Sociology and Space, No. 33, 1971.
Original scientific paper
The Acceptance of Change and the Presence of Tradition in the Consciences and Behaviour of Farmers (Reasearch Results)
Mirko Martić
Abstract
Demonstrated results reveal, in many cases, a significant differentiation of
attitudes, opinions and expectancies among a polled population of farmers.
Such a differentiation refers to the presence of different value orientations
between individuals but also to a more profound process of a gradual degradation
of some fundamental, traditional values of rural life, in addition to a simultaneous
valuation of the acceptance of new ones.
The experience of change — as an expression of general progress and of
constant social transformation in the conscience of rural man — represents an
internal factor which strongly directs many farmers toward new ideas and forms
of behaviour.
As analyzed results demonstrate, an awareness of change and general advance
has deeply impressed itself on the psyche of the contemporary peasant. Asked
to compare their present life with the life their parents led, 83% emphasize in
their answers a change »for the better« as an uncontestable fact.
The picture alters somewhat when changes are judged in a time context
which is more strongly determined by the current situation, that is, directly by
given circumstances of the life and work of a farmer. When asked about the most
important changes which have occurred in their farming and households in the
last three years, scarcely one half of the respondents were in a position to cite
any positive changes. This concerns, of course, different circumstances of judgment
and levels of perceptions of change than when judge in broader, intergenerational
situation and more on a global, social scale.
Particularly interesting are those results which speak of attitudes toward changes from the perspective of questionned rural settlements: a) to what extent
is there at all present among those questionned any awareness of the need for
introducing any change in the life of the village, and b) who are mainly responsible
for changes?It has been shown that the attitudes of a majority of the farmers point
to the necessity for change of their own environment (61%). Nevertheless, negatively
expressed attitudes also attract attention (35% do not see a need for
introducing changes!) behind which most often lurk indifference and resistance
to change in general.
Those responsible for change are most often seen among the organs of power,
both commune and state, and more rarely in the possibilities of initiative and
associated action of the villagers themselves.
The fact of change and the acceptance of new ideas and forms of behaviour,
however much they take over an ever greater preponderance in rural life, does
not always necessarily go together with an abandonment of traditional ways of
thinking and value judgments.
Thus most of the research results contribute to the general hypothesis that
an abandonment of the old system of values can, in an indefinite time, leave
intact some of its basic outlines and characteristics and so lead to certain »transitional
situations«, in which the world of many individuals- remains in a position
of latent tension and compromise between old and new values. Respect for tradition,
which is to a great extent emotionally tinged, does not exclude rational
behavior and a willingness to accept innovation, particularly those of instrumental
values. In other words, among these differing schemes of values, they do not take
a stand against bulkheads, as a consequence of which respect alone for tradition
is gradually disappearing though in a more indirect way.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
119420
URI
Publication date:
3.9.1971.
Visits: 1.027 *