Functional and Historical Explanations for Village Social Organization in Northern Europe
Robert Layton
Villages in Switzerland and a neighbouring region of eastern France have degree political coherence autonomywhich contrasts strikingly with the weak organization ofEnglish villages. The Roman historian Tacitus described number customs among Germanic peoples living on edge Empire which can be paralleled medieval recent rural cultures where, for many centuries, they enabled co-operative management resources. While similar existed England during earlier English village today has little or no corporate identity. article critically assesses probability real historical continuity asks why such disappeared England. Some general conclusions are drawn about relative value functional explanations social anthropology.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute