A Study on the Social Change of Japanese Rural Community

本研究的目的在于把握日本传统农村社区的实质核心“村”的社会结构，以探讨二战后的社会变迁。为此，我们选择了位于厚岛县阿武熊山脉中的一个村庄“Hozaka”作为我们实证研究的领域。主要研究结果如下：1. 1988年，保坂村共有94户，82个小农户。在他们的社会交往中，观察到两种模式化类型。一种是合作，这种合作是通过承担各自的义务来实现的。二是通过互帮互助的方式实现的互助。前者主要体现在集体劳动习俗和乡村节日的组织中，是一种由共同承担和共同分享经济社会生存条件的再分配制度。三、后一种情况主要表现在农业劳动力交换习俗和婚丧嫁娶互助习俗中，是一种互惠的捐赠交换制度。这种制度在对称的社会关系和群体中都已形成，但当交换长期延伸时，这种互惠性已由社会规范或对群体整合的沉默来保证。4.在“村”中，由于给予了成员村人，在合作制度中形成了互助制度。农村社区的结构变迁被理解为这两个系统的分化过程。

The purpose of this research program is to grasp the social structure of 'mura', the substantial core of traditional Japanese rural community, in order to approach to the social change in post World War II. For this purpose, 'Hozaka', which is a village among the Abukuma mountains in Hukushima Prefecture, was chosen as the field of our empirical researches. Main findings is as follows.1.Hozaka has 94 households and 82 small farm families in it at 1988. In their social interaction two patternized types was observed. One is cooperation which is performed through bearing each share of obligations. Other is co-assistance which is performed through exchanging a aid each other.2.The former was observed mainly in the organizations of the custom of working together and the village festival, and they are a sort of redistribution system which is composed of bearing each share and coming in for a share the conditions for economic and social subsistence. The imbalance between each bearing and coming in had been made reparation or forced by the function of the organization of village office which had intermediated those two aspects.3.The latter mas observed mainly in a labor exchange custom on farming and customary mutual aid in marriage and funeral, and they are a sort of reciprocal donation exchange system. This system has been formed in both symmetrical social relations and groups, but when exchange is extended in long term,that reciprocity has been assured by social norm or reticence on the integration of the group.4.In 'mura', the co-assistance system has been formed within the cooperation system, because it has given the membership village people. The structural change of rural community is grasped as a differentiating process of those two systems.