The Hidden Frontier

Disciplines Anthropology Cultural Anthropology European

About the Book

This award-winning classic in the study of ethnicity, identity, and nation-building has a new introduction (on which Eric Wolf collaborated near the end of his life) that shows the continuing validity of the book’s innovative approach to ethnography, ecology, culture, and politics. The authors investigated two Alpine villages—the German-speaking community of St. Felix and Romance-speaking Tret—only a mile apart in the same mountain valley.

About the Author

John W. Cole is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, President of the Northeastern Anthropology Association, and author or editor of four books in addition to The Hidden Frontier. Eric R. Wolf's many books include the influential Europe and the People Without History (California, 1982) and Envisioning Power: Ideologies of Dominance and Crisis (California, 1998).

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Chapter I. The Inquiry
Two Villages
Fieldwork
The Politics of Place Names
Questions and Answers
Chapter II. The Forging of Tyrolese Identity
The Alpine Landscape
Prehistory
New Settlers
Political Consolidation
Trade and Mining
The Peasant Revolt
The Counter-Reformation
Economic and Political Decline
Chapter III. Torments of Nationalism
Italian Unification
German Unification
Nationalist Rivalry
World War I
Fascism
The Plebiscite
Chapter IV. The Economic Development of the Rural Sector
Early Middle Ages: Sixth-Eleventh Centuries
Late Middle Ages: Twelfth-Sixteenth Centuries
The Early Modern Period: Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries
Tyrol and Trentino Contrasted
The Economic Margin of the State
Changing Economic Relations
The Fascist Interlude
The Postwar Boom
Chapter V. History of an Upland Valley
The Roman Frontier
Bishop and Count
Communes
German Settlement
Peasant Revolts
The Impact of the Counter-Reformation
The French Invasion
Population: St. Felix and Tret
The Impact of Nationalism
Chapter VI. Mountain Husbandry
The Ecology of Mountain Agriculture
The Annual Cycle
The Organization of Village Resources
The Limits of Expansion
The Facts of Life
Chapter VII. The Mountain Estate
Rights in Estates
Economic Pursuits
The Organization of Labor
Chapter VIII. Inheritance
The Ideology of Inheritance
The Realities of Life
Ecological Constraints
The Age Factor in Inheritance
The Inheritance Process in Tret
The Inheritance Process in St. Felix
Inheritance and Women
Secondary Heirs
Summary
Chapter IX. The New Economic Order
Changing Circumstances
The Response in Tret
The Response in St. Felix
Tret and St. Felix Compared
The Material Basis of the Good Life
Prosperity and Misfortune
Chapter X. Kith and Kin
Domestic Groups
Authority
Marriage
Associations
Chapter XI. Cultural Confrontation
Appendix 1. Population Statistics
Appendix 2. Interview Sheet
Appendix 3. Representative Holdings in Tret and St. Felix
Case 1: The "Mill Estate" In Tret
Case 2: Three Brothers' Estates in Tret
Case 3: The Forest Warden in Tret
Case 4: The "Big Estate" in St. Felix
Case 5: The Estate in the Woods
Case 6: Four Estates in St. Felix
Appendix 4. Interethnic Marriages
St. Felix: 560 Marriages on Record
Tret: 366 Marriages on Record
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX