1995 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Sociological Research on Farming Families in Contemporary Rural Communities
| Project/Area Number |
06610176
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
社会学(含社会福祉関係)
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| Research Institution | Tohoku Gakuin University |
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Principal Investigator |
SAKUMA Masahiro Tohoku Gakuin University, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Assistant Professor, 教養学部, 助教授 (30187075)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1994 – 1995
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| Keywords | Farming Family / Rural Community / Inheritance / Elderly Household / Equal Support System |
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| Research Abstract |
This research aims at describing the features of farming families in contemporary rural communities. I have done some fieldwork in several rural communities, especially in Kakuda City and Sichkashuku Town, Miyagi Prefecture. In Kakuda city, I make a research on farming families in terms of middle-aged women who worked at the "Kotoyomuro Umeboshi" workshop. In Shichikashuku Town, I make clear the features of the households in a rural community of a mountain region, especially their farming, occupations, and inheritance. Then, I examines who supports the elderly households there consisting of only an old couple or one old single person living alone. I find that (1) those elderly households are helped not by their neighbors, but by their children living apart ; and (2) they want to keep staying there. According to the theory of "ie" and "mura", the households in such rural communities support each other equally, as long as they need someone's help for living. Equal support means that the households, which are helped by other households in the community, are supposed to give the same help back to them. The elderly households can't afford such help, because they have no young person in their households. Thus, the elderly households mentioned in this research aren't supported by the other households with younger members, and don't want to be helped by them without equality. But the community in which the elderly households have been living for many years is important for the elderly households to keep living, because the intimate neighborhood there keep them from loneliness ; and it makes the elderly households feel safe that the community can provide emergency measures for them.
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