Changing representations of place, community, and character in the Spanish Sierra del Caurel

Abstract

The peasants of the mountain interior of Spanish Galicia often represent themselves to powerful “outsiders” as a culturally marginal, degraded, or disadvan‐taged group. Their negative self‐portraits tend to reflect and inspire higher‐ranking Spaniards' appraisals of them as “uncivilized” people living in “primitive” environments. This article examines the interests, motives, and strategies that condition this dialogue between subordinate and superordinate groups as it develops in a particular community. The discussion focuses on three successive historical periods that evidence changes in villagers' interactions with state authorities, in their specific representations of themselves to outsiders, and in their perceptions of their place in Spanish society. [peasant‐state relations, representations of community, resistance and identity, Spanish Galicia, western Europe]