{"id":3541,"date":"2016-12-15T09:03:15","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T14:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/?p=3541"},"modified":"2016-12-15T09:29:38","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T14:29:38","slug":"how-an-idyllic-italian-village-was-crippled-by-family-centrism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/how-an-idyllic-italian-village-was-crippled-by-family-centrism\/","title":{"rendered":"How an Idyllic Italian Village Was Crippled by Family-Centrism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photograph by Edward C. Banfield. Copyright Laura H. Banfield.<\/p><\/div>\n

More than 60 years ago, an American family arrived in a seemingly idyllic town in Southern Italy. Stone buildings resembled \u201ca white beehive against the top of a mountain.\u201d Donkeys and pigs idled in the ancient, winding streets. A town crier tooting a brass horn announced \u201cfish for sale in the piazza at 100 lire per kilo.\u201d There were two churches, two bars, and a movie theater. Shops offered locally made shoes and olive oil, and locally-sourced meat. Nearly everyone farmed and tended animals and knew one another, at least by name or reputation.<\/p>\n

Yet Chiaromonte\u2019s 3400 residents were anything but content. They were crushingly poor and simmered with resentment. Why? In great part, as the Americans learned during their stay, because they were too family-focused.<\/p>\n

Political scientist Edward C. Banfield<\/a> went to Italy in 1954 to better understand poverty. Researchers then tended to assume people were poor due to lack of education or because they were victimized by the government or capitalism. Banfield himself had been a reporter and had traveled across the United States during the Great Depression, so he knew the reality was more complex. In order to understand why people are as they are and do what they do, Banfield believed one needed to learn how they viewed the world and their place within it….(Read more at Zocalo Public Square<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 60 years ago, an American family arrived in a seemingly idyllic town in Southern Italy. Stone buildings resembled \u201ca white beehive against the top of a mountain.\u201d Donkeys and pigs idled in the ancient, winding streets. A town crier tooting a brass horn announced \u201cfish for sale in the piazza at 100 lire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[64],"tags":[130],"class_list":["post-3541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-and-governance","tag-edward-c-banfield"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pBCzY-V7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3541"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3544,"href":"https:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3541\/revisions\/3544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinrkosar.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}