Types of Patron-Client Relationship and Peasant Society

Abstract

Anthropologists who have been engaged in the studies of peasant societies in Latin America or Mediterranean areas have reported that the patron-client relationship is a characteristic interpersonal relationship in peasant societies, Generally speaking, the patron-client relationship is based on social relations between patrons and clients. Patrons are those who use their status, power, influence, authority, etc. to protect and help others, i,e, clients who need the patron's protection and assistance to make their living. But this traditional definition isn't sufficient enough to explain the recent great transformation of the relationship in some Mediterranean communities. This transformation has been, in brief, that the traditional status of patrons has become indistinct, though the "contents" of the relationship still remain, and that it is difficult to certify the literal inequality between patrons and clients. The purpose of this essay is to reexamine these recent changing processes of patron-client relationships and to classify them into some types, and furthermore to reconsider "peasant society", in relation to patron-client relationships. The data used in this paper are based on the reports and analyses presented by anthropologists who have been studying peasant societies mainly in Italy, Spain or Sicily. When we consider the afore-mentioned transformation, we have to examine beforehand the interrelationship between local communities and the larger society, because the nature of patron-client relationships is determined by the structure of this local-larger society interrelationship. According to formerly issued studies on peasant societies and complex societies, this interrelationship can be divided into three categories : 1) local communities constitute isolated and corporate units, and consequently the relation to the larger society is not close ; 2) local communities are included as part of the larger society, but the interrelationship between them is limited to some extent and villagers are connected with the larger society indirectly ; 3) the boundaries between local communities and the larger society are not clear and villagers come into rather direct contact with the larger society. In accordance with this classification, patron-client relationship can also be classified into three types. But before that, some important points must be taken into account. Looking through past studies on patron-client relationships, two factors may be extracted as criteria which might determine the relationship. One is that the person regarded as a patron exists actually, and the other is that the relationship is characterized by the inequality between patrons and clients. As mentioned above, however, these criteria have become less meaningful as the result of recent transformation. In this paper, then, new indicators are adopted and by means of them patron-client relationship is redifined. The indicators consist of five points. They are the following : 1) it is a personal relationship ; partners involved are in face-to-face contact and exclude anonymity 2) it is a voluntary relationship 3) it is a continuous relationship 4) it is a mutual-aid relationship ; goods and services exchanged between patrons and clients flow not one way but both ways 5) goods and services offered by patrons are qualitatively different from those returned by clients.