Canadian Anthropology Society Rationality and Fantasy in Styrian Villagers Author(s): John J. Honigmann Source: Anthropologica, New Series, Vol. 12, No. 1, Modernization and Tradition in Central European Rural Cultures (1970), pp. 129-139 Published by: Canadian Anthropology Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25604819 Accessed: 23-08-2014 17:53 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Canadian Anthropology Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Anthropologica. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.176.254.21 on Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:53:55 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Rationality and Fantasy in Styrian Villagers by JOHN J. HONIGMANN RESUME decrit L'auteur graduellement. cette tendance: capacite Deux une comment un village facteurs autrichien psychologiques orientation rationnelle se modernise semblent alliee favoriser a une grande d'imagination. in the homes The modern complexion of rural life witnessed and on the farms of workers and farmers in the Styrian (Austrian) impressed me greatly when I1 first came to village of Altirdning know that community in I960.2 Since then, during return visits, I have noted increasing numbers of farmers and nonfarm workers, the latter commuting from the village to jobs (Honigmann 1963), as comforts domestic and other electric baths, appliances, adding as well large, new farm machinery, silos, and modern barns for the dairy cattle. My ability to be impressed with those phenomena no doubt stems from the fact that I first visited Altirdning a few Pakistan. There my in years after having done fieldwork inWest terest had been directed to community development and I found I to be extremely slow. Naturally the pace of modernization looked for an explanation of the different trend inAustria. Increasingly through the years my inclination has grown to for the progress of change augment psychological explanations and modernization with another viewpoint which I designate by it is the term, situational dynamics 1966). Though (Honigmann, 1 at the University is professor of anthropology of John J. Honigmann in Chapel Carolina Hill. 2 came in for fieldwork 1964 from theWenner 1960, 1962, and Support Gren Foundation for Anthropological the American Research, Philosophical and the Research of the University Council of North Carolina. Society, North r> Anthropologica This content downloaded from 128.176.254.21 on Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:53:55 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JOHN J. HONIGMANN 130 to develop the theory here, briefly it can be said that unnecessary traits favorable to modernization constitute only one psychological factor in the situation that supports them. I assume that people are highly likely to adopt new forms of behavior that are presented in a situation so largely different from the old that it demands nearly the more dramatically totally new forms of adaptation. Naturally, the of adaptation, the new demands challenging is likely to be. Illustrations are the resultant change islanders of the Manus (Mead provided by the modernization 1956) and by what happened within a single generation to Eskimo trappers who moved off the land and sea to homes and jobs in a different and greater modern, eastern Arctic town (Honigmann and Honigmann, 1965). Confronted by new arenas of action, participation by the Manus in their new situations led them to and Baffin Island Eskimo new and As a result, their cultures be values. meanings develop came substantially transformed. Particularly the dairy farmer in a him to mod in situation that has allowed is located Altirdning ernize. The valley with its abundant meadows, mountain stands to markets of timber, and accessibility resources for him to utilize. Postwar economic opportunities while a cooperative contains varied ecological increased his prosperity processing plant and of marketing system enabled him effectively to take advantage new Government those opportunities. propagating agencies contri techniques inword, print and by demonstration have also theworker, backed by his income, buted to the process. Meanwhile like the farmer, learned new standards of life from advertisements sources. and other published and broadcast introductory remarks set the context of what follows. attempt to rule out the assumption that personality scarcely They factors play a part in cultural modernization, though they do pose the question whether from the standpoint of motivation, so-called traits are not precipitated by a modern "favorable" psychological as they further the process of mod izing cultural situation as much ernization. In the absence of historical material to cope with that These I will be concerned mainly with identifying two psycho in the village of Altirdning. currently detectable logical in could strains these contrary directions, they are pull Although and congruent with the tenor of supportive actually mutually first,with its several modern life in the village community. The problem, strains This content downloaded from 128.176.254.21 on Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:53:55 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RATIONALITY AND FANTASY IN STYRIAN VILLAGERS 131 I call a rational orientation and the second, which manifestations, cultivates imagination, I perceive as revolving around fantasy. I shall take each in turn. THE RATIONAL ORIENTATION In I would the category of rational orientation put the attitudes view toward their that work work, particularly villagers' is not intrinsically onerous or undesirable but that it carries intrinsic rewards as well as opportunities for self-actualization (Cf. Maslow Hence work falls into the company of play and art. Un possess a high level of need-achieve questionably Altirdningers ment but achievement as I identify it in the specific context of this culture carries overtones not included in the term as it is used by psychologists studying the relationship of personality to economic development. The villagers' concern with achievement is illustrated in almost every issue of theweekly Ennstaler when public attention is drawn to individuals who have reached what the community an to status. note that be admirable Brief regards paragraphs certain youths have sucessfully passed examinations entitling them n.d.). to as practice or journeymen plumbers; men and women birthdays or wedding from agricultural to a man's anniversaries; school fifty years' are master masons, identified who young are announced, membership and in the war or hairdressers, advanced celebrate people's graduations recognition veterans' is given society. In the village, passage rites, like graduation fromVolksschule or First Communion, are celebrated in the family, the child being the target of attention manifested by gifts or a journey on which he is taken to some showplace in the vicinity by an aunt or uncle. These ritual gestures, like the attitudes towork, are indicative of a readiness or capacity for vigorous action, self-assertion, doing, or achievement on which the modernizing at least partially trends in Altirdning rest. They reveal a correlation between achievement and personal is further evidenced identify which by the frequent use oi and terms of reference that honorifics, like "Herr Professor," utilize the individual's occupation the postmis ("Frau Gruber, A person is not only tress," or "Herr Franz, the cabinetmaker"). to achieve; motivated the fact of his achievement in some fields This content downloaded from 128.176.254.21 on Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:53:55 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JOHN J. HONIGMANN 132 at least is likely to be periodically inforced by the way his social being recognized and socially re is identified with his role. I would the language of Herbert J. Gans (1962), Following identify these Austrian villagers as routine-seekers rather than as action-seeker and this characteristic is also suited to modernization. a maessig (temperate), Nationally they very much appreciate stable way of living and rank high the economic and emotional to Gans security of the individual and his family. According the routine-seekers' (1962:28), "way of life is marked by a highly regular and recurring scheduling of behavior patterns, and into routine. There may be nearly all their activities are organized a regular menu for every day of the week, which differs little from one week in the to the next... A similiar regularity is observable of holidays, giving of gifts, and in many of the other person strives for novelty spheres of life inwhich the middle-class It is life is episodic. and variety." In contrast the action-seeker's the chance to face and given to a search for thrills and welcomes are not so Dionysian overcome (to Altirdningers challenges. except employ a familiar term for a similar cultural orientation), on possibly in the case of a few men who look for the opportunity on But to lose themselves in drunkenness. weekends Monday celebration morning even they are almost certain to be ready for work. is good, but in the routine-seeker's hierarchy of values, it Variety it interferes with prior should not be cultivated to a point where attach to variety is necessities of life. The value Altirdningers expressed in several ways. New experiences, the absence of are at least ideally encouraged. People monotony, like to vary their diets from day to day; they believe that a change is essential of air benefits health and that periodic Erholung on cannot go away holidays (though farmers complain that they as other people can). An informant maintained a change of water to be healthful, the different chemical elements found in various influences. Holi localities exerting different, useful physiological one are occasion that allow fantasy days with their accompanying and vacations to introduce variety even the highly routinized farmers occasionally into lives. Before turning to that aspect of the personality, how ever, let me remark on one further, related tendency that is more in some people than in others, the inclination to highly developed Such become obsessively preoccupied with even mild dilemnas. This content downloaded from 128.176.254.21 on Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:53:55 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RATIONALITY AND FANTASY IN STYRIAN VILLAGERS 133 people worry long and intensely, for example, over a broken im plement, an unfulfilled obligation, an expected guest who might arrive while are they absent from for an home major task that must be done soon but which ? another ? maybe rain in the case of haying obsessiveness goes a readiness to become or hour two, or a for one reason or is blocked. With when depressed "impor tant" things go wrong, as well as a strong consciousness of self in social relationships (to which is related my previous observation on the villagers' developed sense of personal identity). Obsessive and and rehearse very deliberately self-preoccupied people thoughtfullly plan their actions, ponder the possible consequences of alternative lines of conduct, and calculate the possible cost or gain in respect or good feeling that a given course of behavior carries in their society. One day my hostess said that she had given her radio to a repair firmwhose owner had called to pick it up immediately upon her request. He had promised to return it equally promptly. The woman recalled that her neighbor had also given a radio to the same firm and had suffered from a torturously In detail she spelled out that long delay before itwas delivered. she wouldn't dare to reveal to this neighbor how quickly her radio was returned (for she was counting on its quick return) lest it make the neighbor jealously resentful of the special attention that my hostess had received. The neighbor might angrily mention the differential treatment to the firm's owner, causing the latter to become annoyed with my anxious hostess. Obsessive self-concern, careful planning, are dependable, and even reflective thoughtfulness when impersonal or insure that people organizational goals are at stake. By contributing to diligent and careful work habits, the trait directly supports modernization and the economic productivity on which development in turn depends. To be sure, excessive concern and self-consciousness can hamper living. Yet a commu nity like Altirdning, where everybody is supposed to be cautious, and gives it rational, and concerned, is tolerant of obsessiveness much scope. Therefore it is unlikely that obsessive behavior will lead to social difficulties as quickly as itmight in a social system whose culture is marked by greater flexibility and less demanding of responsibility. In the latter, an obsessive person would stand out much more conspicuously and might more quickly land in trouble with his fellows. This content downloaded from 128.176.254.21 on Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:53:55 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JOHN J. HONIGMANN 134 SYMBOLIC RICHNESS AND FANTASY turn now to the second and imaginative strain in the in of these which personality Styrian people, symbolic richness and fantasy are cultivated and manifestly enjoyed. By symbolic richness3 I refer to the culture's stock not only of Christian saints and related religious figures but also of other and presumably older folkloristic concepts, like the Bishop and related characters belong ing to the midwinter ceremonies or the clowning woodcutters who is cut up summertime. make people the Maypole laugh when are a recurrent theme in the village repertory of Woodcutters them, for ceremony burlesques fantasy and humor. The Maypole in and manner, uncouth blackened, dressed, they appear roughly out the of social which members this stereotype by relatively acting are rather fondly regarded by the rest of low-status occupation I the community. Fantasy is expressed in but special masquerades, clowning, tales, and other activities which engage not only explanatory children but adults as well. The referents of the symbols involved are not solely person-like include occasions, seasons, and special day of the year like St. Michael's Day and the night of St. John's Day. Fantasy revolves around the special significance of time and place, and includes nostalgic attachments to certain farmers Here (Almen). places, like the high moutain meadows in the in them milk their cattle summer, formerly pastured leaving care of an ideally young and beautiful dairy maid who used much in cheese-making. of the milk technology, better Changing the have deprived for young women markets, and new values Almen of much of their economic significance, but an emotional attachment to them and to their former economic utility continues in song and story. On weekends and holidays people visit the ones have in recent years meadows. famous Several, high-lying become tourist and ski resorts connected to the lower valleys by for roads and ski-lifts. Their modern use as summer quarters heifers, who are cared for by grandfather or hired man, evokes no romantic See 3 My Mead, sentiments. in this section influenced has been thinking 1947. 310,332; 1939, and 1935:v-x, by Margaret Mead. This content downloaded from 128.176.254.21 on Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:53:55 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RATIONALITY AND FANTASY IN STYRIAN VILLAGERS 135 Part of the appeal of tourism in this part of Austria lies in the it to store of for into their gives profitable opportunity villagers dip symbolic richness and to renew their attachment to folkloristic for example, are prepared concepts. Fires on St.-John's Night, more by the management of large resorts than by individual farmers or their children. In the adjoining communtiy of Oeblarn, tourism has developed where into an especially thriving sideline followed by farmers and others, each Thursday the community The of presents a Volkstuemlichenach (An Evening Custom). are are as to entertainments treated which traditional guests as or in the for who them important participate present villagers are summer for vacations. the visitors' the they enlivening During of 1967, Irdning (the market a also presented attached) summer town to which Altirdning is closely to festival that appealed costume guests.4 Other behavior related to the nonrational sphere of imagi nation is revealed when villagers idealize (all but a few skeptics) what they hold to be "natural": the country, rye bread, wild ber ries, wild mushrooms, and herbal medicines. They rate such items ? cities superior towhat they conceive to be artificial counterparts and white flour, for example, inwhich the hand of civilization has intruded. At first glance, a stranger might suppose that the tradi tional conservatism of the peasant is making itself evident. How ever, like the rest of fantasy, the dichotomy between natural and artifical and the ideal preference for the former over the latter, are dealing with a kind of has not held up modernization. We so of values, that attachment to sentiment compartmentalization to interfere with the importance of being practical. isn't allowed in the village would ever insist on herbal medicine to the Nobody of point refusing to call a doctor in case of serious illness.5 4 In on bygone and dwelling rural customs sentimentalizing (as in respect to many other cultural is far from unique. After all, traits), Altirdning which studies premodern folk customs, with much appreciation Volkskunde, and a relish is field in Europe and has influenced the ethno very well developed in the Soviet Union and Dunn, graphy of rural life even (Dunn 1967:94). 5 I have not found fantasy to include an image of limited good or that resultant of envy to which Foster has called attention. syndrome (1965) My informants on this subject to think that an principal gave me no grounds in this community. Several image of limited good sundered human relationships times in responding to my invitation to talk about local expressions of envy in with statements behavior, about how hard people responded they or others This content downloaded from 128.176.254.21 on Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:53:55 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 136 JOHN J. HONIGMANN What then are the functions of the imaginative life in this culture and how do they relate to the pronounced rational orientation in personality whose congruence with cultural mod ernization I have emphasized? In my study of the displacement of summer pasturing on the Almen and the worked-over retention of this pattern of ecological in sentiment and fantasy adaptation that the 1964), I used that example to hypothesize (Honigmann, are a nostalgic simultaneous Altirdning villagers people who a practical so and rational orientation of personality possess genuine that it prevents them from clinging to tradition for its own sake. The rational orientation in their personality is manifested when theyweigh alternatives and make a selection in terms of what Hence promises towork best or will bring the greatest advantage. as their sentimental it was to Alpine attachment pasturage practiced in the past "costs" them nothing and provides them with emotional release without obstructing other behavior. Such senti mental attachment to tradition, I suggested then and repeat now, even makes change more palatable then it otherwise would be to a practical people hopeful of progress. fieldwork, Subsequent which has been in part the basis of this paper, has confirmed and the hypothesis. elaborated I would augment the explanation are not a highly spontaneous Austrians cautious, rational, planful, and sometimes by pointing out that the people. They are far too obsessive to act impul sively. Gaiety is deliberately procured through moderate drinking. Rituals which feature fantasy and bring out the symbolic richness of the culture also serve as channels for a degree of pleasurable emotional release that is beyond anything invested in everyday social relationships. Altirdning partakes of the highly ordered, bureaucratized national character of Austrain culture. People accept an ordered life as desirable because of the manifest advan tages it brings. The epitome of this attitude may be seen in the mountain streams that descend to the village as they begin their such a stream and the sea. Although long journey to the Danube have to work had to achieve the degree of success that their less fortunate rivals might to be saying one works seemed that when hard, envy. They success can be achieved. to anyone is available Success tries for it. who is This of with the course, belief that is work attitude, congruent good. are a long way Such views is limited. from the notion that good This content downloaded from 128.176.254.21 on Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:53:55 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RATIONALITY AND FANTASY IN STYRIAN VILLAGERS 137 is called "wild" or "natural" its flow is closely (it is a Wildbach), confined in a stone-lined channel and regulated by weirs to protect the surrounding land. Similarly the countryside is neatly cropped, the river bottom drained, the mountain roads ditched to slow up runoff water, and the high slopes reforested after timber has been cut. Artifice is deeply embedded in the rural setting and just as firmly do forethought, reason, and practicality firmly contain the emotional life and sentiments. There is nothing contra the people themselves never confuse ideal dictory here because and real. Both are equally valuable in different ways and people's rewarding. embodied in certain seasonal rituals helps to bridge Fantasy the world of children and adults and thereby helps to reinforce a basic attitude toward young people. In Altirdningers' conception, children are not to be rigorously excluded from the adult world. Rather to be present in adult company, may they are allowed overhear adult conversation, and are generally tolerated as long as they behave properly, that is,with restraint. Introduction to adult tasks commensurate with a responsibilities begins early, with child's ability and strength. One object in such early training, whether it occurs in home or schooUs to familiarize children with the adult world's values in the and purposes. Consequently, village at least, a clear-cut youth culture is hard to identify. My 23-year old son independently confirmed this observation when, fresh from the U.S., he remarked (mistakenly, I am sure) that people in the village didn't seem to enjoy themselves. He explained that he saw few groups of young people abroad and found small a youth culture opportunity for sociability. (He soon discovred in the adjacent market town, Irdning. Here cafes are mostly taken over by young people in the evening but revert to older adults on at least until nightfall. We Sunday, rarely saw or heard of Altirdning youth in such parties.) In the village, young people may enter a tavern or attend a (fair) in a group, but they Gartenfest would be involved in the company of adults who sit at the same table drinking the same drinks or who dance the same steps in to equally familiar tunes. While response young people and older adults follow somewhat different patterns of dress, clothing is not extremely divergent between age categories and as a result possesses no overtone of being emblematic of age status. Therefore This content downloaded from 128.176.254.21 on Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:53:55 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JOHN J. HONIGMANN 138 a high degree of continuity exists between adults and children in It manifests itself, first, in the fact that adults believe Altirdning. in the grown-up world children should early be incorporated and, second, in the identification that adults feel with children. Such identification is partly mediated by the generations' common in many fantasies, particularly those associated with participation Christmastide. Such engrossment with fantasy is undoubtedly in children who, if they are young, don't even distinguish stronger between and the adults do make reality imagination. While more commitment children's distinction, they encourage thorough to folkloristic figures. They may even admire the child's ability to believe thoroughly or with more conviction than they themselves can any longer muster. Fantastic figures do sometimes embody moral themes or inspire fear in children. Then they serve for not children's socialization, but augmenting substituting for the to of adults. adults supervise children, socializing power By aiding folklore of this type may well lend itself to achieve that degree of that Altirdningers restraint, and "oversocialization" discipline, a serves as to and that useful modernization. possess adjunct The whole setting in which parents and children play out their fantasies is replete with what Margaret Mead calls (1939) "plot". By this she means essentially that human relationships are of bogeymen, endowed with heightened Fantasies complexity. with their grottos, and mountain gift-givers, saints associated shrines add to the complexity of the child's realm, peopling the world with additional figures whom he cognizes as able to affect his welfare and who people his imagination. From plot, Mead's for symbolic richness freshly theory states, derives a readiness installed in the following generation. This hypothesis seems to hold forAltirdningers where a capacity for fantasy and symbolic richness coexists with rationality. Both orientations are congruent with a readiness for modernization. REFERENCES Dunn, Stephen 1967 The P. and Peasants Ethel Dunn of Central Russia. New York, Holt, Rinehart, Winston. 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