BRUCE LANSDALE HONORARY DOCTORATE
PART 5
THE POWER OF MYTH IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT
BY
Bruce M. Lansdale
MYTHS THAT INFLUENCED THE FAMILY
Many of the myths which influenced individuals played a dominant role in family life as well. But there are two publicly professed myths which played a key role in family life in the early part of this century.
“Men should play the dominant role in the family.” (“They tend to be more intelligent and better educated.” “They know how to think better than women.” “God made them to be in charge’.”)
“Children, especially boys, should not be put under stress.” (“Letting boys cry too much will cause a hernia.” “Children should be protected from unhappiness and be given what they want as much as possible.” “They should not be forced to work very hard except in their lessons and should not be disciplined too much.” “The more parents do for their children, the better they demonstrate their love for them.”)
THE DOMINANCE OF MEN OVER WOMEN
My wife and I have the most vivid recollection of the place of women from our visits to students’ and graduates homes when we first arrived forty years ago. The housewife almost never sat down at the table with the guests. She never set foot in the coffee shop, her place for gossip being either at the well or the vrisi (fountain) where the women gathered twice a day to fill their stamnes (earthenware jugs). On one occasion we heard a man refer to his spouse as me sinchorite i gyneka mou (excuse me my wife), a phrase often heard when speaking about the donkey or other “obscene” references.
With the passage of time, however, it became increasingly clear that the role of the woman, particularly in more recent years, was quite different than what appeared to the casual observer. One priest told us, “My grandfather beat his wife and children; my father beat the children, but not his wife; I only beat my daughter once when she eloped with her husband; my son in law is now afraid of my daughter!” It was the same priest who commented that “The man is the head of the family, but the woman is the neck and decides which way the head should turn.”
In our early days we often wondered why women walked behind the donkey or the horse. I particularly recall a woman in Epirus in1946 walking several meters behind her husband’s horse with a load of firewood for the oven on her back. I heard at least a plausible answer to the question several years later when someone read me a poem, by the poet George Athanasiades-Novas, from his collection Tragoudia Tou Vounou (Songs of the Mountain)
In the first verse the visitor comments on the question I had in mind.
Vlach woman, this is an injustice and one of the great injustices
that you walk barefooted with a load on your back
while your husband rides horseback on his steed
with hobnails on his pompom shoes, the pompoms standing upright.
In the second verse the bent over village woman replies.
You look after your business and let me look after mine.
Let me walk barefooted with a load on my back.
I want my husband, the king of my night,
I wanted him entirely rested at night in my bed.
The validity of the myth concerning the dominance of the husband over the wife has been questioned even from classical times. In the Roman era, the mythical figure Ygeria played a key role in clarifying the vital role of women. The recognition given to Sappho and women such as Aspasia (“the politically most astute individual in Athens”8) would certainly indicate that women at that time played a far more dominant role than the one for which they are given credit.
It is interesting that in Moslem countries to the east of Greece where the role of the man was thought to be even more dominant, I have collected five Nasrudin Hodja stories from Turkey, Lebanon, Cyprus, Egypt and the Chinese border, each one of which tells in its own way that Hodja (and his fellow countrymen) were afraid of their wives. Whenever I tell these stories (or the better known one about the horses awarded to female dominated and roosters to male dominated families), I discover rueful and sometimes embarrassed smiles on the faces of my male audiences.
What are the implications of these observations on the role of the woman for rural development workers in Greece?
After he had run his school for Greek boys for two decades, John Henry House used to say that if he had to do it over again, he would have started a school for girls instead of boys. “If you train a boy,” he said, “you train an individual. If you train a girl you train a whole family.” It was with this thought in mind that his son Charles started a Girls School with Joice Loch under the auspices of the British Quakers in barracks constructed by the occupying forces during World War II. Many years later the Quaker School was integrated into the Farm School’s program giving full equivalency to the girls. The School’s present effort is directed toward organizing a program in Rural Economics and Management primarily for fifteen to sixteen year old village girls who have finished nine years of education and are not inclined to continue through the lyceum.
In the early stages rural development programs in the Greek villages concentrated almost entirely on training men. Just prior to World War II the Near East Foundation organized a highly innovative program working with women in rural areas.9 Many elements of these activities were incorporated in the Ministry of Agriculture’s Home Economics program after the war.
Development workers should not allow themselves to be misled by this myth. They should recognize the dynamic role of women in the decision making process. Every effort should be made to train men and women together in short courses rather than separately.
Families should be helped to plan as a group rather than expecting the men to be responsible for planning either their farming practices or family goals and activities. Short term, medium term and long term goals should be discussed among husband and wife and also the children once they begin to mature.
OVERLY PAMPERED CHILDREN
The myth that children, and especially boys, should not be heavily disciplined when growing up has grown stronger rather than weaker with the passage of time. As income has increased among farm families in Greece, parents have become increasingly permissive. Unfortunately discipline in the schools has grown more lax at the same time with few demands for excellence placed on boys and girls either in secondary or tertiary education. There was always the feeling that “the army is the great (disciplinary) school for boys.” But the strict discipline and backbreaking demands on recruits have been replaced by a modern eight-to-four military service more closely akin to civilian life. Parents have grown increasingly indulgent with their children, showering them with overly generous allowances both in school and in the army (a practice which is assumed to be a right rather than a privilege.) “Why work when your parents will give you the money?” ask the young people.
MYTHS WHICH INFLUENCE THE COMMUNITY
Myths which affected the development of the community were often the product of 400 years of Turkish occupation and the efforts by the central government and civil servants to consolidate their control over rural areas. Many villages organized most effective community development programs through their own initiative during the Turkish occupation, but lost this initiative following liberation.
Discussion with village leaders forty years ago about developing local action and leadership clearly pointed to the myths which hindered grass roots community development. Among the commonly heard phrases were
“Nothing can be done without the government.”
“Everyone looks after their own self interest first.”
“We Greeks are all thieves – we can’t be trusted.”
Beginning with a pilot program in six villages, the school worked with the prefect and the directors of various government agencies at the prefecture level to organize a community development program through which fifteen to twenty key leaders in each community would develop a plan which the members of the community could implement themselves without waiting for government assistance. The coordinator of the program organized a conference attended by approximately 120 leaders from these communities at which each one prepared a five year program in consultation and with the advice of the key officials who committed themselves to helping the villages implement their plan.
Based on the success in the first cluster the program was expanded to include all 165 villages in the prefecture in which each village learned from the other communities what they were planning and also developed an understanding of government plans and how they could best fit in with them. Similar programs were initiated in other prefectures.
The essential element in all of these activities was based on improving communication and encouraging individual initiative and cooperation at the local level. Local committees took the plans which they developed at the conference, communicated them to the villagers, and continued to meet monthly to evaluate their progress – an approach which had not previously been followed to integrate key leadership among the elected officials, church, school cooperatives and informal leadership groups. A serious oversight was subsequently overcome when the villagers complained that no women were invited to attend the earlier conferences.
Unfortunately, a dictatorship which did not believe in individual initiative took over the government ten years after the program was started making it impossible to continue. However, thirty years after it was initiated, whenever participants in these conferences meet, they speak nostalgically of the satisfaction everyone felt in being a part of this program, the sense of progress and accomplishment growing out of their participation, and the feeling, even today, of pride which was fostered in their communities.
Two important definitions were developed during the time of the program:
“Community is the area circumscribed by the sound of the village bell calling the faithful to worship, to a wedding, a baptism or a funeral, where the happiness of one is the happiness of all, the sadness of one is the sadness of all and the secret of one is the secret of all.”
The second described the role of the individual in community development:
“Community Development isn’t the other person, it is I,
it is you, and the person sitting next to you”.
Another myth which we recognized during this program was a prevailing attitude about recreation and pleasure. Whereas the Greek villager is a truly fun loving individual, there is also an attitude among them that if anything is to be accomplished for the community, everyone must take their work and their lives seriously.
“You must be serious to get anything done in life.”
This myth had been cultivated by the church, by educators, and very often by national leaders as well. In direct contrast to this myth, the Farm School has always sought to encourage a “fun loving” dimension to life and work, interpreting recreation in terms of its value of recreating the individual. Key to the development of this philosophy was the Associate Director and top Greek member of staff, Theodore Litsas, one of the most dedicated and hardworking employees any institution ever had who thought nothing of working fourteen to sixteen hours a day. At the same time, however, he was equally determined that whatever was done should have a lighter touch to it as well – “joy in the game of life.”
When he was killed in an automobile accident at the age of sixty three, more than 2000 people attended his funeral, each expressing the deep sorrow reserved for a family member or a close personal friend. While we were lamenting Litsas’ loss, a Greek trustee commented that one of his greatest contributions to the School was a “lightness of touch” so foreign to institutions. “Whatever you do, Bruce” he said, “don’t lose that spirit of fun.” In the quarter of a century since his loss, I have worked eagerly to cultivate this spirit among staff and students alike. At one point a senior staff member suggested that I should not participate so wholeheartedly in the students recreation program – “The teachers want their director to be more serious.” was his comment.
It was Litsas who taught me most of the Hodja stories which I have learned and repeated over the years as one of the best teaching tools that I know. Through an outstanding dance team, theater activities, recreation programs, participation in village festivals and a variety of other such activities the school has been able to maintain this special spirit which has brought such pleasure to those who have been a part of it. This sense of fun and joy in life is certainly one of the most vital elements of prosperity which should be cultivated among rural people.
Through community development programs and activities which encourage this lightness of spirit, it becomes possible to cultivate a new set of myths which can play an important role in bringing a sense of true prosperity in village living. Key among these new myths are the following:
“There is no limit to what a community can accomplish if it works in close communication with government services.”
“People can be motivated to cooperate.”
“People can be trusted within a framework of effective community control.”
“Fun is a vital element of prosperity and should be cultivated in every way possible.”
Farm School graduates have played a key role in fostering these myths in their villages and in the rural areas where they have lived and worked over the years.
MYTHS WHICH INFLUENCE THE NATION