The Moral Basis of a Backward Society
OCLC 260562 | |
The Moral Basis of a Backward Society is a book by
Banfield concluded that Montegrano's plight was rooted in the distrust, envy, and suspicion displayed by its inhabitants' relations with one another. Fellow citizens would refuse to help one another unless their own personal material gain was at stake. Many attempted to hinder their neighbors from attaining success, believing that others' good fortune would inevitably harm their own interests. Montegrano's citizens viewed their village life as little more than a battleground. Consequently, there prevailed social isolation and poverty and an inability to work together to solve common social problems or even to pool common resources and talents to build infrastructure or common economic concerns.
Montegrano's inhabitants were not unique or inherently more impious than other people. However, for various reasons, historical and cultural, they did not have what he termed "social capital", the habits, norms, attitudes, and networks to motivate people to work for the common good.
This stress on the nuclear family over the interest of the citizenry, he called the ethos of "amoral familism". This, he argued, was probably created by the combination of certain land-tenure conditions, a high mortality rate, and the absence of other community building institutions.
See also
References
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of Sociology (2010-09-03). "Oxford Dictionary of Sociology - amoral familism". Archived from the original on 2011-04-29.
External links
- Edward C. Banfield. 1958. Moral Basis of a Backward Society [Paperback].