The salient points of this thesis are that: (a) social change is properly understood as a processual phenomenon manifested in patterns of everyday behaviour, and this requires a methodological focus on the ethnography of the small community; (b) the macro/micro dimensions of social change/everyday behaviour are integrated at the same level of' epistemological abstraction; (c) the position of Lewis as a peripheral area provides parameter of social and economic life on the island; (d) the social and economic development of Lewis is explained through a political economy perspective; (e) cohort analysis shows population to decline from a combination of migration and the adoption of other fertility-reducing social mechanisms, which produces the present demographic profile; (f) changes in crofting are based on an increase in the value of non-croft incomes and a change in the types of non-croft work; (g) the social organisation of the crofting village produced a system of over-lapping groups and cross-cutting ties to maximise mutual aid provisions and minimise risk and conflict, and this was predicated on the importance croft production once held for maintenance; (h) this local system of multiplex relationships was centred on the village as the largest unit relevant to croft production, only communicants produce island-wide sets of affiliations; (i) the changed relevance of crofting is now being matched by changes in interpersonal relationships that promote a decline in their multiplexity; (j) in the twentieth century migration has become a major fact of Lewis ethnography; (k) an island-wide local consciousness emerges from the social relevance of migrants to their local relationships, and exists despite the decline of an esoteric culture; (l) social change is an ethnographic phenomenon: migration is a process of change interrelated with other processes, none of which are discrete.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:344657 |
| Date | January 1980 |
| Creators | Mewett, Peter G. |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk/R?func=search-advanced-go&find_code1=WSN&request1=AAIU444013 |
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