The Character of the Villagers

This chapter summarizes the social character of the village and consider its theoretical meaning. A key element in the character of the villagers is the fixation or dependence on the mother. Only 16 percent of the villagers are intensely fixated to the father, 56 percent moderately fixated, and 28 percent show no dependence on the father. By mother and father centered is meant that the main emotional tie is to the mother or to the father. To hurt or offend the mother is perhaps the most real and severe crime, although not in legal terms nor even in terms of what villagers consciously think about crime. The passive-receptive villagers submit to exploitation, not necessarily because they are masochistic, but because they feel powerless and have developed a protective indifference to life. In the changing, developing society, the entrepreneur is the new man who can be considered the village "progressive.".