Tourism on Samos: Implications for marriage, dowry and women's status.
Item
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Title
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Tourism on Samos: Implications for marriage, dowry and women's status.
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Identifier
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AAI9020790
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identifier
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9020790
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Creator
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Moutafis, Vasiliki.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Jane Schneider
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Date
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1990
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Anthropology, Cultural | Women's Studies
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Abstract
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This study traces historically the decline of a land-based system followed by the growth of tourism, which has prompted the rise of entrepreneurial, service-oriented activities, and points out the implications of this process insofar as local control over economic development is concerned. The case of the Aegean island of Samos (Kokkari) exemplifies a type of touristic development that is grass-roots, small-scale and locally controlled. Tourism has generated shifts in the value of local property resources and labor, resulting in a stabilization of the community's population size, a reduction in class differences and increased participation of village families in social and economic consumption. The rise of new tourism-related economic activities has not brought about social and cultural changes in men's and women's values, goals and roles. Despite new behavioral patterns, marriage continues to be a social goal construed in terms of cultural role expectations and reflecting values which highlight the centrality of the family. The provision of dowry by the family has not ceased but what is viewed as a valuable dower resource is an expression of economic conditions in terms of cultural values that pertain today.;Investigating women's involvement in household management, the study measures the extent of female autonomy and accounts for determinants--such as the economic possibilities made available through tourism--of women's status. A key finding is that sexual differentiation based on ideology and behavior has not ceased as a result of women's increasingly assuming an active role in the economic realm outside the home. However, the supply and demand conditions created by tourism, as well as the structure of the tourist industry, have put a premium on female property resources (houses), as well as on women's domestic labor services. Because of these developments, tourism has availed women of new outlets to have a greater input in household management and to attain autonomy. The rise of women's resources relative to that of men's has also lessened the power imbalance between the sexes. Finally, a description of women's associations further illuminates the implications of women's public roles for their status.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
