Love and Power in the Peasant Family: Rural France in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This book, first published in France in 1980 and now available in English translation, provides a valuable contribution to studies of the peasant family. While the title is somewhat misleading the French title Mari etfemme dans la societe paysanne is more appropriate to a book that consciously excludes from consideration parent-child relations the book does bring to bear an important viewpoint on family relations, that of the enthnologist. Two major themes run through the entire work. First, Segalen is concerned with the tension between socioeconomic factors and culture as determinants of family life. Secondly, the regional variations from one part of France to another in family attitudes and behavior are also carefully kept in mind. Love and Power in the Peasant Family provides a number of insights and suggestions in these areas. I a chapter on Man, the Wife, and the House, for example, a consideration of distributio of space leads to a discussion of the ambivalence of women in peasant culture, the ease with which the good housewife can move into the category ofthe wicked woman, and t e ways in which household imple ents are used for malevolent purposes. The latent sexuality in rural life is also described, and the chapter concludes with comments about the solidarity of the couple in managing t e farm. This last conclusion is not particularly original but Segalen does add some new points by ignoring the economic cooperation ofthe husband and wife and instead using rituals and naming practices as evidence for this cooperation. The question of authority in the peasant family also leads to interesting suggestions. Segalen focuses on female power which, she argues, is seen as a threat by men which accounts for the large number of rituals and proverbs that suggest the inferior position of the woman in a peasant family but certainly exists. Segalen disagrees with the folklorists' traditional view of male/female relationships: these were not hierarchical but expressed a shared responsibility for the farm. What appears to be male dominance was in fact the husband's function as public representative of the household.