Insiders and Outsiders: Paradise and Reality in Mallorca.

Abstract

Waldren's engaging book is carefully crafted ...a superior guide to both the structure and meaning of community and the pleasures of daily life. * Choice ...solid accounts of the concepts and social practices related to the casa ...patronage, and social hierarchy ...[Waldren] also devotes attention to some less traditional concerns, such as gender, conceptions of social space, tourism, and economic development. * American Anthropologist The indigenous population of Deia has lived side by side with increasing numbers of foreigners over the past century, and what has occurred there over this period offers an example of how the population of one Mediterranean village has gained full advantage from the economic opportunities opened up by foreign investments, without losing the fabric of social relations, the meaning and values of their culture. Deia has been able to continue as a community with its own symbolic boundaries and identity, not in spite of the outsiders (some of whom are well-known literary personalities, artists and musicians) but because of their presence. This study shows how, under the impact of wars, migration, national politics, global economic and technological developments and especially tourism, the categories of Insider and Outsider are contracted and expanded, and reinterpreted to fit the constantly changing reality of the society; they assume different meanings at different times. The conflicts and resulting compromises over a hundred-year period have provided a sense of history that allows each group to define, develop, adapt and sustain their sense of belonging to their own communities.

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