Respectable Lives: Social Standing in Rural New ZealandUniversity of California Press, 1991 M11 18 - 221 pages Where do we get our notions of social hierarchy and personal worth? What underlies our beliefs about the goals worth aiming for, the persons we hope to become? Elvin Hatch addresses these questions in his ethnography of a small New Zealand farming community, articulating the cultural system beneath the social hierarchy. Hatch describes a cultural theory of social hierarchy that defines not only the local system of social rank, but personhood as well. Because people define respectability differently, a crucial part of Hatch's approach is to examine how these differences are worked out over time. The concept of occupation is central to Hatch's analysis, since the work that people do provides the skeletal framework of the hierarchical order. He focuses in particular on sheep farming and compares his New Zealand community with one in California. Wealth and respectability are defined differently in the two places, with the result that California landholders perceive a social hierarchy different from the New Zealanders'. Thus the distinctive "shape" that characterizes the hierarchy among these New Zealand landholders and their conceptions of self reflect the distinctive cultural theory by which they live. |
Contents
1 | |
The Historical Pattern | 15 |
The Occupational System | 44 |
The Conceptual Basis of Occupational Standing | 70 |
The Criterion of Wealth Among Farmers | 91 |
The Criterion of Farming Ability | 110 |
The Criterion of Refinement The 1920s | 132 |
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Common terms and phrases
acquired acres agricultural asymmetry Auckland boarding school California community Christ's College Christchurch considered contrast cook county clerk criteria criterion of wealth cultural David Pearson defined developmental cycle dining room distinction Donaldson down-country Downs township economic egalitarian Eldred-Grigg elite employees enjoy example farm families farmers and run-holders farming ability Freshneys full-time gender Gentry Glassford Glassford district greater hierarchy of wealth high standing hired History of Canterbury households important income Journal of History judgment Kennerleigh labor land landholding families large landholders less life-style lived married couple mature stage McDonalds Midhurst mortgage occupational system one-table Otago paddocks Parkinsons people's prestige rank refined relatively role rough run-holders rural shearers shearing sheep farming sheep runs significant social hierarchy South Downs stock agent stock firm stock numbers Stratification theory thought Thrower township two-table families two-table pattern W. H. Oliver well-to-do whereas wife woman wool workers working-class Zealand Zealand Journal