A Return to the Pueblo: A Review of David Gilmore’s Aggression and Community

Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 1991. ISSN: 1016-3476. Vol 1, No 1: 148-151 A RETURN TO THE PUEBLO: A REVIEW OF DAVID GILMORE’S AGGRESSION AND COMMUNITY Mario G uarino University of Cambridge Gilmore, D. D. 1987. Aggression and Community: Paradoxes of Andalusian Culture. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. David Gilmore has once again produced an innovative and thought-provoking new book in the area of Andalusian and Mediterranean studies. In this vivid and entertaining work Gilmore sheds new light on many of the customs described in the standard works of the area. Aspects of Andalusian culture such as gossip, nicknames, Carnival, machismo, the evil eye and hard stares are analysed with special emphasis on their beneficial effects on the community. With this work, Gilmore has tried to move beyond his long-standing debate with Corbin and Pitt-Rivers in Spanish ethnography, looking for a compromise to end their confrontation. Using evidence from a number of Andalusian communities, Gilmore states that aggression, the non-physical violence and conflict so common in Andalusia, actually contributes to the maintenance of the community. He disputes what he believes is the dominant model in anthropology, the ‘social toxin paradigm’, which regards aggression as a disruptive force in society, something which has to be safely eliminated for the good of all. Combining theories from sociology, anthropology and psychology, Gilmore suggests that aggression is an active force in the main­ tenance of society. Rather than having to be displaced outside the group or transformed into something else (e.g. generosity), aggression ‘merely needs to be rechanneled, directed, guided by culture at specific internal targets: those whose extranormative or deviant behaviour threatens the self-control and cultural uniform­ ity of the group’ (p. 27). Gilmore starts with a few introductory chapters in which he describes the context of the ‘atomistic’ Andalusian communities where he worked and outlines his theoretical perspective. He then embarks on a detailed examination of gossip, nicknaming practices, Carnivals, machismo, and the evil eye. Each of the chapters is full of lively examples and anecdotes culled from his impressive fieldwork experience. These different social customs are analysed showing how they rechannel aggression into socially useful forms. People who are considered to deviate from social norms are pilloried by ‘the iron fist of public opinion’. The threat of this sort of treatment is enough to ensure that people try to avoid doing anything which could be considered anti-social. Copyright 1991 Mediterranean Institute. Univ. of Malta Return to the Pueblo 149 Gilmore draws the important distinction between personal (manifest) motives and social (latent) functions. This separates the motives people may have for acting aggressively toward their fellow villagers from the effects their actions may have for society. People are seen to act out of personal motives though their actions may have beneficial effects for the group as a whole. For example, individuals may gossip out of envy, malice or because they enjoy it. The effect of their actions, not necessarily the effect they intended, is the maintenance of social norms through the negative sanctions attached to deviant behaviour. The use of derogatory nicknames, aggres­ sive mocking behaviour during Carnival and hard states all work in similar ways, providing strong negative sanctions for non-standard behaviour. Gilmore’s model is not altogether new. He states that his analysis is based on the theories of Simmel (also a source of inspiration for Pitt-Rivers, 1971:xvi), Gluckman and Freud. Nonetheless this perspective is refreshing when applied to the Spanish material presented here. It is an interesting way of defining the relationship between the individual and society in small communities. Personal emotions are shown to form an integral part of the social process, thereby departing from structuralist denials of the importance of such individual responses. Gilmore’s treatment of machismo is a particularly interesting development from old notions of honour and shame which have dominated Mediterranean anthropology since the 1950s. Even this individualistic and aggressive aspect of male behaviour is seen to have beneficial social functions. This sense of male pride helps to restore a feeling of power to politically and economically dominated men by placing women in an even lower inferior position. Machismo is seen...