ABSTRACT
Privacy means the vindication of the integrity of the near group as well as of the individual. There is an emotional tone that sustains the relations of those who are mutually congenial. The small town or compact village, especially if it is remote from any great center, is of all locations the most hostile to privacy. Privacy was very much at a discount. Any presumptuous moral delinquency could bring the offender before the authoritarian tribunal of the church, and the distinction between private and public affairs was little observed. Different peoples vary not only in their regard for privacy but also in their views on what they wish to keep private and what they are willing to let the outsider know, hear, or see. While the privacy of religious belief is reasonably well-established in various lands, there is still considerable harassment of those who espouse some other forms of belief, political or moral.
