University of Massachusetts - Amherst
ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst
Anthropology Department Faculty Publication
Series
Anthropology
January 1966
Peasant Culture and Urbanization
Joel M. Halpern
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, [email protected]
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Recommended Citation
Halpern, Joel M., "Peasant Culture and Urbanization" (1966). Ekistics. 45.
http://scholarworks.umass.edu/anthro_faculty_pubs/45
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REVIEWS ON THE PROBLEMS AN D
SCIENCE OF
VOLUME 21,
HUMAN SETTLEMENT S
122,
NUMBER
JANUARY
196 6
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ME7 ROPOLITAN PLANNING
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Ekistics is Lhe science of human settlements . The term is derived from the .
Greek verb Ol I~S2 meaning settling down . Ekistics demonstrates the existence
of an overall science of human settlements conditioned by man and in~uence d
by economics, social, political, administrative and technics] sciences an d
Lhe disciplines related to art.
Contrasted to architecture which is confned to the design of buildings, or to
town planning which, by its own definition, is confined to towns (that is, on e
category o[ human settlements, or to geography, which describes only phenomena of Lerrestrial space or to several other disciplines whose scale is limited to parts, categories or types of settlements, Ekistics is a science
whose task is to examine all human settlements from every possible poin t
o[ view in order to develop skills for the solution of Lhe problem s
involved .
As such, Ekistics studies Lhe Feld of human settlements with three dilterent ideas in mind: the geographic dimensions, where we move trom the single
room (the smallest ekistic unit) to the house, the plot, the block, the neighborhood, the community, the small town, large city, metropolis, etc . ;
the nature of related disciplines, that is the economic and social aspects o f
the settlements, etc .; the sequence o[ procedure from analysis to the formulation o[ policies, to subsequent synthesis, programs, and plans .
In order to study human settlements, the science of Ekistics has had to use
a wide range of space and time. [t has to start by studying human settlements tro~n their most primitive stage to understand the evolution which
has led to forming towns, and is now leading to the metropolis and megalopolis; and to understand the type o[ settlements to come . Furthermore ,
Ekistics also has to study settlements o[ several sizes . It has to cover the
whole earth and to study all types o[ settlements in all types of surroundings, in all types of cultures and civilizations, and in all periods .
'I'o achieve this end, namely the studying of human settlements in thei r
entire evolution, and to develop this science to the point o[ being prescriptive
and not just descriptive, Ekistics has a long and difficult road to follow .
We must work hard for many generations to come .
E~h'~ICS, as a magazine, .by presenting reviews and original articles i n
this general field, tries to assist in the formulation of this science . It does
this by publishing material in tour categories:
The overall concept of Ekistics as a science .
relationship of Ekistics to other sciences .
• Subjects showing the evolution of human settlements .
• DilTerent aspects u[ human settl ements in different parts of Lhe world .
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~1 аш
voLU~E
~~
NUMBER
12 2
JANUARY 16 6
oiкi~тiкн
URBANIZATION
Kingsley Davis
Rhoads ~~urphey
AND METROPOLITAN
The Urbanization of the TIuman Population
ti fic American .)
lrbanization in :Asia
(Scien-
8
Population, Urban Growth and regional Developrnent (TUorld Population Conference) Joel Halpern
Peasant Culture and Urbanization
halter l~,lkan
Some Social Policy Implications of Industrial Development in East Africa (International Social Science
gani~ation)
(Hunaa~ Ur-
.Iourna~)
~1arshal Wolfe
4
(Rutgers, The State University
Conference)
Lrnest Weissmann
EDITORIA L
PLANNING
Some Implications of Recent Changes in Urban and
Mural Settlement Patterns in Latin America (Worl d
Po ~clation C,an e~ence
f
l
)
18
21
~~
28
The diffe~e~t, scholarly authors
articles in this issue o f
EKISTICS make it clear that
we can expect no let-up fro m
the inexorable Arid g rowi~ g P ~es sures of urbanization . In othe r
words, more and more peopl e
are going to have to be p~ovi ded for i~ and around our pre sent major urban settlements ,
or-in ekistic parlance-the move
toward megalopolis and ecume nopolis is becoming increasingl y
apparent .
The term ~~rbariization» ha s
now become almost as widel y
used-and abused-as the erst while fashionable term of «comrnu~ity development», but Kings le y Davis makes cI uite Clear th e
context in which he is em to ing it : «the proportion of the
0 l'
total population concentrated i n
l~~' . ~% illiam-Olsson
The Status ul' l~nowledge of Urban Settlements in
h:u~ope West of the U .S .S .R . (Rutgers, The State
~r~iversity Conference)
Hans I~hunenfeld
'the Detroit Ldison
Company research
Project
1laurice D .va~ Arsdol .lr .
"I'he :Modern Metropolis
(Scier~tilic _Tn~ericar~) .
."'
32
35
"l'he urban Detroit Area : Plamring Inventory
39
Metropolitan Growth and h.nvironrnental Hazards :
\~ Illustrative Case (T~o~ld Population C~r~feren~e)
48
(The ~umait
Naha George ~hiber
Saga of Kuwait Planning : :1 Critique
L)oxiadis Associates
and CFDUG
Gua~abara urban Uevek,pment Plan 59
I,T~]'I"MFR l'O ~Iil~] Rlll'l'l)~~
J
J
~~ ~•~~~ ~~ ~• ~~ ~• ~
~p
ft<xrl«
72
11an5 13h~nenfeld
Urbani..a~~io~
51
urban settlements, or else a
rise in this proportion . . . Accor dingly, cities can grow withou t
any urbanization, provided tha t
the rural population grows a t
an equal o~ a greater rate» .
Thus, in his use of the term, mos t
of the uadvanced~ countries ar e
now fully urbanized and the pro Cess has been continually Speed ing• up . For instance, the ur banization of Britain took 7 9
years to complete,
the USA 6 6
years, Gerrnany ~~8 years and
Japan 36 years and the devel oiling countries are now urbarii zing at rates much higher tha
n
at peak periods of the advance d
countries . Kingsley Davis add s
that,
contrary
to
popula r
belief, though rural immigration is very great, the main
increase in urban population s
Is from births (natural increas e
of the resident population) . Thus ,
although h~ realizes the diffi 1
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PEASANT
Joel Halper n
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CULTUR E
URBANIZATIO N
'the author is in the llepartment of .1~tLropology, Brandeis
Univorsity, Wa~,ham, Massa~hTasetts . 'p his abstract is fro m
the introductory portion of a longer article entitle d
~~Peasant Cultu~o and L ;rbanization in Yugoslavia» i n
Hunan Urr~~iNntiw~, ~~ol . ''4, A'o . '_', summer 1965, pp .
I6`?-1i4 .
great stability oi' peasant sub-cultures and i n
many rases has detailed difficulties invoh~ed i n
been studied extensively is the degree to whic h
specific programs or general processes of change .
we are in the process of apprcaching a unifor m The need for administrators and planners to b e
world culture . The total actualization of this as- aware of village value systems has also been emsumption, particularly in the ideological sense ,
phasized . But viewed from along-range world does not appear likely in the foreseeable future ;
wide perspective the major question becomes prihowever, in scientific and associated technologica l marily one not of the extent of peasant resistanc e
fields aspects of universality are already a reality . or the degree to which initial changes can be selecdorms of organization are increasingly evident live o~ slowed but rather of the limits of induswhich doubtless derive from shared values about lrializat,ion and accompanying centralized govern the instrumental utility of science and derivativ e mental controls in reformulating peasant sub technology for the maintenance of contemporary cultures . Most of the programs participated in
society .
and studied by anthropologists have been thos e
History provides many examples of situation s with relatively limited objectives (although often
where a system of values has spread widely amon g much broader effects), and the focus has been on
different societies, as in the uses of the major the village or local level with questions of nationa l
religions, .but none of them has ever had the univer- policy and existing social systems usually bein g
sal acceptance accorded the automobile or jet air - accepted as given, often static, factors in the situliner, where acceptance is in an absolute sens e ation .
universal . (The diffusion of the automobile an d
Tn developing nations it sums that althoug h
airplane cannot be compared to earlier types o f peasant traditions may be drawn on to provid e
tecl~ological diffusion such as gunpowder, p~incertain aspects of distinctive national flavor foun d
ting, or the compass-while these had wide effects ,
in costumes, dances, art and folk heroes, the emtheir spread was not universal nor did they brin g phasis as seen either explicitly or implicitly by th e
about as basic changes in cultures as have those c f governing elites is to accommodate the peasant t o
contemporary industrial technology) . With regard industrialization and its accompanying instituto the individuals involved the relative committional forms, with stress on the modification o f
ment to a universal technological subculture ha s peasant culture to meet these requirements . Sinc e
been very variable . In this sense we can contras t Gandhi ' s time no national leader of prominenc e
the roles of chauffeur and jet pilot or astronaut . Th e has stressed a village or handicraft orientation a s
amount of training and technological knowledg e a central point of departure for national planning .
in the first case is relatively limited, and an in- Quite the contrary, a problem of the elites of mos t
dividual can conceivably be a good chauffeur an d new nations has been to retain meaningful tie s
still participate intimately in a peasant society . with their villages . With the exception of comrnu~ist countries most states have not seriousl y
c~nside~ed formally terminating l~~casant eulture s
PEASANT SUBCULTURE S
as a key objective in national development polic y
Much anthropological reporting has stressed the although the effects of the low status of rural
An implication of co~tempura~y change which ha s
wide tacit recognition but which to date has no t
21
people are all too apparent .
When the problem is considered it is almos t
always the villager as opposed to the urbanite wh o
is typically pictured in need of developing . Th e
peasant is felt by the government, its officials, experts both domestic and foreign, and urbanites i n
general to need more and better education, improved crops and agricultural techniques, easie r
access to towns, better health and sanitation stand ards and, in addition, political consciousness . Th e
peasant agrees to a good many of these goals, a t
least in the abstract . In fact, if he is young, ambitious, and not overly prosperous he frequently
wants to change his way of life as completely a s
possible by getting some education and a job i n
a town . The village may serve as a nice place t o
come back to later, after the frustrations of th e
town, but given analternative avillage-centere d
life would not seem to be first choice for most
youths . Of course, this is qualitatively an ol d
phenomenon, but its enormously accelerate d
growth is something• new in world history . Today ' s
cities have more room than ever before but no t
nearly enough to satisfy the increasing demand .
Is it not possible that much of the conservative behavior often associated with contemporary village life and the resistance to variou s
forms of innovation result from the Fact that a
concrete, fully conceptualized, long-term alter native is not offered? On the other hand, the pressures for change and the changes themselves d o
often promote a need For security which certai n
aspects of the traditional patterns offer . This appears to be particularly true in programs of partia l
change, i .e ., the reformulation of peasant cultur e
is incompletely conceptualized often by both th e
innovators and the peasants . Future alternative s
are pictured in the abstract while concrete possibili .ies are lacking . Given the potential for sweep ing change in the countryside it may well be that
what is seen as cultural stability is only the temporary but tenacious maintenance of a cultur e
whose ultimate reformulation is inevitable . I n
certain ways much of the dynamic potential fo r
social and political change resides in the world ' s
peasant villages-if not with today ' s adults the n
with their children . Perhaps the long-term source s
of cultural conservatism may lie in the urban area s
whose subcultures have more opportunity fo r
continuity .
Tractors, radios, hospitals are conceptually
neutral in the ideological sense, but the ways i n
which they are used make them political, even i f
the assumptions are implicit . Technologically the
peasant has become a~ anachronism in that hi s
labor can be replaced to a large degree by ma chines, but the necessary and desired changes i n
organizational forms and value structures to brin g
about these developments evolve more slowly.
Few doubt that there exists in the world today the
22
technological potential for effective birth contro l
or the ability to achieve increased agricultura l
yields through mechanization, even granting maximum labor intensive methods, as in rice cultivation . Akey problem, which is more difficult to
solve, is the placement of excess population i ~
urban areas . More realistically, assuming the retention of surplus population in rural areas, th e
immediate challenge is one of their useful employment . It is not surprising, then, that government s
are now more concerned with peasants' minds tha
n
with their backs, since peasant labor is actuall y
or potentially surplus . A major innovation neede d
and desired by modernizing states is the ability
effectively to reformulate peasant value system s
with as much cooperation as can possibly be obtained .
VILLAGE AND TOW N
To say that certain changes result from urban influences, or that peasants migrating to the tow n
are being subjected to urbanization, is true only
in the sense that the technological and organizaatio~al pressures ace urban-derived . City dweller s
have also been subject to change, so that the meaning of urbanization varies through time and space .
Nor is the often cited decline of the extende d
family necessarily directly pertinent to the reformulation of peasant culture and migration o f
peasants to towns . In fact, kin ties may aid in migration to the towns, while the significance o f
extended kin ties among traditional urban group s
is just beginning to be realized .
Secularization can also be misleading . In peasantized towns the most secular (at least in over t
behavior) may be the children of peasants rathe r
than the children of those who have lived in the
town for generations . However, urbanization is a
valid concept in that it implies the coexistence o f
numerous sub-cultures which may reciprocally influence each other to varying degrees . Peasant sub culture is by its very nature homogeneous, no t
necessarily in religion or ethnicity but certainly
in a primary orientation toward the land, continuous group interaction, and focus on the village . Alternate patterns may exist, with ~'Iosle m
and Orthodox peasants sharing a village in Yugoslavia o~ Buddhist and Moslem in Thailand, bu t
the variety is limited and the shared complex i s
paramount . In urban cultures many strongly differing value s37stems do coexist, and interactio n
may be minimal, a situation not possible in a village .
Urban life cannot be said to contrast wit h
rural peasant culture in any duality such as magical-rational or literate-non-literate, for in man y
groups i~ urban culture are found practices suc h
as faith healing and astrology, functional illiteracy ,
and a restricted world view . These practices an d
problems are widely known, but the available in formation does not seem to have been integrate d
too well with studies of peasant societies . On e
reason has been that studies of peasants hav e
usually focused o~ the village, with urban influences seen mainly as a generalized causativ e
agent of change, most often as moderated throug h
various national institutions whose representative s
are in direct contact with the village, as well a s
those changes felt by the peasant himself on trip s
of the town .
The changes which are occurring in urban area s
are, of course, important and far-reaching, but the
basic assumptions of urban life are not bein g
brought into question in the same way as is Happening to the peasant in his village . But th e
transition is neither simple nor direct since ther e
are also many examples of conservative form s
being perpetuated in cities by migrant rural o r
immigrant groups .
customed environment would appear by virtu e
of its greater diversity to be more adaptable t o
change . l
Important, too, is the interpenetration of th e
town by rural influences and the village by urba
n
influences, so that rural-urban differences in dress ;
speech, standard of living, values and ideology
become less marked . The urban slum and the
modern farm are parts of the same transformatio n
(categories of change overlap, and an anthropology of the future must be able to conceptualiz e
drastic change) . Past patterns will play some rol e
in shaping future change, but the viability of traditional patterns is relatedto a great degree to the
extent of pressures applied, both political an d
economic, direct as well as indirect, although ther e
arc clearly limits . The foregoing is suggested i n
part by developments in Yugoslavia, which ha s
had apolitical revolution and is undergoing a
related social revolution .
During periods of development and change th e
subcultures of workers may be modified rathe r
than reformulated and certainly not terminated .
The workers may have to learn new skills an d
change jobs or neighborhoods, but the basi c
value of their way of life is not questioned . I n
many cases their kin ties may also be subject t o
less strain than those of the peasant . Their ac-
1 . To cite one case, it would seem that the adjustmen t
of workers and their families moving into the suburbs ,
as described in Michael Young and Peter Willmott i n
Family and Kinship in East London, Routledge and Kega п
Paul, London, 1957, involved fewer social and cultura l
changes than for rural migrants, settling in a city, despit e
the preservation of certain culture traits in urban slums .