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Microcosm‐Macrocosm Relationships in North American Agrarian Society 1
Author(s) -
BENNETT JOHN W.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1967.69.5.02a00010
Subject(s) - agrarian society , peasant , sociocultural evolution , agrarian system , sociology , political science , political economy , economy , geography , anthropology , agriculture , archaeology , economics , law
The analysis of the relationship of the local community to the larger national society is a major development in sociocultural anthropology of the last generation. While most of the work has centered on tribal and peasant societies undergoing incorporation in larger social systems, the structure of local‐national or local‐governmental relationships is a problem of equal cogency for the modern agrarian sector of North American society. Despite great cultural homogenization of the rural and urban social sectors of North America, the agrarian person is still required to avoid, respond to, and manipulate the agencies of the national social system in order to acquire the resources he needs for economic and social existence. The structure of these complex relationships is described and exemplified with data from a Canadian Great Plains agrarian society.