Las comunidades de montaña: Estructuras políticas

Abstract

Isolated from the main avenues of communication, with archaic populations which have been less submitted to changes, these regions preserve ways of life that remind us of the past. The elements of the natural means (the valley or the depression, for example) offer frameworks through which social life is organised. Domestic property (at hamlet level) and community property operate in the same wayand social structures inhe-rited from a distant past and social life is organised by means of assemblies which are made up of good (or elderly) men. In this respect, the similarities between the various European regions are surprising. There are, however, differences due to the divergent evo-lution they have followed the Eastern and Western Europe. Eastern Europe is more traditio-nalconsanguinity being the determining element for solidarity whereas vicinity is the predominant factor in Eastern Europe