The trovo of the Alpujarra (Granada, Spain)
“weapons of the weak”, “moral economy” and “limited good”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17561/blo.v13.7723Keywords:
Repentism, Alpujarra, Scott, Thompson, Foster, Weapons of the Weak, Moral Economy, Limited GoodAbstract
The Alpujarran custom of improvising satirical verses is here interpreted as a «weapon of the weak», in the sense of James C. Scott, i.e. a form of oblique and disorganised resistance that was useful especially during Franco’s regime. Whipping anyone who failed to comply with the precepts of reciprocity and redistribution, the troveros claimed a «moral economy» (Thompson), typical of a peasant context of scarcity where the conception of the «limited good» (Foster) flourished. It is argued that these three concepts, classics in Social Sciences, allow us to understand both the usefulness of the Alpujarran trovo during the traditional Alpujarran system, and
its decline in a free market economy under a centralising state, where the anchors of the
cortijo culture dissolve, including the linkage and interdependence between subjects, the identification of inequalities at the local-comarcal level or certain masculine models of rebellion.
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