the other life. His wife (47) mainly agrees but with a roguish smile she also adds that 'we all contribute dirt but only one cleans.' Their son (27) appreciates that you can get help at any time, particularly baby-sitting. Yet he warns that 'the big house is always too small for all of us!' He believes that a new house, twenty metres away, will provide more 'free space' for everybody, not only for his family. His sister (24) supports her brother's decision. With her husband, they also plan to rearrange the upper floor in the old house into a separate apartment with a detached entrance. Finally, the operator's mother (73) explains that she preferred to live with her partner in the town simply because she did not want to remain a 'pig-maid' at home.
Case 6: Zerdin Family
The operator (43) has lived her whole life in a multigenerational family and she likes it very much. She explains that in such a community there is always somebody who talks to you when you are in trouble, you can trust somebody, and there is always a person who will do something for you. The income is common: if somebody does not have money, then nobody has it. If somebody has money, then they all have some. Her children attended nursery school only one year because there was always somebody at home. Even her disabled grandmother, who was confined to a wheelchair for six years, took care of them. Her children did their homework on her bed and she supervised them. The children were also very attached to their great-grandmother. The operator and her mother took care of her and it never occurred to send her to an institution. Her grandmother was not lonely at home, and she loved to participate in the kitchen. Sometimes she simply cleaned the things from the table and carried them to the cupboards, and she washed the dishes until the time they bought a dishwasher. The parents of the operator did not even send her older sister, who had mental and physical troubles, to a home for disabled persons. She stayed in domestic care until she died. Her mother (69) would never put anybody in an institution, especially a disabled child or an aged person. She is convinced that these people and the care for them bonded them as a family.
The operator's husband (47) thinks that the decision to live in a multigenerational family is a matter of habit. He has never thought to live with his wife and children separately from the older generation. He says that minor discrepancies do not count compared to the advantages of such a life. This attitude is also shared by his son (23) and a daughter (20). Although youth is always misunderstood, they enjoy always having somebody available for a talk.
The assessments of the dis/advantages of a common life in a multigenerational family as recounted by each collocutor do not reveal a "typical difference" between the beneficiary and the non-beneficiary families. Both groups show that their members predominantly favour a common life in a multigenerational family. The older generation usually stresses the mutual assistance in providing and receiving care; the younger, however, emphasises better organised work, evenly distributed tasks, intergenerational teaching and a common budget. Those individuals from both groups (Case 3 from the beneficiaries and Case 4 from the non-beneficiaries) who express more disadvantages of such a way of life refer mostly to their personal negative experiences when 'generations do not listen to each other' or when they had to provide care for the elderly 'confined to bed'; they also favour the separate life of generations.
Not surprisingly, the latter collocutors also prefer institutional care when discussing aging on the farm, while the majority of others speaks in favour of "aging at home" irrespective of their gender and generation. The collocutors from the beneficiary households (Cases 1 and 2) uniformly support the view that the elderly have a right to die at home since they have worked on the farm their entire lives. Together with other supporters of aging at home (Cases 5, 6), they also share the view that providing care for parents at home is the duty of the transferee, moreover, of his female partner. Practically, there are no differences among generations: the elder male collocutors and also the younger ones stick to the idea that caring is primarily the domain of women's work. Surprisingly, even the younger generation of women is convinced that this is their field of concern.
Conclusion
Only since the Slovenian proclamation of independence in 1991, and particularly since Slovenia joined the EU in 2004, has agricultural legislation sought to re-value the farm occupation, which was devalued compared to the socialist worker. By means of various domestic and European subsidies, the effort was defined towards the improvement of the property structure of poor farms and the age structure of farmers. This progress would further affect better economic productivity of the agricultural sector and hinder, if not stop, the abandoning of family farming in the country.
Contrary to my expectation, the fieldwork material shows that the operators who are the beneficiaries of aid for Setting Up of Young Farmers and Early Retirement do not differ from the non-beneficiary operators in terms of education. In the beneficiary group, all three levels of achieved education are represented from elementary school to a university degree. Education matters only related to generations: among the younger generation, secondary education prevails, while in the older generation, vocational schooling is prevalent.
All respective spouses of the operators stem from multigenerational families and farm settings. The number of their children does not distinguish the observed beneficiary from the non-beneficiary group.
The type of farm does not matter either. Livestock-crop production is characteristic for all the farms observed and they all combine a family farm budget with on- and off-farm resources. All the family farms are mixed as to the number of employed family members on and off the farm. Yet the two groups of farms are differentiated by the number of family members who work permanently on the farm. In the beneficiary group, at
least three family members work full-time on the farm compared to only one who is fully employed on a farm in the non-beneficiary group.
Two measures also addressed family farms, which had substantially enlarged the size of farmland, the number of livestock and the building capacities at the time the younger operator took over the farm. As a rule, these farms are also better equipped and mechanised compared to the non-beneficiary farms (the exception is the Car farm family). It seems that this improvement of the farms in the beneficiary group was also motivated by the secured successors on these farms. As the young farmers emphasised, they would have continued with farming irrespective of the aid received. Therefore, both forms of aid accelerated and did not cause the farm transfer.
The fieldwork material also shows that the introduction of tractors in the late 1960s primarily contributed to a more clear-cut division of tasks between genders, irrespective of the farm group observed. Despite the speciality of each presented case, it is not an exaggeration to formulate the general conclusion that since the introduction of tractors the domain of men has been primarily mechanised work, while women have mainly performed the rest of the work on the farm and in the house. This gendered pattern of divided tasks also exists for family members who are employed off the farm, i.e. for half-workers-half-farmers. Moreover, this model is obvious also in temporarily unemployed family members irrespective of the status of the observed farm in the sense of whether it is the beneficiary of both forms of aid or not.
A similar conclusion may be summarised for the time period before the 1960s. Despite the various contexts of the single family farms observed, before the introduction of tractors it was a rule that women performed all kinds of work outside and inside the house. This was not the case for men; their domain was limited to "outside work" only.
Irrespective of the time period observed and the farm type, the care for the elderly and children is the working domain of women. Despite the tacit rule that a son usually takes over the farm and consequently he should be responsible for the aged parents, the practice shows that this is the field of the son's wife or his partner. Moreover, women are aware that this is their task, and they take it for granted.
It is also worth mentioning the particular cases that do not fit the model of the above rules. Such is the case of the Horvat Family, whose older couple commenced with farming from scratch and gradually developed one of the most prosperous farms in the village, now also the beneficiary of both forms of aid. Yet the older couple themselves stem from a farm setting and multigenerational farm; they were not fresh starters. Another case is about the female transferee of a farm who started farming due to the immense love of her late husband (Novak Family); before, she was a full-time employee in the municipal insurance company. Yet again, she comes from a family farm.
That a multigenerational farm family is also a "family firm" is proved by the engagement of each and every family member including the disabled or the aged. In such a community, work is found for everyone who is capable of contributing to the family budget. The retired members work on the farm after becoming retired, and it seems that age and disability are not obstacles. Younger and older members of both groups predominantly favour a common life in a multigenerational family due to the more evenly distributed tasks and secured care for children and the elderly. The only precondition for a meaningful life in a multigenerational farm family is "to get along with each other".
References
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APPENDIX: Background information for Cases 1-6
I. Background information for Cases 1-3 (two beneficiaries of SYF and ER, and a candidate for SYF)
Case 1: Novak Family
Owner/status on the family farm	Farm owner and operator: the beneficiary of SYF (in 2006) His partner: employed off the farm (a supervisor of cross compliance at a private agency in Murska Sobota) Younger sister: employed off the farm (in a private bakery in Murska Sobota) Father: a retired farmer, the beneficiary of ER Mother: a retired farm woman
Age/Education	Farm operator 32/ Elementary School His partner 27/ Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences Younger sister 37/ Secondary School for Food and Food Processing Father 72/ Elementary School Mother 66/ Elementary School
Living arrangements	Old house: parents with divorced daughter and her two children: daughters 14 and 16 New three-storey house (20 metres away): farm operator (son) with his partner Total number of FF members: 5 + 2 = 7
Farm after being taken over by the YF in 2006	Size of agricultural land: 35 ha (12 ha owned, 23 ha rented); 56 livestock (16 cows and 40 bulls); agricultural machinery (two tractors with 12 attachments)
Farm after parents' marriage in 1964	Size of agricultural land: 7 ha (4 ha forest); 4 cattle (2 cows and 2 calves); agricultural machinery (none)
Other: older sister (42) married to a neighbouring farm	Both families work on both farms. Sister's farm: 25 ha; 40-50 cattle; agricultural machinery (2 combines)
Case 2: Horvat Family
Owner/status on the family farm	Farm owner and operator: the beneficiary of SYF (in 2005) Wife: currently unemployed (before: employed in a private textile firm in a neighbouring county) Father: a retired farmer, a beneficiary of ER Mother: a farm woman
Age/Education	Farm operator 31/ Secondary School for Agriculture Wife 31/ Secondary School for Textile Industry Father 60/ Elementary School and Vocational Training for (1) Goods Vehicles (1 year) and (2) Barrel Maker (two years) Mother 55/ Vocational School for Agriculture and Housekeeping
Living arrangements	House: farm operator (son) with his wife and two children (son 5, daughter 3) and his parents (father and mother) Total number of FF members: 6
Farm after being taken over by the YF in 2005	Size of agricultural land: 60 ha (20 ha owned, 40 ha rented); 30 breeding pigs and 500 porkers; agricultural machinery (3 tractors with all attachments, 1 combine)
Farm after parents' marriage in 1974	Size of mother's inherited parcel: 0.3 ha
Other: older sister (34) married on a farm in another village	Her family occasionally gives and receives some help
Case 3: Benko Family (a tourist farm)
Owner/status on the family farm	Farm owner and operator: a candidate for the beneficiary of SYF (about 2012) Wife: employed on tourist farm (service and kitchen) Father: a retired farmer Mother: a retired farm woman 1-2 temporary employed workers in service and kitchen
Age/Education	Farm operator 37/ Faculty of Economics and Business Wife 28/ Commercial High School Father 69/ Secondary School for Agriculture Mother 63/ Elementary School
Living arrangements	Renewed old house (guest house): farm operator (son) with his wife and two children: son 4 and baby-son under 1 Renewed wine cellar into a house (100 metres away): parents Total number of FF members: 4 + 2 = 6
Farm (after being taken over by the farm operator in 2003)	Size of agricultural land: 16 ha (14.5 ha owned, 1.5 ha rented); livestock (12 cows, 10 pigs, 2 horses for riding); agricultural machinery (two tractors with several attachments); guest house (9 rooms of first category, 80 seats for guests)
Farm (after parents' marriage in 1964)	Size of agricultural land: 11 ha owned (3.5 ha orchards, 1.5 ha vineyards, the rest fields); 8-10 livestock (cows and horses); agricultural machinery (none)
Other: older sister (42) married off the farm	Her family occasionally gives and receives some help
Other: transformation to a tourist farm in 1976	First adaptation of an old farm house into a guest house with a three-room capacity - the first tourist farm in Slovenia: the tourist farm as subsidiary occupation
II. Background information for Cases 4-6 (Non-beneficiaries of the SYF in ER and without a secured successor)
Case 4: Car Family
Owner/status on the family farm	Farm owner and operator since 1995 Wife: partly employed on the farm, partly in subsidiary occupation (sewing) Younger daughter: currently unemployed (before: employed in the state textile firm Mura in Murska Sobota) Younger daughter's partner: currently unemployed (before: employed in a private motor mechanic firm in Austria)
Age/Education	Farm operator 58/ Secondary School for Agriculture Wife 55/ Vocational School for Sewing Younger daughter 31/ Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (Programme: Design and Textile Materials) Younger daughter's partner 32/ Vocational School for Car Mechanics in Austria
Living arrangements	House: farm operator with his wife and younger daughter with her partner and two sons (6 and baby under 1) Total number of FF members: 6
Farm (now)	Size of agricultural land: 40 ha (18 ha owned, 22 ha rented); 30-50 breeding pigs and 1000 porkers; agricultural machinery (four tractors with several attachments); 200 hours of hired labour per year
Farm (after operator's father took over in 1947)	Size of agricultural land: 10 ha owned (3.5 ha forest); 10-15 livestock (cows and horses); agricultural machinery (none)
Other: older daughter's family across the street	Older daughter's family (daughter (32) with husband (42), son (16) and daughter (11)) lives in a house across the street (20 metres away) and occasionally gives and receives some help
Case 5: Kučan Family
Owner/status on the family farm	Farm operator and not the owner since 1989 Wife: currently unemployed (before: employed in the state textile firm Mura in Murska Sobota) Son: currently waiting for confirmation of a disability pension (before: employed in a private joiner's in Murska Sobota) Son's wife: employed off the farm (in a private textile firm in a neighbouring county) - refused to be interviewed Daughter: currently on maternity leave (before: employed in a construction firm in Murska Sobota) Daughter's husband: employed off the farm (in the private metal industry firm in a neighbouring county)
Age/Education	Farm operator 49/ Vocational School for Car Mechanics Wife 47/ Vocational School for Sewing Son 27/ Secondary School for Wood and Technology Son's wife / Daughter 24/ Secondary School of Economic Daughter's husband 25/ Secondary School of Electro-technology
Living arrangements	Old house: parents (father and mother) with son's family (a couple and two children: son (8), daughter (6)) and daughter's family (a couple and 9-month-old baby) New house (20 metres away): still empty but built for son's family Total number of FF members: 9
Farm (now)	Size of agricultural land: 9 ha (5 ha owned, 4 ha rented); 8 cows; agricultural machinery (tractor with several attachments)
Farm (after parents' marriage in 1956)	Size of agricultural land: 6 ha (1 ha forest, 1 ha grassland, the rest fields); 8 cows; agricultural machinery (none)
Other: sister (44) married to a farm of brother's wife (cross-marriage)	Both families help each other
Other: farm operator's mother the owner	Mother (73) lives with her partner in Murska Sobota
Case 6: Zerdin Family
Owner/status on the family farm	Farm operator and the owner since 1986 Husband: employed off the farm (at first, 29 years in Mura, now, in a private horticulture firm in Murska Sobota) Son: employed off the farm (in a private horticulture firm in Murska Sobota) Daughter: a student at university Mother: a retired farm woman
Age/Education	Farm operator 43/ Secondary School for Agriculture Husband 47/ Elementary School Son 27/ Secondary School of Electro-technology Daughter 24/ 1st year at the Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences Mother 69/ Elementary School
Living arrangements	Old house: farm operator's family and her mother New three-storey house (20 metres away): still incomplete Total number of FF members: 5
Farm (now)	Size of agricultural land: 11.5 ha (2.5 ha forest, 2 ha grassland, the rest fields); 16 cows; agricultural machinery (2 tractors with 2 attachments)
Farm (after parents' marriage in 1959)	Size of agricultural land: 10 ha (3 ha forest, 2 ha grassland, the rest fields); 13 livestock (4-5 cows, 5 calves, 2 horses, 1 breeding pig); agricultural machinery (none)
POVZETEK
Razvoj kmetijstva v Sloveniji je usmerjen v trajnostno, večnamensko kmetovanje. Toda po velikosti majhna in razpršena kmečka gospodarstva in njihova nizka stopnja produktivnosti uvrščajo Slovenijo med članice EU z najbolj neugodno kmetijsko strukturo. Cilj nedavno vpeljanih ukrepov zgodnjega upokojevanja kmetov in pomoči mladim prevzemnikom kmetij je ravno izboljšanje kmetijske produktivnosti. Toda, koga sta ukrepa dejansko nagovorila? V prispevku avtorica presoja nekatere rezultate antropološkega terenskega dela, ki je bilo izpeljano leta 2009 v Prekmurju, v regiji z najbolj ugodnimi pogoji za kmetovanje. Raziskava skuša pojasniti razlike in podobnosti družinskih kmetij, ki so prejemnice pomoči z naslova obeh ukrepov in take, ki niso prejemnice pomoči. Pol-strukturirani intervjuji vključujejo vsebine o zgodovini kmetije in organizaciji dela na kmetiji z vidika generacij in spola. Rezultati kažejo, da sta ukrepa nagovorila kmetije, ki so bistveno povečale velikost kmetijskih površin, število glav živine in stavbnih kapacitet, ko je mlad gospodar prevzel kmetijo. Te kmetije so tudi bolje opremljene (mehanizirane) in na njih je polno zaposlenih več članov družine v primerjavi s kmetijami, ki niso prejemnice pomoči. Kmetije, prejemnice pomoči, so imele zagotovljenega naslednika; državna pomoč je pospešila predajo kmetije s starejše na mlajšo generacijo. Obe vrsti opazovanih kmetij se ne razlikujeta v organizaciji dela po spolu. Delitev opravil med generacijami in spoloma se na splošno razlikuje glede na opazovano obdobje (politični režim), še posebej pa se je uveljavila z uvedbo traktorjev. Skrb za ostarele in otroke je delovna domena žensk vseh opazovanih generacij.
KLJUČNE BESEDE: družinske kmetije, pomoč mladim prevzemnikom kmetij, zgodnje upokojevanje, generacije, spol, Slovenija
CORRESPONDENCE: DUŠKA KNEŽEVIC HOČEVAR, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Sociomedical Institute, Novi trg 2, P.O. Box 306, 1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia. E-mail: duska@zrc-sazu.si.
The prevalence of excess weight and obesity in Slovenian children and adolescents from 1991 to 2011
Marjeta Kova~
University of Ljubljana, marjeta.kovac@fsp.uni-lj.si
Gregor Jurak
University of Ljubljana, gregor.jurak@fsp.uni-lj.si
Bojan Leskosek
University of Ljubljana, bojan.leskosek@fsp.uni-lj.si
Abstract
The proportion of overweight children and adults has been growing rapidly in recent years in many European and other countries. The survey examined excess weight and obesity in a population of Slovenian boys and girls aged seven through eighteen from 1991 to 2011 with the use of an annually repeated cross-sectional study of data from the SLOFIT fitness evaluation system. The BMI cut-off points of the International Obesity Taskforce were used to identify excess weight and obesity. During 1991-2011 period, excess weight and obesity have become clearly more prevalent in Slovenian children. The proportion of excess weight and obesity is more obvious in boys than in girls, especially among adolescents, although the increase has been similar in both sexes (overweight boys 13.3% in 1991 vs. 19.9% in 2011; overweight girls 12.0% vs. 17.2%; obese boys 2.7% vs. 7.5%; obese girls 2.1% vs. 5.5%). In recent years, the prevalence of excess weight and obesity among 9- to 13-year-old boys and 8- to 12-year-old girls is around two to three times higher than at the age of eighteen. Also notable is a high rate (around 4%) of obese girls and boys at the ages 17 and 18 in 2011, which is approximately two times higher than in previous years, while the rate of excess weight and obesity among 7-year-old children of both sexes is the same (among those overweight) and a little lower (among those obese) compared with 2006.
KEYWORDS: public health, excess weight, BMI, secular trend, epidemic, gender differences, Slovenia
ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTEBOOKS 18 (1): 91-103. ISSN 1408-032X
© Slovene Anthropological Society 2012
Introduction
There is little doubt that the extensive change in people's lifestyles and the use of modern technology also influence the physical development of children and youth (Ferreira et al. 2007; Jurak 2006; Ortega et al. 2011; Pusnik & Starc 2008; Pusnik 2007; 2008; Rychtecky 2007; van Der Horst et al. 2007). Unsuitable eating habits and a lack of movement result in excess weight and obesity (Daniels et al. 1999; Hills, Andersen & Byrne 2011; Olds et al. 2011; Steinbeck, 2001) that are reaching epidemic proportions in the developed world (Armstrong, Lambert & Lambert 2011; Godina 2011; Garnett, Baur & Cowell 2011; Ogden et al. 2012; Sjoberg & Hulthen 2011; Starc & Strel 2010; Starc & Strel 2011; Vuorela, Saha & Salo 2011).
Obesity is a multifactorial disease with a complex aetiology (Manios & Costarelli 2011) that holds many health consequences. As well as increased mortality, obesity is a risk factor in a range of chronic diseases, such as Type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes (Hannon et al. 2005; Mihalik et al. 2012), coronary heart disease, some types of cancer, osteoarthritis and back pain (Daniels et al. 1999; Manios & Costarelli 2011; Mokdad et al. 2003). Some childhood obesity consequences - hyper-insulinaemia, poor glucose tolerance and a raised risk of Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnoea, social exclusion and depression - begin in childhood, while other obesity-related diseases emerge in adulthood (Lobstein, Baur & Uauy 2004; Khang & Lynch 2011). Obesity also has social and psychological consequences — including stigmatisation, discrimination and prejudice. Researchers have linked obesity with a low self-image, low self-confidence and depression (Lobstein et al. 2004; Storch et al. 2007).
Overweight and obese children have a greater risk of becoming overweight or obese young adults (Ekblom et al. 2009; Angbratt et al. 2011). Starc and Strel (2010) reported that height, weight and BMI at 18-years old Slovenian were well predicted from childhood and became more predictable with age. The history of their weight shows that 40.0% of males and 48.6% of females who were obese at 18 years had already been obese at seven years of age.
Obese children under three years of age without obese parents are at a low risk of obesity in their adulthood but, among older children, obesity is an increasingly important predictor of adult obesity regardless of whether one's parents are obese (Whitaker et al. 1997). About 70% of obese adolescents grow up to become obese adults (Parsons et al. 1999). Singh et al. (2008) systematically reviewed the literature and updated evidence concerning the persistence of childhood excess weight. The majority of reviewed studies consistently reported a moderately increased risk of overweight and obese youth becoming overweight adults.
The mechanism of obesity development is not fully understood and is believed to be a disorder with multiple causes. It is confirmed that obesity occurs when energy intake exceeds energy expenditure, suggesting a proper diet and physical activity are the key strategy for controlling the current epidemic of obesity (Dehghan, Akhtar-Danesh & Merchant 2005). Genetic factors influence the susceptibility of a given child to an obesity-conducive environment. However, environmental factors, lifestyle preferences and the cultural environment also seem to play major roles in the rising prevalence of obesity worldwide (Ferreira et al. 2007; Stamatakis et al. 2005; Steinbeck 2001).
There is a wide variety of definitions of child obesity, and no commonly accepted standard has yet emerged. Although less sensitive than skin-fold thickness, the body mass
index (BMI; weight/height2) is widely used in adult populations and a cut-off point of 25 kg/ m2 and 30 kg/m2 is an internationally recognised definition of adult excess weight and obesity (Malina & Katzmarzyk 1999). The International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) proposed age-and sex-specific cut-off points from 2 to 18 years that are internationally based and should help provide internationally comparable prevalence rates of excess weight and obesity in children (Cole et al. 2000; Wang & Lobstein 2006). Despite certain limitations of the BMI (Freedman et al. 2005; Matusik, Malecka-Tendera, & Klimek 2007; Starc & Strel 2011), WHO recommends it as a measure of fatness in children for public health screening (De Onis, 2004). Furthermore, in a study of Swedish schoolchildren aged 8 to 11 years (Dencker et al. 2007), a very high linear correlation was found between BMI and both total (r=0.95 for girls and r=0.94 for boys) and abdominal fat mass (r=0.95; r=0.93). The authors suggested that BMI serves as a good surrogate marker for obesity in population studies.
A number of studies on the prevalence of obesity in European children and adolescents in different years after 1990 showed (Lobstein et al. 2004) that the prevalence of overweight (including obese) children aged around 7 to 11 years (using the IOTF cut-off points) was especially high in southern Europe (Italy 36%, Spain 34%, Greece 31%), and substantially lower in northern Europe (Holland 12%, Denmark 15%, Germany 16%). Among adolescents aged around 14 to 17 years, the prevalence ranged from below 10% (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Russia) to above 20% in some southern countries (Cyprus 23%, Greece 22%, Spain 21%).
There are differences in obesity prevalence between boys and girls, e.g. some studies conducted on British (Peckham et al. 1983; Stamatakis et al. 2005), Italian (Maffeis, Talamini & Tato 1998), Spanish (Moreno et al. 1998), Swedish (Holmback et al. 2007) and Turkish (Yuca et al. 2010) sub-populations showing higher prevalence among girls. In contrast, the data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey (Currie et al. 2004) indicated that more boys than girls were overweight. Additionally Vuorela et al. (2011) reported on a higher rate of excess weight and obesity in Finish boys.
In Slovenia, the percentage of overweight and obese children and adolescents has increased dramatically in recent decades, especially in younger age groups (Avbelj et al. 2005; Kovač, Leskošek & Strel 2007; Leskošek, Strel & Kovač 2010; Planinšec & Fošnarič 2009; Starc & Strel 2011). Starc and Strel (2011) reported that the changes in physical growth in the last 70 years have been substantial among 11- to 19-year-old children and adolescents from Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia; their BMI increased on average by 32.6% among boys and 21.4%, among girls, respectively. Additionally, this data shows that, for example, 11-year-olds from 2011 are taller and heavier than 13-year-olds from 1939, which can be a proof that the maturation processes of contemporary children starts around three years earlier than 70 years ago.
The main purpose of the study was to analyse the prevalence of excess weight and obesity in children and adolescents on the basis of BMI, according to sex and age after the independence of Slovenia in 1991.
Methodology
Sample of measured subjects
The repeated cross-sectional sample (Figure 1) consists of all boys and girls who enrolled in the SLOFIT system (Strel et al. 1997) from 1991, the year of independence from the former Yugoslavia (between 150,000 and 250,000 subjects every year). Information onbirth dates was obtained from schools' records. Measurements were held annually in April during physical education classes in all Slovenian schools. They were organised in school gyms between 8.00 and 14.00. Only healthy boys and girls who were not exempt from physical education for health reasons and whose parents had given their written consent to participate in the measurements were included. All measurements have been conducted by trained physical education teachers who had completed a 3 0-hour course in anthropometric measurement during their studies, according to the standard protocol. Subjects were barefoot in their shorts and T-shirts. Weight was measured with a pre-calibrated portable scale of various brands, to the nearest 0.1 kg and height with stadiometers of various brands, to the nearest 0.1 mm. Data were checked to detect coding errors.
After 1996, when new education legislation was accepted, only students having the written consent of their parents have been included. As a result of the birth rate having decreased after independence of Slovenia to 2003 (Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, 2008, 55) a smaller number of students was measured until 2008. Between 1996 and 2011, slightly less than 95% of primary school boys and girls below the age of 15 were measured, whereas the proportion of high-school boys and girls (16 to 18 years) was between 60 and 84%, depending on the type of high school (Starc, Strel & Kovač 2010).
Figure 1: Sample structure by age of subjects (above) and year of observation (below)
Data analysis
Data were analysed with the use of the SPSS 18.0 statistical package. The prevalence of excess weight and obesity were determined according to the IOTF cut-off points (Cole et al. 2000) separately for age (7- to 18-years old), sex and the year of measurement (1991 to 2011). Confidence intervals (CI) for the proportions were computed using the Collett formula (1991).
Results
When the entire sample is considered, irrespective of the boys' and girls' ages, the proportions of overweight and obese children and adolescents are almost steadily growing from 1991 to 2011 (Figure 2). In the observed period, the proportion of overweight boys grew from 13.3% in 1991 to 19.9% in 2011, whereas the proportion of overweight girls increased from 12.0% to 17.2%. The percentage of obese boys increased from 2.7% in 1991 to 7.5% in 2011, whereas the percentage of obese girls increased from 2.1% to 5.5%.
Between 1991 and 2011, a 95% CI width for the overweight proportion ranges from 1.1% to 2.9% in boys, and 1.1% to 2.8% in girls, but in most cases do not exceed 2%. A 95% CI width for the obese proportion ranges from 0.5% to 1.7% in boys and 0.4% to 1.4% in girls, but it only exceeds 1.3% in two out of 504 cases (year/age combinations).
20%
15% -
5%
s	0%
1-	
<11	
s	7%
(U	
CL	6%
	5% -
	4% -
	3%
	2%
	1%
	0% -
Year
Sex
| boys girls

Figure 2: Prevalence of excess weight and obesity in Slovenian youth from 1991 to 2011 by sex
In all observed years, the percentages of overweight and obese boys were higher than the percentage of girls. In most recent decade (Figure 2), we observed an especially higher rate among obese boys compared with obese girls (2001: 4.7% boys vs. 3.3% girls; 2011: 7.5% vs. 5.5%). During the observed period, the main differences among sexes are seen among overweight adolescents aged 14 to 18 (Figure 3).
The prevalence of excess weight and obesity among girls is highest in childhood and early adolescence, where it is around two to three times higher than at the age of eighteen. The same pattern is seen among obese boys, while among overweight boys the lowest percentage is seen at ages 7 to 9 (Figure 3).
I B*


/A

♦ v
Year
—	1991
—	1996
—	2001 - - 2006 — 2011
7 B 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1$ 17 IS 7
Age (years)
9 10 11 12 13 11 IS 16 17 18
Figure 3: Secular trends of excess weight and obesity by different ages and sexes (years 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011)
In recent years, it has been observed that the 9- to 13-year age group represents the largest proportion of overweight and obese boys (28.4% to 31.4%), whereas among girls the highest proportions of the overweight and obese are observed among the 8- to 12-year age group (25.0% to 27.1%). The proportion of overweight young people starts to decrease after the age of 11 until 18 in girls and 12 until 15 in boys. The percentage of obese girls decreases from the age of eight; the same pattern was seen among obese boys between 1991 and 2006, while in 2011 the percentage increases from seven to twelve and then decreases. Until the age of 18, in both sexes the percentage of obese children decreases to less than half of its maximal value.
The comparison of five-year periods (1991-1996-2001-2006-2011) shows that the highest increase of proportion of overweight girls and obese boys and girls is observed between 2006 and 2011, while among overweight boys the highest increase was seen between 2001 and 2006.
While in the 1991-2006 period the proportion of the obese population of both sexes had been decreasing from around 7-year-old to 18-year-old, in 2011 we observed the high increasing rate from 7- to 12-years old boys, followed by the decrease until the age of 18. In 2011, the proportion of obese girls had been decreasing with two exceptions: slightly increasing rates have been observed between ages 7 and 8, and 17 and 18. Also notable is a high rate (around 4%) of obese girls and boys at the ages 17 and 18 in 2011, which is around two times higher than in previous years. In 2011, the rate of excess weight and obesity among 7-year-old children of both sexes is the same (among the overweight) and a little lower (among the obese) compared with 2006.
Discussion
The percentage of overweight and obese boys and girls in Slovenia has been rising almost constantly every year from 1991 to 2011, with the only real exception at the beginning of the studied period (in 1992), which is probably due to establishment of the new state of Slovenia in 1991. In that year, a significant migration of the population occurred, accompanied by the introduction of a new currency, the loss of important markets in parts of former Yugoslavia and the transition from a socialist to a capitalist economic system, resulting in economic instability (Pusnik & Starc 2008). Between 2010 and 2011, the prevalence of excess weight and obesity may have reached a plateau as in other countries (Ogden et al. 2010; Stamatakis et al. 2010).
The prevalence of excess weight and obesity, its secular trends and pattern of changes from childhood to adolescence in Slovenia are similar to those in many other countries in Europe and the rest of the world, with some exceptions. Between 1991 and 2011, the most prominent change took place in 9- to 13-year-old Slovenian boys and 8- to 12-year-old girls. Holmback et al. (2007) reported that in 2002 more 10-year-old Swedish girls and boys were overweight/obese compared with 1982, although the increase was larger in girls; but no difference was seen in the 16-year-old sample. In Slovenia, the increase was larger in boys at all age groups. In the USA, trend analyses over a 12-year period (Ogden et al. 2012) indicated a significant increase in obesity prevalence between 1999 and 2000 and 2009 and 2010 in males aged 2 through 19 years (odds ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.01-1.10) but not in females (odds ratio, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.98-1.07) per two-year survey cycle. There was a significant increase in BMI among adolescent males aged 12 to 19 years (P = .04) but not among any other age group or among females. In Slovenia, the increase between 1991 and 2011 was observed in both sexes and all measured age groups (7 through 18).
In Slovenia, obesity is rising at higher rates than excess weight as it has around three times higher in just 20 years. Also worrying is the status of the population older than 15 years (high-school students); namely, in the 2006-2011 period, a considerable increase in the proportion of obese young people was observed in comparison to previous periods. In 2007, a reduction in the hours for physical education lessons occurred in high school programmes; moreover, because of ill-conceived solutions (for example, inadequate provision of financial resources for extra-curricular sport programmes), the proportion of physically
active young people in these extra-curricular sport programmes has decreased (Kovač et al. 2011). At the same time, high school had to ensure hot meals for their students.
The proportion of children with excessive weight is high particularly in the period between the ages of 11 and 13, when young people have the best conditions available for sports activities in schools (physical education is taught by specialised physical education teachers in good working conditions with a smaller number of children in a group; lessons are carried out in sports halls and other specialised places, i.e. dance and fitness studios etc.) and still show an interest in free-time sports participation in sports clubs (Kovač et al. 2011). It can be concluded that the excessive weight seen in this period is connected with the transition to puberty, where an accelerated increase of height is still not observed although the body mass is already increasing (Manios & Costarelli 2011; Starc & Strel 2011). It can be concluded that excessive weight in the pre-pubertal period is more a result of the physical development and less of external conditions; in other words, the reference values of the IOTF for a specific age group are not particularly suitable. This anomaly of the BMI distribution found on the studied population is also characteristic of other populations (Rolland-Cachera et al. 1991). For this reason, Starc and Strel (2011) suggested that the nationally specific BMI cut-off points, based on more recent data than international references, would be appropriate for defining being underweight, being overweight and obesity in Slovenian school-aged population.
The increase in the proportion of both (excess weight and obese) groups in developed countries is a result of the different ways young people spend their free time; their characteristics are mainly physical inactivity (Riddoch et al. 2004; Hills et al. 2011; Olds et al. 2011) and inappropriate diets with energy-rich food and unsuitable eating habits (Helms 2007; Alexy, Sichert-Hellert & Kersting 2002). Also in Slovenia the volume of free-time physical activities gradually decreases with age (Jurak 2006; Strel et al. 2007) and the food intake pattern of Slovenian adolescents deviates markedly from a healthy eating pattern (Kobe et al. 2012). Although we cannot infer causality from this study, our results may indicate that changes in the environment have not similarly affected all age groups.
The findings about differences between boys and girls in obesity rates as defined by body mass index are generally inconsistent (Holmback et al. 2007; Maffeis et al. 1998; Moreno et al. 1998; Peckhamet al. 1983; Stamatakis et al. 2005; Vuorela et al. 2011; Yuca et al. 2010). However, in all observed years the percentages of overweight and obese Slovenian boys were higher than the percentage of girls, which is similar with to data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey (Currie et al. 2004). These may result from differences in biology (sex differences) or those assumed to be due to society or culture (gender differences), or a combination of the two (Krieger 2003).
There are some limitations of the study. Although the sample is large, it is not a probability sample of all boys and girls aged 7 to 18 years in Slovenia. Specifically, after 1996 (when new education legislation was accepted) only healthy students wishing to participate and having the written consent of their parents are included. Nevertheless, the same limitations apply even with probability sampling; further, the sampling procedure was the same throughout the study. Therefore, there is no reason for the described trends
not to apply to the entire population. However, there is some reason to believe that the prevalence of excess weight and especially obesity are in fact even a little higher in the population than as described in this study, since obese pupils are probably less likely to participate (Andersen et al. 2007).
Conclusion
Clearly the prevalence of excess weight and obesity is also taking on epidemic proportions in Slovenia. Obesity is growing at higher rates than excess weight, as it is almost three times higher among both sexes than just 20 years before. The introduction of television and the telephone decades ago has undoubtedly influenced the everyday practices of physical activity of the entire Slovenian population (Pušnik & Starc 2008; Pušnik 2007; 2008). Warnings about these negative trends have been issued for a significant period; unfortunately without success. Particularly in 2007 a reduction in the hours for physical education lessons occurred in high school programmes. Therefore, sports teachers and health workers are calling for an increase and not a decrease in the number of physical education lessons and improved access to free extracurricular sports programmes (Kovač et al. 2011). However, it is also vital that parents ensure healthy eating habits and limit children's time spent in front of TV and computer screens.
Further, certain measures that could contribute to a better status are also being suggested: the removal of vending machines offering unhealthy snacks from high school premises, safeguarding the school neighbourhood so that children can walk or cycle to and from school, maintenance of playgrounds near the school thus allowing for spontaneous physical activity, an improvement of educational norms (a smaller number of children per teacher) and an improvement in the quality of physical education in the first few years of education involving the combined teaching of form teachers and PE teachers (Jurak et al. 2011).
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POVZETEK
Delež otrok in odraslih s prekomerno telesno težo se je v zadnjih letih v številnih evropskih in drugih državah hitro povečeval. Raziskava je na podlagi presečnih študij preučila prekomerno telesno težo in debelost v populaciji slovenskih fantov in deklet, starih med sedem in osemnajst let, od leta 1991 do leta 2011 s pomočjo podatkovnega sistema SLO-FIT - športnovzgojni karton. Za ugotavljanje prekomerne telesne teže in debelosti so bili uporabljeni kriteriji International Obesity Taskforce. V obdobju med 1991 in 2011 so narasli deleži prekomerno težkih in debelih slovenskih otrok. Ta trend je bil bolj izražen pri dečkih kot pri dekletih, zlasti med mladostniki, čeprav je naraščanje podobno pri obeh spolih (delež prekomerno težkih fantov 13,3% v letu 1991 v primerjavi z 19,9% v letu 2011; delež prekomerno težkih deklet 12,0% v primerjavi s 17,2 %, delež debelih fantov 2,7% v primerjavi s 7,5%; delež debelih deklet 2,1% v primerjavi s 5,5%). V zadnjih letih je razširjenost prekomerne telesne teže in debelosti med 9- do 13-letnimi dečki in 8- do 12-letnimi dekleti približno dva-do trikrat večja kot v starosti osemnajst let. V letu 2011 je opazen tudi visok delež (okoli 4%) debelih deklet in fantov v starosti 17 in 18 let, kar je približno dvakrat več kot v preteklih letih, medtem ko je stopnja prekomerne telesne teže in debelosti med 7-letnimi otroki obeh spolov ostala enaka (med prekomerno telesno težkimi) ali se celo rahlo znižala (med debelimi) v primerjavi z letom 2006.
KLJUČNE BESEDE: javno zdravje, prekomerna teža, ITM, sekularni trend, epidemija, razlike med spoloma, Slovenija
CORRESPONDENCE: MARJETA KOVAČ, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Sport, Gortanova 22, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. E-mail: marjeta.kovac@fsp.uni-lj.si.
BOOK REVIEWS
Walkowitz, Daniel and Lisa Maya Knauer (eds.) 2009. Contested Histories in Public Space: Memory, Race and Nation. Durham and London: Duke University Press. 376 pp. Pb.: $24.95. IsBN: 9780822342366.
The popularity of the field of collective memory within the humanities and the social sciences undoubtedly reveals its social relevance, for histories and their representations constitute central sites of political struggle. Yet, the issue of how racial, ethnic, and national narratives are grounded in public sites and/or performances of commemoration also brings to the fore very important intellectual challenges.
This collection of essays, edited by an anthropologist and a historian, is the second of two volumes on history in public spaces - the other is entitled 'Memory and the Impact of Political Transformations in Public Space - and has its origins in a public memory project initiated in the pages of the Radical Historical Review journal.
The book focuses on contemporary research on issues related to public memory and commemoration practices - the ways in which discourse of the past is constructed and expressed in and through public memorials, heritage sites, monuments and other historical spaces - highlighting their contested nature in the face of what is broadly defined as postcolonial condition. The cases studied represent all the major regions of the world and reflect recurring themes and concerns that transcend particular national cultures; they range across 14 countries as diverse as Guadeloupe, Nepal, S. Africa, New Zealand, Britain, France, the USA and Mexico. Such a compilation of memory debates in different, postcolonial, geographical contexts is indeed very instructive for two main reasons; on the one hand it expands the understanding of public space, in so far as it explores not only heritage sites, monuments and other historical spaces, but also public performances, media, and texts. On the other, it illustrates the majority of trends currently underway within contemporary scholarship.
With its methodological and theoretical commitments found mainly within history and anthropology, this collection aims high. In the introduction, the editors, Walkowitz and Knauer, set out the conceptual scaffolding of this project. In acknowledging the importance of postcolonial theory as one of the forces that shape the formation of national cultures in today's world, they introduce the framework of the case studies to follow. The essays 'reflect the impact of postcolonial theory [...] in their interrogations of how race and empire are implicated, referenced, or obscured in the construction of national narratives' (p. 2). Appropriately subtitled 'memory, race and nation', the volume highlights 'the themes that evidence the impact of the imperial turn in public history sites' (p. 7).
And the historical moment for studying debates over history in the public sphere is indeed very acute: while contemporary wars go hand in hand with the acrimony experienced in public history debates, de-industrialisation and the advent of neoliberal policies have brought to the fore concepts such as the creative economy, in so far as cultural and historical sites are turned into touristic attractions.
In an attempt to systematically unravel the complexity of the struggles between modernist assumptions and postcolonial interpretations, the articles are grouped in four different, yet interrelated, thematic sections, providing the reader with distinct vantage points that aim to foreground the diverse positionalities and actors involved, as well as their interrelations and frictions.
In the first section, entitled 'First Things First', the cases of New Zealand's New National Museum (Macdonald), the Canadian Museum of Civilization (Phillips and Phillips), as well as Australia's public history debates (Ashton & Hamilton) emphasise the interrelations between indigenous groups and national institutions in three nations that still belong to the British Commonwealth.
In the second group of essays, the authors focus on two important imperial powers : the US and Britain. Entitled 'Colonial legacies and Winners' Tales' the section explores the ways in which these imperial powers negotiate their postcolonial situation, and unravels their attempts to accommodate diverse historical narratives. The specific cases examined here range from the British Library in Great Britain (Ghosh), to the Alamo site (Flores) and Ellis Island in the USA (Walkowitz).
The third section, 'State Stories', goes on to address the role of states in mediating or administering contested racialised histories, in areas such as education (Ecuador, Benavides), space (Mexico, Poole) and public monuments (S. Africa, Grunglingh).
In the final section, 'Understated Stories', light is shed more specifically on the contested and shifting nature of public histories with specific reference to the broad range of actors competing to reshape and redefine the polluted Kathmandu Valley river basin in Nepal (Rademacher), the Rio de Janeiro favela (Amar), the Afrocuban festive ethnoscape in the World Heritage Site of the old Havana town (Knauer), and the French Pantheon of national heroes (Dubois).
Taken together the contributions make a very interesting, but somehow not very convincing whole. Postcolonial theory is taken as a condition that shapes the form of national cultures, and its specificity is not sufficiently explored; for example, while the oversimplified (through omission) modernist narrative strategies developed in postcolonial settings can also be detected in non-postcolonial situations, the challenges the postcolonial condition might provide to the notion of 'heritage', or to the relationship between memory and history are not touched upon.
The collection is also exceptionally based in the present. In reflecting many of the shortcomings and challenges detected in the wider literature on collective memory (Kansteiner 2002), very few of the essays deal with long term historical processes - with the exception of the essay on post-colonialism in Australia and the article detailing the incorporation of two Afro-Caribbean champions of liberty into the French Pantheon - or manage to reflect on the audiences of particular representations. Furthermore, in reading exhibitions as texts to be interpreted, the emphasis is usually placed on outcomes, rather than on actual processes of reception, or on how specific, historically constituted, social collectivities relate to these emblematic spaces.
Despite these shortcomings, however, the volume is well crafted to reach a variety of audiences, including students, scholars and activists concerned with public history, memory studies more broadly, and most certainly anthropologists interested in unpacking the contested terrain of racial and national narratives in postcolonial settings.
ASPASIA THEODOSIOU Epirus Institute of Technology & Open University (Greece) University of Manchester (United Kingdom)
Kulpa, Robert and Joanna Mizielinska (eds.) 2011. De-Centering Western Sexualities. Central and Eastern European Perspectives. Surrey and Burlington: Ashgate. 219 pp. Hb.: €60.00. ISBN: 9781409402428.
From a vantage point situated outside the European domain altogether, this book provides interesting insights into how the term 'European' itself is internally fragmented especially with reference to the colonial terminology of 'metropolitan centre' and 'post-colonial periphery'; terms that the non-western world had thought described only them. The presence of a Central and East European (CEE) Other to the Anglo-American Self is noteworthy and educative for the South Asian and other non-western and colonised selves. The Western self is also being seen as increasingly represented by the American rather than the European, clearly stating the balance of power in the contemporary world.
Furthermore, the narrative of sexuality that challenges a hetero-normative public space is seen as chronologically constructed in the west leading to scholars in this volume challenging the linear and sequential time of the Anglo-American west with the coincidental or knotted time of the CEE that received the entire discourse in a package. Thus in CEE, the homosexual discourse entered not as something that evolved from the roots but as something that was representative of being 'progressive' or more civilised as an already established narrative. In this sense, the entire sequence of sexual liberation as the political equivalent of being developed follows the same logic as classical evolutionism that put certain traits as primitive only by comparison with the 19th century European world — Western Europe to be precise. In this sense, the western world drew a cultural line between the pre-1990 or Communist period and the post-1990 period that (according to them) was more 'progressive', having the core political economic values of the liberal economy forced upon this region and a blanket assumption of 'development', irrespective of the actual reality of greater patriarchy and racism.
The papers in this volume work around these central assumptions, taking microlevel studies from the various countries in this region. Interesting is the use of the abbreviation LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual), as Mizielinska indicates, B and T are only empty signifiers in the context of a yet-to-mature movement, that at present recognises only the first two. Thus, identity politics is based upon borrowed concepts that clearly indicate the source to be the external Western politically powerful self and the need to align to it.
The Western solidarity for the LGBT movement in CEE is seen as part of the politics of incorporation rather equality. Thus the problem of 'queer solidarity' is problematised in light of the differences based on race, class and gender, a difference that has already been felt by Third World women in the face of the feminist movement spearheaded by the West. However, as a case study from Poland demonstrates, at the local level intergroup solidarities are playing a key role in supporting the movement.
The scholars in this volume make use of very conventional anthropological approaches, such as investigating real situations of family and emotions in relationships and also making use of more generalised feminist and theoretical concepts like that of the 'transparent closet'. The volume goes beyond its immediate scope to interrogate various
theoretical concepts central to cultural understandings, such as of time, space and identity; of being inside and outside and of multi-levels of solidarity with those close and those distant.
It is indeed a matter of global politics for CEE members to find an identity for themselves, especially in light of post-1990 developments. The unique contribution of this volume is to bring something that one would have thought belongs to the private domain to the public domain of discourse formation, not about sexuality, but about an entire range of power equations and identity formation mechanisms.
However although this book sets up a difference and unequal power hierarchy between CEE and Western Europe within the discourse of colonisation, it makes this reviewer think that sexual politics is still a largely western issue. The very fact of sexuality entering the public domain is something that may be quite unrecognised in most parts of the non-western world. This very recognition puts this discourse within the western domain irrespective of its internal power hierarchy. In this sense, CEE falls in an intermediate zone between Anglo-American and the non-western, say the South Asian or the East Asian world, where such discourses still remain strictly in the private domain. This is a thought-provoking book with wide theoretical implications.
SUBHADRA MITRA CHANNA Delhi University (India)
Barcan, Ruth. 2011. Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Bodies, Therapies, Senses. oxford and New York: Berg. 224 pp. Pb.: £19.99. IsBN: 9781845207434.
This book is described on its covers as an examination of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), which arguably has intrinsic links with 'the pleasure-seeking drive of consumer culture as well as with spiritual and neo-liberal values'. The book is primarily a dialogue between the field of cultural theory and CAM. One of the important aims of the book, according to the author, is to expose CAM to the critical gaze, and to examine what CAM might contribute to the cultural theory. As the author believes that theory-driven cultural theory based on textual research methods has much to learn from CAM philosophies, which emphasise the experiential relationships of the body with all bodily senses, the book's chapters are organised as sensory sub-studies and discuss sight (including insight), sound (and vibrations), touch (bodywork) and 'sixth' sense, intuition.
The book starts with an erudite theoretical review on how cultural theory and especially the critics see CAM, including the therapies that are underpinned by arguably the weirdest ideology of them all: the New Age. Such an extensive and detailed review is necessary because the author herself is a consumer and an amateur practitioner of CAM and therefore has to 'prove' that she has not gone completely native (or (excuse the pun) far away with the fairies). The reader is therefore exposed to a long list of complaints against CAM: rampant individualism and neo-liberal insistence on self-reliance, lack of sociality, social conscience and engagements, and the lack of (professional) ethics.
Since Barcan does not critically engage with the criticisms favoured by cultural studies scholars until the very last part of the book, I was diligently noting discrepancies between her findings and the arguments of CAM critics. For example, CAM is apparently an overly individualistic neo-liberal phenomenon, yet in her chapter on sound Barcan discusses the importance of sounds (and music) in dissolving the individual's 'ego' to reach and unite with the cosmos. She mentions New Age music as a particularly popular genre. If the aim is the dissolution of the individual's boundaries and (spiritual) union with the cosmos, how can the criticism about the overtly individualist nature of CAM be sustained?
Nevertheless, this reviewer persisted in reading even though I found organisation of the book neither fruitful not helpful. Perhaps some of the arguments that she presents are a revelation to the scholars of cultural studies, but they are not particularly new to the anthropologists. For example, in a few places she writes that CAM practitioners mix and match their beliefs and practices from various cultural and spiritual traditions outside their original contexts and meaningful background. Yet eclecticism of practices is a hallmark characteristic of shamanic phenomena and practitioners who, similarly to CAM and New Age practitioners, can subvert and redefine conventional social relations precisely through cultural pastiche. Practitioners of shamanic phenomena show no loyalties to any cause and plead no allegiances. They are potentially politically subversive with their eclectic and syncretistic practices, and can easily sabotage existing understandings of social relations. The sociologist Giddens in his seminal work Modernity and Self-identity intuitively understands this when he argues that movements like CAM have a potential to challenge modernity. Unfortunately, Barcan just cites his short article and thus misses this point.
This reviewer found her jumping from cultural criticism to CAM and anthropology confusing, and she completely lost this reviewer in her discussion on what CAM modalities have to potentially offer to our understanding of rationality. Being a scholar of New Age, this scholar believes that CAM modalities, including those with New Age background, present themselves as an alternative knowledge system, yet they have to recognise the dominance of contemporary scientific discourse. This is evident in the CAM and New Age appropriation of scientific discourse - a fault which the author of this book is often guilty of. For example, she never forgets to mention scientific titles and educational degrees (MD, physics researcher etc.) of her CAM informants or those she cites, because such scientific titles are to give the aura of credibility to the claims of CAM. The author also implies that CAM science is so advanced that the mainstream science, except for perhaps apparently highly advanced psycho-neuro-immunology or quantum physics are unable to comprehend it. CAM 'science' has therefore conceptualised its knowledge system as 'avant-garde'. Whether CAM science indeed challenges mainstream rationality is open to discussion.
Nevertheless, Barcan's study has at least two important contributions. One potential strength of this book is methodological; the material for her book is based on her empirical work among several practitioners working in sometimes rather different modalities. This is important because there is a great lack of comprehensive studies of practitioners involved in diverse CAM practices. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the author's arguments is not based on her primary research among the practitioners or her considerable experience in CAM subculture(s), but on the analysis of written texts of authoritative CAM practitioners. Her decision for such an approach is not clear, and more details about her methodological approach would also be helpful to appropriately evaluate the methodological quality of the book.
Her second contribution is conceptual, even though it is perhaps more important for cultural theory than other disciplines. While recognising and taking into careful consideration of many of the legitimate criticisms raised against CAM, Barcan nevertheless points out that CAM practitioners also articulate their own ways of sociality, i.e. communities of 'inter-corporeal' practices characterised by networks of mutuality and care which might be bound by ethics of reciprocity. This reviewer wishes she was bolder in her conclusions and had put them on the book's cover.
BARBARA POTRATA
University of Leeds (United Kingdom)
Pardo-de-Santayana, Manuel, Andrea Pieroni and Rajindra K. Puri (eds.) 2010. Ethnobotany in the New Europe: People, Health and Wild Plant Resources. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. 394 pp. Pb.: $110.00/£65.00. ISBN: 1845454561.
It may come as a surprise to some, but Europe - the 'New Europe ' even more so - is a great place for ethnobotanists. Due to the geographically fragmented nature of the continent, it contains a rich biological diversity, which has been further enhanced by a wide range of human action and a subsequent diversity of anthropogenic habitats. Modernity has brought with it the decreasing use of wild plants and the disruption of traditions of local knowledge about them. However, the uses of wild plants still survive; better yet, they are being revitalised in many ways.
Such is the message, which sets an optimistic tone for this edited volume. Its contributors, largely ethnobotanists and ethnopharmacologists, and a couple of anthropologists, bring together studies of the dietary and medicinal uses of wild plants as well as botanical local knowledge and vernacular phytonymy across various European locales.
Why 'new Europe'? Because several cases from the former Eastern Europe have been taken into account (Albania, Bulgaria, Lithuania) and these countries reveal a striking vitality of human-plant relations. This is best exemplified by the chapter on the north Albanian mountain village by Andrea Pieroni who, as one of the editors, also sets up methodological framework shared by many, but not all contributors. Former communist countries (chapter by Hugo J. De Boer) have become important exporters of medicinal plants, with Bulgaria being the second largest in Europe in the 1990s (p. 108). Choosing a linguist and folklorist approach instead, Daiva Seskauskaite and Bernd Gliwa propose an ingenuous solution of a riddle linked with the Lithuanian word jovaras, thereby introducing the reader in the fascinating 'vegetal civilisation' transpiring through the Balto-Slavic linguistic substrate.
The resulting focus of the volume, though, is the Mediterranean Europe. Besides Albania and Bulgaria, southern European countries included in the volume are Austria (southern slopes of Tyrolean Alps, by Anja Christanell, Brigitte Vogl-Lukasser, Christian R. Vogl and Marianne Gütler), Malta (Timothy J. Tabone), Portugal (two chapters: Ana Maria Carvalho and Ramón Morales; Maria José Barâo and Alexandra Soveral Dias), Spain (again two chapters: Javier Tardío; Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana and Ramón Morales) and Italy (Sabine Nebel and Michael Heinrich). Overall, these chapters make up, both thematically and methodologically, the central body of the volume. Research topics include, among others, practices of gathering/harvesting and processing wild plants (with the gender division of labour and knowledge), motives for gathering, changing cultural and socio-economic contexts of gathering, botanical and medical knowledge of gatherers and their communities, culinary and medicinal uses of plants, recipes, folk beliefs about wild plants and their efficiencies, continuity of practices of gathering.
Some of these studies produced surveys of wild plants known, named and gathered in studied communities. In the Graecanic communities of Calabria, 48 wild food-plant species are being gathered at present (p. 176) while 57 vascular plants and 16 fungi species were recognised and referred to as traditional edible plants by the informants in north-eastern Portugal (p. 156). By contrast, not all wild plants recognised as edible are necessarily
being gathered. In Evora (Alentejo), a variety of thistle species grows and is described in literature as well as reported by others to have been used by the locals, but only one, the golden thistle (Scolymus hispanicus), was collected by the informants (p. 204). It was also the only one to be found in the local markets, which makes the authors consider the quality of the informants' knowledge of thistles. Yet these were all recruited at the markets, and since the thistle is nowadays widely sold at the local markets (already processed for cooking), this reductive knowledge might be just a reflection of commercial 'simplification'. Besides the golden thistle, there are other plants, studied in other chapters that were recently reinvented and 'gentrified'. By their propensity to become 'geographically indicated', the wild plants seem to follow the logic of the cultivated products of European terroirs.
This brings us to the topic of the boundary between the wild and cultivated. It is indicated in several chapters that the boundary between the two is blurred. Several chapters bring forward evidence of ' hybridising' practices such as introducing certain wild plants into one's own gardens or managing wild species, even 'semidomesticating' certain species (p. 53). Such empirical observation of the wild-domesticated hybridity will certainly be most welcome to anthropologists. Anthropologists should also appreciate the fact that scholars trained in life sciences strive towards bridging biological and sociocultural disciplines.
The chapters dealing with northern European locales, by contrast, tend to diverge from the central orientation in several directions. Similarly to the above-mentioned chapter on Lithuania, Veerle Van den Eynden, writing about plant symbolism in Scotland, keeps apart symbolism from materialism, 'good for thinking' from 'good for eating'. Another direction is taken by Jenny L. McCune, whose study of the plant knowledge and grassland management practices of English livestock farmers nevertheless shares with others the interest in local knowledge about plants. This is not to imply that diverging chapters are not inherently valuable. Christine Wildhaber's contribution, which compares rural and urban allotments in Kent, shares with many others the orientation towards 'investigating back yards and urban environments' (p. 112). The same applies to the chapter by Andrea Pieroni et al. on the medicinal uses of wild plants among the Bangladeshi in West Yorkshire. This chapter is to be saluted as the only study of an immigrant community's plant uses. As such, it raises several new issues. Torbjern Alm and Marianne Iversen's chapter on Norway's Rosmarin (Rhododendron tomentosum) is thematically in tune with the chapters dealing with southern Europe.
Throughout the volume, frequent references to the traditions of gathering wild plants that are generally disappearing yet also being retained, and even becoming revived, reveal an implicit notion of the tradition that is basically modernist and simultaneously survivalist. This un-reflexive notion is often accompanied with the adverb 'still', e.g., '... the past and contemporary uses of wild plant resources, which despite decades in decline still play an important role...' (p.1). While anthropologists might find this notion of tradition inadequate and somewhat dated, this reviewer finds it much more important that, at least in this field, life scientists and social scientists seem to converge in some essential regards. For that reason alone, the volume deserves to be recommended.
BOJAN BASKAR
University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Per Axelsson and Peter Skold (eds.). 2011. Indigenous Peoples and Demography. The Complex Relation Between Identity and Statistics. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. 354 pp. Hb.: $120.00/£75.00. ISBN: 9780857450005.
Indigenous people of the world have been active both in claiming their rights and in indigenous politics. Since the 1990s, they have shown their indigeneity and defined it in their own ways more openly. In Brazil, for instance, when self-definition emerged as the basis of the demographic census, the size of the indigenous population more than doubled. The biggest increase was in urban areas and outside the Amazon region. Indigenous people even form majorities in some countries, such as Bolivia and Guatemala, and thus are important actors. Yet, they are still one of the most marginalised populations of the world, for instance lacking education and health services.
World demographic records treated indigenous peoples very differently, a crucial reason being disagreement over who constitute indigenous people. The volume under review discusses different political and cultural influences behind indigenous enumeration. It also looks at different geographical locations and historical periods. Indigenous people have been understood differently, varying from definitions emphasising essentialism, colonialism, history, indigenous values, proximity with environment, mobility, or domination as their crucial attributes. Moreover, nation states in different parts of the world have had varying motivations for enumerating the indigenous population, such as state taxation or warfare, but also designing specific health care, social services and education policies. Furthermore, different administrative units at the state level, such as church and demographic registrations, have had their own motives. Sometimes indigenous people have also been difficult to reach on account of their mobility, and thus may have been registered several times over in different states.
The book deals with different categories in indigenous demography and the use of these classifications, varying methods and collected demographic data. These issues are related to identity questions. Identities are formed through relations and therefore they change. Categorising difficulties have also emerged as a result of such multiple identities. For instance, the self-definition of indigenous populations continues to be a factor rarely taken into account when designing demographic statistics.
The authors are researchers from different backgrounds: anthropology, history, demography, health research, indigenous studies, economics, political sciences and Latin American studies. The lengthy time period that the book attempts to cover, from the colonial era to the present, leaves the volume with a certain imbalance. Some geographical areas are only examined from the perspective of the colonial past, the post-colonial times or the present. Of course it is impossible to include an in-depth analysis of all periods in the same volume, given the wide overall coverage, but it would at least be a more reader-friendly approach to mention the present situation in many of the articles.
The volume is set out in chronological order. The first articles examine Australia (L. Smith et al.), New Zealand (T. Kukutai), Latin America (S. Saether) and North America (J. D. Hacker and M. Haines, M. Hamilton and K. Inwood). These articles in particular scarcely examine the present time. The article on Latin America looks at Columbia in
colonial times and the early Hispanic period; even a brief mention of the recent changes would be interesting.
Almost one third of volume's articles deal with northern Scandinavian peoples, especially the Sami (P. Axelsson, L. I. Hansen, H. Jastad, B. Evjen, G. Thorvaldsen, T. Pettersen). As the book's editors are Swedish, this is no surprise. These articles discuss the enumeration of northern indigenous people from the eighteenth century to today, especially Sami demography in Sweden and Norway.
Indigenous people of Russia are studied at in the three following articles (D. Anderson, J. Ziker, S. Sokolovskiy). From the anthropological point of view, the article of David G. Andersson on the Lake Essei Iakuts in Siberia stands out. By combining anthropological fieldwork data on communal living with a statistical analysis of households, he shows how the Essei Iakuts organised themselves in extended families, rather than nuclear family units, for mutual assistance. The household records produced by the national census should be read in various ways, but can offer more accurate information on different units of community and socio-economic relations.
The concluding articles examine different resident populations in Latvia (A. Plakans) and Britain (J. MacInnes). They give fascinating new insights into how ethnic categories have been used and how people consider themselves 'indigenous' people.
Despite the multi-disciplinary approach and the extensive historical coverage are certainly a boon, the variety of different research traditions, combined with the fact that demographic statistics and indigenous people have not been a particular focus earlier in the volume, means that the reader lacks a clear research focus. Even though the subtitle of the book refers to identity and statistics, questions of identity are not discussed in all the chapters. Identity issues are encompassed in the Epilogue, written by Axelsson, Skold Ziker and Andersson, that endeavours to offer a synthesis of this interdisciplinary book and the identity issues related to indigenous peoples' surveys in various geographical areas at different points of history. Nation states have often used stereotypical essentialist categories with rigid borders, but at times indigenous people also categorised themselves in the ways that could be more favourable for them. Government statistics have rarely given a realistic picture of people who identify themselves as indigenous, and hence, as the book concludes, there is a crucial need for more indigenous scholars, and for insights offered by indigenous people themselves.
PIRJO KRISTIINA VIRTANEN
University of Helsinki (Finland)
Gregg, Melissa. 2011. Work's Intimacy. Maiden: Polity Press. 200 pp. Pb.: £14.99/€18.00. ISBN: 9780745650289.
Work's Intimacy is a well written, easily readable book based on an exhaustive empirical research among various types of middle-class workers in Brisbane, Australia, working in the information, communication and education professions that are intrinsically connected with information technologies. It addresses the way in which labour 'colonises' all the spaces of human activity, and points out the personal, family and wider social tensions that emerge in a changing employment landscape. 'Work intimacy' is an expression that highlights increasingly the intimate relationship between workers and their labour. Online technologies have led to an always-present possibility of engaging with work and to a new form of affective labour, as well as blurring boundaries between work and home, work and entertainment, work and friendship. The book deals with these processes in which 'the work has broken out of office, downstairs to the cafe, in to the street, on to the train, and later still to the living room, dining room, and bedroom' (p. 1) and provides language to articulate their consequences.
Work Intimacy is result of a research conducted from 2007 to 2009 in Brisbane, Australia. Positioning the globally relevant issues and processes into concrete period of Brisbane history, in which the city gained important economic impetus, but also started feeling consequences of the global economic decline, the book provides the context for intimate stories of work on which the most of its narrative is built.
Preceded by a Preface and Introduction and followed by a Conclusion, the body of the book is divided into three sections. Each of the sections consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, the economic changes in Brisbane and their effects on people are described. Particular attention is paid to the image of 'frequent flier' and representations of possibilities offered by new technologies. The second chapter deals with the choice of workers to work from home and with factors they describe as important when choosing to work from home. 'Luxury to work from home' is invariably presented as a main feature of online technology. However, it contributed to blurring boundaries between work and leisure, between work hours and family life, creating a situation in which always being online implies preparedness to perform paid work beyond contracted hours, without employers' recognition. In this sense, work from home, in fact serves as a preparation for 'the mobile, multi-tasking, high-paced environment' of the contemporary capitalist workplace (p. 62). The third chapter addresses the issue of part-time, contract and student work and their consequences for workers' security and self-esteem. The author warns that the precarity and lack of security felt by part-time workers is assumed to be passing and a step leading to more predictable and secure employment, 'but from another perspective this situation may mark the beginning of much longer experience these workers are learning to navigate' (p. 63). The fourth chapter scrutinises the imperative of teamwork and focuses on the social dimensions that are part of the workload for professionals in information and communication industries. It shows that 'the social bonds developed between co-workers in the office are a contributing factor in extending work hours' (p. 85). Chapters five and six show that social networks facilitate demands of office life: 'Facebook friends and
messaging buddies take on the role of the collégial support when the workplace prevents such relationship from developing organically' (p. 100). In contrast, they show how organisations use social networks for product branding, and ask their employees to do the same, thus occupying the very space of friendship and solidarity that function as a support for isolated working conditions.
The last three chapters comprising the book's final section, move on to focus discussion on home and ways how 'work-related technology competes with the pleasures and demands of love and family and how in the battle between the two, it is work that often emerges the winner' (p. 122). The author also highlights that work-related relationships create their own intimacy that competes with the intimacy of home and family, causing that being at home is no longer a refuge from the pressures and concerns of the office. She demonstrates how 'love, romance and friendship are each reconfigured in the convergence of online technology and the long hours of the professional workplace' (p. 139). The last chapter is dedicated to those providing infrastructure to information and communication professionals, i.e. to the on-call staff. Their jobs invade their life to the extent that ordinary activities are rendered precarious, which highlights the fact that 'precarity is another manifestation of work's intimacy: its irrepressible invasiveness over one's thoughts, regardless of time or location, is symptomatic of the unpredictable nature of jobs increasingly facilitated by communications technology' (p. 155). In the book's conclusion, the author asks important question whether any kind of solidarity can emerge from understanding the shared conditions and consequences of labour in information professions. The author stresses necessity for organisations to take greater responsibility in redefining workloads, acknowledging cultures developed around online communication, as well as a need for greater self-reflexivity of workers themselves.
This is a timely and important book, which raises essential questions about work, lifestyle, emotions and intimacy in the era of online technologies. Ambiguities and contradictions of the intimate work are presented in an immediate way through the stories of several professionals. Simultaneously, the author calls for a labour politics that will fight the corporatisation of intimacy, and will look for visions that advance the production of the common and production of social life and avoid love's foreclosure in the institution of capital (p. 172). All the academics interested in this book will not only find the important scholarly discussion, but will also be made to rethink their own labour practices, priorities, and 'lives and loves' (xii). This mobilisation of readers for self-reflection and for rethinking our own world, in which discourses of achievement and accomplishment monopolised all spheres of life, and in which the imperative to love one's work implies a troubling freedom is the effect of this book, which is at least equally important as the scholarly discussions it will trigger.
TANJA PETROVIC
Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Slovenia)
Dinero, Steven C. 2010. Settling for Less: The Planned Resettlement of Israel's Negev Bedouin. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. 222 pp. Hb.: $70.00/£42.00. ISBN: 0891845458624.
In the previous twenty years, the lives of the Bedouin Arabs of Israel's Negev Desert have been transformed from primarily nomadic to now primarily settled, into purpose-built towns. The result has not been quite as drastic as the situation for Native American and Canadian Indians nor of Australia's Aboriginal people. In these cases, those forced off their traditional lands into cheap Westernised reserves have lost touch with their own cultures and too many have resorted to alcohol abuse. This particular problem is not mentioned among many difficulties that have faced the Bedouin in their resettlement.
As the aims of the Israeli state concerning Bedouin resettlement have changed, so have the unanticipated consequences, also varied, and some problematic, from both Jewish and Bedouin Israeli perspectives.
Steven Dinero spent fifteen years studying the development of the planned Bedouin new towns, and accompanies his findings with detailed statistical analyses. He notes that initially resettlement was without Bedouin consultation, though this has changed slightly. Prior to Israel's l948 War of Independence, seven major Bedouin tribes (60,000-90,000 individuals) lived in the Negev. Two tribes moved to better quality grazing lands; of the rest, the majority fled to adjoining countries, leaving approximately 11,000 in the Negev, mainly of the Azazmeh tribe (the main focus of Dinero's study), and a few Tarabeen. The Bedouin were required by government decree to live in a specific area (siyag) one tenth the size of their original nomadic region. An early explanation for evacuating them (and expropriating their land) was that it was a 'natural' development in moving from 'traditionalism' to 'modernity'. Israel imposed authority through Bedouin chiefs, moving families from their desert homes into new towns built within the siyag.
The author discusses the changes in attitudes of those being moved; changes of service provision, especially of clinics and schools, within the new towns, and the effects of change over decades. By 2007, the town Rahat, created in the late 1960s, had become the largest Bedouin community in the world. Throughout the 1980s, resettlement continued, frequently imposed by force; in the 1990s more were enticed by the promise of the better life resulting from improved schools and clinics. By the 2000s there were still several thousand Bedouin residing in tents in the Negev; but a decade later tents could only be seen as tourist attractions. In place of tents, those who remain living the desert homes, against government law and subject to instant demolition, inhabit shacks, outside the siyag (in the area known as the pezurah).
The natural growth rate of 5.5% for the Negev Bedouin population causes a strain on their already greatly diminished household space. Those who have grown up in the new towns are found to have higher expectations from life and are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with being second-class Israeli citizens. Another social tension is caused by forcing together, in close proximity, the marginalised group of Tarabeen, descendants of black slaves to the Azazmeh, and the Azazmeh themselves. By 2000, elections were held
in four of the Bedouin towns, giving them meaningful leadership roles for the first time. Dinero's interviews highlight the wide-ranging ambiguities and conflicts felt concerning the transformation of Bedouin life. He considers various aspects of quality of life for Bedouin living at all three stages (pezurah, siyag and new towns), and notes the complicating factor of communal versus individual quality of life. He finds that many express a sense of loss of the old way of life, but that women are less dissatisfied with town life than men, in spite of the fact that there has been an increase in illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease probably due to less healthy diet and a new less active way of life. Furthermore, the closer proximity of families has led to the spread of tuberculosis. The Bedouin of Israel constitute probably the most educated Bedouin population in the entire Middle East (p. l06); however, with the improved education comes also an increased sense of disenfranchisement as they become all the more aware of Israel's disparity concerning educational opportunities.
Bedouin self-perception concerning their 'Israeliness' increased between the 1970s and 1990s, but has been declining since. In the most recent decade, there has been a move towards a preference of 'Arab' or 'Muslim' identity label over 'Bedouin', possibly resulting from the proximity of mosques in the new towns. However, the inflated 'otherness' of the Bedouin, and the development of urban crime have contributed to an escalation of suspicion between Jews and Bedouin.
In his fascinating chapter on the changing role of Bedouin women, the author outlines their traditional role in polygynous relationships, in which the number of wives a man has is a public statement of his affluence and standing in the community. Dinero was allowed access to some women's fora in the town Segev Shalom and heard the voices of women who had already moved away from traditional nomadic life. Several women discussing the use of the veil (hijab and niqab), explained that this gave them freedom to attend to needs outside the home and still maintain the strict codes defining honour (obviating shame), essential in order to avoid encountering non-kin males. He sees this as a response to globalisation and Westernisation. Although approximately one third of households (usually the less educated) in town are polygynous, the fora women were unenthusiastic about polygyny as an institution.
In his enlightening chapter on tourism development, Dinero observes that it follows a worldwide trend appealing to 'voluntourism' or 'poorism', marketing to attract young and old who feel a concern for injustice and poverty. The 'genuine Bedouin tent' venues are also hired by town Bedouin for weddings etc. His final chapter stresses the need for greater Bedouin involvement in the continuing planning to utilise the desert, reminding the reader of the potential value of camels especially for marketing their produce. Two simple maps, early in the text, show very clearly the exact areas of the book's discussion. Several of the author's photographs enhance an already highly illustrative book.
ANTONIA YOUNG University of Bradford and Colgate University (UK and USA)
Abadan-Unat, Nermin (with a Foreword by Stephen Castles). 2011. Turks in Europe: From Guest Worker to Transnational Citizen. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books. 318 pp. Hb.: $95.00/£55.00. ISBN: 9781845 454258.
Widely known for her work on international migration, political sociologist Nermin Abadan-Unat has played a central role in chronicling and analysing Turkish migration to Western Europe, as Stephen Castles points out in his foreword to the English edition. She has been among the first researchers studying the impact of migration on both sending and receiving countries, working in particular on Germany. This book is an outline of this research, which spans almost half a century.
After briefly pointing out the major theories of international migration, the author addresses issues of globalisation, arguing that established borders have been put into question and 'transnational social spaces' as well as new, multifaceted identities have gradually developed. The eleven chapters following the introduction are dedicated to different but related topics, and can be read separately.
In Chapter 1, the author depicts the diverse causes of migratory movements, naming historical examples ranging from European imperialism, World Wars I and II, to post-colonial movements. She then describes phases of Turkish migration to Germany, while addressing issues such as family reunification, professional associations, party politics, as well as the xenophobia that unfolded in the 1990s.
Chapter 2 deals with the labour flow from Turkey to Arab countries, the former Soviet Republics and Russia. Abadan-Unat argues that migration to the latter is likely to increase due to its reputation as a promising labour market.
In the third chapter, the author evaluates two studies on the first decade of Turkish labour migration to Germany, both assessing the living and working conditions of first generation workers and the families left behind. She shows how the Turkish government's intention of furthering industrial development by encouraging short-term migration, which was envisaged as having the side-effect of significantly raising the workers' qualifications, could not be realised: migrant workers were employed as unskilled workers, failed to return to Turkey and sent lower remittances than expected. Labour export did not contribute to balanced growth, and it even reinforced the asymmetric relationship between West Germany and Turkey.
Chapter 4 is about young women, who were often neglected as part of the Turkish workforce in West Germany. Short paragraphs address marriage migration, arranged marriages and honour killings. Interestingly, 'honour' is described as a source of distinction, a cultural value against assimilation. Abadan-Unat also analyses how migration influenced the role of women in Turkey by bringing returned female workers and left-behind wives into positions of authority, challenging male supremacy with regard to decision-making.
Again focusing on Germany, Chapter 5 deals with the problems of education and vocational training for second and third generation migrants. Taking a critical stance towards the discriminatory education systems in Europe, Abadan-Unat discusses not only difficulties for those 'migrants' born in Germany, but also for teenagers brought in the context of family reunification.
Chapter 6 describes the dense network of committed Islamic associations which has developed throughout Western Europe. The author critically discusses the debates on
the recognition of Islam by the German state, especially with regard to religious education. The last part is about the development of a 'Euro-Islam', Islamophobia in general and the French and German headscarf debates in particular.
The following chapter deals with so-called 'ethnic communities', the creation of 'migrant niche economies' and transnational networks and how they have been influenced by chain migration. The author points out that seeing the 'ethnic enterprise industry' as a sign of successful integration would be misguided.
In Chapter 8, different discourses on citizenship and naturalisation practices in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands are portrayed, followed by a description of political participation, i.e. voting in local elections as well as forming political associations and civil society organisations.
The ninth chapter is dedicated to asylum-seekers from Turkey who were heading westwards in the early 1980s due to a military coup and increasing violence against a separatist Kurdish movement. Abadan-Unat also addresses the political activism of Kurdish groups in Germany and comments on media consumption habits, Turkish advertisements and religious broadcasting in Germany.
In the penultimate chapter, attitudes to the European Union among Turks living in France and Germany are presented. Despite the acknowledgement of diversity, the generalising reference to opinions of 'the Euro Turks' is striking. Public opinion in Turkey regarding the EU is also laid out, focusing on the fears and concerns of 'Eurosceptics'.
The final chapter outlines some major economic changes brought about by globalisation. The author elaborates on the concept of the nation-sate, describes different types of integration and adds a discussion about the paradoxical developments that came along with large-scale migration.
Turks in Europe is a compendium of diverse issues related to the topic. No single major argument is presented but rather an extract of the author's personal work history. The implicit argument is that policies on migration are likely to have unanticipated consequences and blueprint recommendations tend to be deficient and flawed. The chapters are not linked with each other, and nor are they presented in a logical order. Hence, the book is necessarily repetitive, yet it enables the reader to read each chapter and even individual paragraphs separately. Covering a lot of different though related topics, however, makes it virtually impossible to discuss one issue in depth. This results in several generalisations and shortcomings on the empirical as well as analytical level. Concepts such as 'migrant', 'home' or 'identity' are not precisely defined and the methods employed to generate empirical data are not clarified. Furthermore, only some parts of the book are well referenced beyond the author's own writings, whereas others are not referenced at all.
The reader should, however, keep in mind that the book was originally published in Turkish in 2002, then in German in 2005. Although the English edition includes some revisions, those readers who are seeking the latest theoretical discussions and empirical insights will not be easily gratified. Nevertheless, in many instances the author aims to do justice to complex realities. Numerous tables, historical photographs, cartoons and pictures illustrate the text and make it very readable.
DAVID PARDUHN
Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany)
Mencej, Mirjam and Dan Podjed (eds.). 2010. Ustvarjanje prostorov (Hrobat, Katja, Simona Klaus, Boštjan Kravanja, Ambrož Kvartič, Mirjam Mencej, Dan Podjed, Jaka Repič in Peter Simonič Zbirka Pontes academici). Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba, Univerza v Ljubljani. 276 pp. Pb.: €27.76. IsBN: 9789612373870.
The book Ustvarjanje prostorov [Creating Spaces], edited by Mirjam Mencej and Dan Podjed, is an ambitious work gathering eight researchers from various disciplines, which aims at opening new spaces of scientific research and dialogue. The research disciplines range from ethnology, folklore studies, comparative mythology, cultural anthropology and involve studies of advertising, mass media, public relations, religions, topography, territory, migration, literature, nature, agriculture, tourism, regional and spatial planning, the internet and many other.
The central aim of the monograph concentrates on questions about how people create, conceptualize, consolidate, define, and represent spaces in various regions and areas of Slovenia and Europe. Some cases from around the world (e.g. Sri Lanka, Argentina) are included as well (including the global phenomena like the internet).
This joint volume consists of eight chapters, each written by a single author, preceded by a co-authored introduction. To contrast the single author chapters, the introductory chapter, however, reveals a blend of aspects, views, thoughts and feelings about the notions of space. In the first chapter, Mirjam Mencej talks about numinous 'Moving between Spaces in traditional European worldview' (pp. 15-56). Katja Hrobat contributed 'The perception of space through folklore: on symbols of the centre in the Karst region' (pp. 57-91). Ambrož Kvartič authored 'The migratory motifs in contemporary legendry about foreigners in the town of Velenje' (pp. 92-111). Simona Klaus deconstructed 'Spaces in Slovene advertisements: The "Slovenija moja dežela/ Slovenia, my country" television commercial' (pp. 112-132). Dan Podjed submerged into the 'Network Spaces: Facebook as a herald of the rise of networks and the downfall of the spatial paradigm' (pp. 133-61). Jaka Repič engaged in 'The construction of space and place in transnational migrations between Argentina and Slovenia' (pp. 162-88). Boštjan Kravanja worked out 'The topography of interactional space: the ethnography of the "Interculturality" of touristic Sri Lanka' (pp. 189-222). In the final, eight chapter, Peter Simonič neatly promoted 'Nature conservation, agriculture, and tourism: the cultural anthropology of the Pohorje nature park' (pp. 223-56).
The bibliography of the work is organized in a way that allows reader to easily find the pertinent reference, since the reference lists are included into chapters. As implicitly mentioned, the book lacks an overall conclusion, but the introduction may sufficiently function in that manner. Last but not least, the volume is equipped conveniently with an eight-page glossary at the very end of the book.
Among many books available in Slovenia dealing with certain aspects of space, this book is aiming at the intersection between ethnology and anthropology on the one side and folklore studies on the other in order to reap the benefits of the multi-disciplinary cross-sectional methodological approach. 'While anthropological and ethnological rese-
arch concentrate mainly on tracing the spatial practices applying the direct observation, and uncover the representations of space and their socio-cultural foundations by using the comparative method, folklore research uses narratives in order to understand and to conceptualize basic principles of space' (p. 9). Thus the book comprises a broad coverage from many sub-disciplines about a variety of researched objectives.
Well structured and thematically balanced, the book Ustvarjanje prostorov yields valuable information to researchers and scholars not necessarily within the so-called spatial sciences. The wide array of topics covered certainly places it in a central position inside the Slovene-speaking area as regards the conceptions of space, the forms of its usage and representation, as well as the contextualization engaged. It is strongly suggested to the authors to invest the additional effort needed for an English version of the book and for presentation to the wider audience. And may we end here with a final thought from the introduction: 'We may conclude that the present monograph indeed has opened a new space in science' (p. 9).
DAMIR JOSIPOVIČ
Institute for Ethnic Studies (Slovenia)