Far from the Church Bells
Settlement and Society in an Apulian Town

This book focuses on the unusual nature of peasant society in the region and attempts to explain how it came about.

Anthony H. Galt (Author)

9780521026178, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 April 2006

300 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.6 cm, 0.427 kg

"Galt's book provides an excellent, well-documented account of a different system of land contract and its consequences on settlement in Southern Italy." Nicholas J. Esposito, American Historical Review

This book is an historical and anthropological study of Locorotondo in the province of Bari in south-eastern Italy. It focuses on the unusual nature of peasant society in the region and attempts to explain how it came about. What distinguishes Locorotondo and the neighbouring towns is that peasants live dispersed in the countryside rather than in densely populated rural towns, the pattern more typical for southern Italy. The people are mainly small proprietor grape growers, and have traditionally been better off than other southern Italian peasants. The book traces the development pattern from the eighteenth century. Interweaving anthropological understanding with historical data, the author assesses its effect on family life, social structure, and the relationship between town and country.

List of plates
List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Part I. The Remembered Present: 2. Work and the crowded countryside
3. Inside Locorotondo
Part II. The Documented Past: 4. Settlement and economy under the waning old order
5. Society and terminal feudalism
6. Rural settlement in the nineteenth century
7. How peasants populated the countryside
Part III. Emergent Social and Political Patterns: 8. Rural social structure
9. Town and country
10. Some comparisons
Appendices
Notes
Glossary of Italian and dialect terms
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]