What Is a "Village" in a Nation of Migrants?

What Is a "Village" in a Nation of Migrants? Susan Buck Sutton Villages {horra) are generally considered the fundamental social units of rural Greek life. These small, compact settlements have indeed housed a majority of the rural Greek population for centuries, if not millenia. Villages have also been the sites of over two dozen intensive case studies of contemporary Greek peasants and have constituted the primary statistical units in more comparative analyses of the Greek countryside. Much has been learned concerning the internal workings of Greek villages and the recent exodus of village populations . It is here argued, however, that these insights have even broader meaning if placed in a wider historical framework. False assumptions of a stable village base only recently disrupted by external systems give way to the recognition that the rural Greek population has quite literally been in motion for centuries. In some areas, longterm affiliation with a particular village is more anomalous than the frequent movement of families from one settlement to another, and many contemporary villages must actually be seen as the creations of fairly recent historical forces. This, in turn, brings new meaning to statements concerning the place of villages in the Greek economy, the patterns of social interaction characterizing these settlements, and the attitudes Greek peasants have toward them. This interpretation is achieved by placing contemporary village studies against several recent historical analyses of Greek political economy which have greatly illuminated the opposing forces of settlement and migration in Greek life. While settlements imply some form of fixed social grouping, migration implies a loosening or reworking of ties based on residence. There is a dynamic tension between the two processes, and understanding how they have historically played against each other in Greece makes village allegiance a variable requiring explanation rather than a fixed condition against Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Volume 6, 1988. 187 188 Susan Buck Sutton which other variables are measured. Migration is, of course, a major theme of most research on contemporary Greek villages. In almost all cases, however, the emphasis has been on recent outward migration , with little attention paid to other, earlier patterns. The full round of rural migration occurring over the several centuries during which the contemporary Greek social formation emerged is actually far more complex. Migration into villages and even the establishment of altogether new villages equal outward migration in this history. Villages were established and abandoned, grew and declined with some frequency. Kayser's statement that there was a "relative instabilit é characteristique des populations rurales" (1963: 194) is borne out. Interestingly enough, such conclusions confirm more than they negate most contemporary village case studies. While many such studies overlook this long history of rural mobility, giving rise to a misimpression of stability, only a few actually base their conclusions on a premise of stability. By and large, the placement of village case studies against a wider historical perspective enhances both approaches . The one line of research provides the local detail necessary for a more precise understanding of the overall demographic trends. Knowledge of long-standing rural demographic mobility, in turn, sheds light on many of the issues most puzzling to anthropologists and others now working in Greek villages. The patterns of village foundation, growth and decline have a direct relation to the articulation of local areas with larger systems, the emergence of Greece's particular economic structures, and the patterns of internal social interaction which characterize Greek villages. Recognizing that there is a variable life span to Greek villages transfers even very isolated settlements from the museum display of timeless traditionalism to their true historical context. Migration, Settlement and Modern Greek History This essay first establishes what is known about rural Greek demographic history over the last few centuries and then explores the implications of this account for understanding Greek village life. Four areas will be discussed in detail: the Archaia Nemea Valley, Amorgos, Kea, and the southern Argolid. Recent advances in Greek social and economic history serve as the base for the first part of this inquiry. Mouzelis' (1978: 3—29) phases for the emergence of Greece's underdeveloped form of What is a "Village"? 189 capitalism are used as the overall chronological skeleton...