Customer Reviews

Catalunya, One Nation, Two States: An Ethnographic Study of Nonviolent Resistance to Assimilation

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Recently planned and taken trip to Cataluña inspired this purchase to gain a sense on the culture and traditions of the region. This study was fascinating in terms of the relationship of the region and the influence of the country split between France and Spain it represents. Similar culture but influence of country provides a unified divide only supported by a language as unique as this book.

I enjoyed immensely the interviews with citizens on both sides of the border and found interesting the role commerce and rail played into industry. The opening of the EU changed everything but the historical links to a culture remain. A beautiful language which I fear may be losing its hold as generations look to mainstream on either side of the border....a shame.

Great trip as well and this book supported a broader view.

Alexander and Sonia Alland have produced a rigorous yet fascinating ethnographic study which will prove of enormous interest to those scholars of anthropology while remaining accessible to the layman. Theirs is fieldwork at its best.
I admire the historic knowledge of the Catalan idiosyncrasy throughout two focus points. Two centers in two countries; Port-Bou, in Catalunya, an autonomous region in Spain, and Cerbère in France.
When we read maps, we see the geographic boundaries but we rarely see maps that indicate the boundaries of language, surely, a more accurate guide to the cultures of the world than politically negotiated frontiers. Catalan, the language, straddles the line of the Pyrenées like a shadow on the landscape of the Principality it once was.
The book portrays the Catalan language heritage, the political prosecutions it has suffered and the different ways of dealing with them Catalan people on both sides of the border have demonstrated. It also reveals the, not very promising, current reality of the language.
Into the living fabric of a language is woven the cultural personality of a nation and it is upon this entity that Alex Alland has directed his attention with dedicated scholarship. Indifference, neglect and persecution have each in their turn taken their toll, but this excellent study shows the pulse of this ancient language yet beats with life.

An absorbing book I cannot recommend too highly.

This book guides us through one of the world's most fascinating regions -- Catalunya, a nation without a state located between France and Spain. The author, Alexander Alland, is an anthropologist who has written extensively about visits to other strange lands and friendly people. Here he provides an excellent background of Catalunya's history and culture, then focuses on two villages, Portbou and Cerbére, where he interviews locals and learns of their struggles to maintain their language and culture in the face of constant change.