Life-Course Patterns and Peasant Culture in France: a Critical Assessment
French scholars of the family and peasant culture have made little use of the life-course framework of analysis. The present study argues that the concept of life course is not neutral and implies the possibility of free choice for the individual. Postulating such choices conflicts with the social organization of peasant society where individuals' lives are embedded in the family and the group. Examining the various stages of the life cycle, the study gives examples of the collective aspects of social life, and its various economic and cultural facets. It then investigates various factors leading to the break-up of communal life and the rise of individualism, which made the use of the life-course concept relevent to analysis.